Anja Nell was born and bred in South Africa where she dove into audit straight out of university. She continued this line of work in Malta and has been an audit supervisor at Reanda Netherlands for almost a year now.
Diversity is the norm
“Coming from South Africa where there are so many people and where it’s very diverse, I was looking for an environment where there is so much diversity that it’s the norm. Preferably in a climate where 30 degrees isn’t considered a ‘cool day’.”
Well, the Netherlands certainly ticks off that box. Anja reached out to some firms here while she still lived in Malta. “And then I found Reanda. They mainly had an international focus, which is great from a client perspective. But also for the people working at Reanda. There are so many people from different nationalities and it keeps changing. It’s very interesting.”
“Diversity is crucial to learning”
In the year that Anja has worked here, Reanda Netherlands has just hit its fiftieth employee and now has over eighteen nationalities. “For me, diversity and inclusion is about not having any biases. And trying. Trying to be better. Diversity is crucial for learning. We shouldn’t have any biases, regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation. It’s limiting you from getting to know someone personally. And it’s limiting you to learn from people from different perspectives of life.”
Growth
Learning from other people but also coaching other people is important to Anja. “I have a passion for coaching people. As audit supervisor, I lead a team of juniors and I deal with the clients. In auditing, at the end of the day of course there’s an audit opinion, but there’s no tangible aim to it. So for me, it’s nice to see people grow, see how they evolve. That’s the main part for me. I like working with different people. It makes more sense to work with different minded people. Audit is very people focused. It’s about building a relationship with the client and the people you work with.”
“Audit is very people focused.”
A healthy environment
With a diverse client base and team, it’s important to stay open minded and learn from people. That means learning from your employees as well. “Here at Reanda they are very open to having a conversation,” Anja said. “They say, ’you’re new, you’re from a different environment, tell us how you do it.’ All it takes is a conversation to make you feel heard. If there’s an issue, we are encouraged to address it. We work through it and we find the solution. If you’re not solving problems, you’re creating them in a sense. Here we like to solve a problem before it becomes an issue. I think this has been the healthiest work environment I’ve been in so far.
“This safe environment is definitely something I really appreciate. Reanda makes an effort to make us feel heard. I often get asked, ‘Well, what do you think? What’s your input?’. If there’s a meeting, they invite you to lead it, and prepare the points you want to discuss. It’s very uplifting in a sense where you are heard, and when you have something to say it’s always acceptable to say it.”
Feeling heard
The same goes for diversity; all it takes is having a conversation, making people feel heard. “In the end, we’re all people. It doesn’t matter where we come from, where we’ve been, or where we are headed. We all exist together and we are all different. Let’s learn from that. Reanda is an environment of inclusivity where we are encouraged to have a conversation, where they take the first step to ask how you are doing and make an effort to make this a comforting environment. We are a group focused on learning from each other and through that achieve new heights of improvements.”
