Author: Helen Butler

Holiday Queen


by Helen Butler

Laini

Laini Shaw is the Holiday Queen.  And I’m jealous.  She has managed to intrinsically manouvre a HR career and massive chunks of time off to enjoy her passion of travel.

How? What? Why? How? Blink, gulp, how on earth did this HR Professional manage to challenge the status quo, re-align her entrenched professional ethos of 4 weeks annual leave per year and move to a more holistic, laid back, balanced lifestyle.

Well, her gorgeous bloke had something to do with it.  A Mr “Challenge the Status Quo” kind of guy who adores the pants of Laini and gives her passion room to roam and her head space to think.

Laini is fabulous.  She talks us through her background and how she came to breakthrough her thinking of enjoying life more, embracing her passion and loving life more and more, enjoying and thriving in her career and taking stock on what’s important.  Laini lights up my world when I’m around her, I hope she lights up your life for 40 minutes or so and you can enjoy her story.

Laini hopes her chat with Helen will inspire others to think outside the box of 9-5 and do things that make their heart sing – including travel…take that trip!!!

You can check Laini out on Facebook or Instagram – The Occasional Israeli.  

Enjoy x

Finding Your Balance


by Helen Butler

Balance-scales

It’s a pleasure to bring you the altogether fabulous Jo Stevens.  Jo is someone who is ridiculously talented, hard working, courageous, smart, delightful and effortlessly classy.

I have had the pleasure of knowing Jo for over 8 years now and she helped me pass the dreaded Performance Management Class at Uni – I’m forever grateful Jo!  

Jo and her gorgeous partner Jamie, have a little guy Alfie and some ups and downs along the way which Jo talks about which will break your heart.  We want to acknowledge and thank Jo for sharing her heartfelt story with us, her candour, raw honesty, yet gentle and exploratory way of embracing life, hurdles and all that she shared was truly humbling for me.

Her approach to flexibility, pursuing life and passions and sharing the family load is gorgeous.  She’s considered, smart, breathtakingly refreshing in her pursuit of life.

I take my hat of to you Jo Stevens, you amazing Lady.  Knowing you professionally was an honour, but to have a journey with you into some of your most sacred world and for sharing it with us, was truly special, I sincerely thank you.

Ladies and Gents, the amazing Jo Stevens.

The Whole Package


by Helen Butler

CarPool Karoeke

What do you get when you put a Car Karaoke Queen who is a HR Guru together with a Travel Queen & highly intelligent CPA/IT/Business Transformation Specialist ….. you got it, The Whole Package.  We are delighted to introduce to you Sharna Peters and Deanna Spowart, the newest and brightest combination to hit one of Australia’s well known organisations right between the eye balls, in a totally awesome way.  The Job-Share Dynamos!

Deanna & Sharna are Job Share Partners in their workplace and they talk us through the dicy, amazing, often sizzling world of Job-Share.  The insights, laughs, intelligence, thought and results that these ladies bring to the table will give you goose bumps.  This is a warts and all look at how they’ve manufactured the path of Job-Share within an organisation that absolutely raves about all things flexibility, and they are pioneers in their space.  They very much remind us of our PodCast “My Work Wife” and we hope you enjoy the effervescence of these two, and you learn and glean tips of how much hard work they have put into making their Job-Share work, and work well.

 If you hang around at the end, there’s a little surprise for you, something you might be able to sing along to …. and that’s all we’ll say!

The Incredibles


by Helen Butler

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OK, so juggling isn’t your forte, ours either, but we’ve found a family that juggles a full life – working professional parents, 5 kids, 4 families, 1 very gorgeous dog, 15 acres, sporting events, school drop off and pick up and manage to be so happy.  They talk about the kids being the barometer of their family.  They have family meetings, regularly.  No subject is off limits.  This is a family of incredible care and communication skills, and we are profoundly grateful to Steve & Liv Zan for letting us have a privileged sneak peak into their beautiful, caring and organised lives, that for most of us ordinary folk would turn into some sort of chaos, but for them, works like a well oiled machine.  But it wasn’t without hard work, dedication and a solidarity of leading by example by Steve & Liv.  There’s some lessons here that were hard fought, not without trial and error but delightfully the universe has rewarded their hard work and commitment to provide a strong, stable, reliable and comfortable home and work life for all of them, all 8 of them (dog included of course!).

So what was the secret for them.  Steve is a Change Manager and has applied those principles from the workplace into his family life.  Communication, Consultation, regular Family Meetings and a clear and unwavering support of each other.  Liv is absolutely gorgeous and nurturing in her role of keeping the Zan Ship full steam ahead and pursuing her career.  She speaks delightfully about the joys of study, being a Mum and entering the workforce and finding her confidence and balance.

We were so privileged to get an insight to the workings of a blended family who clearly have a focus on providing strong, considered, nurture and love to their lives and the lives of their gorgeous kids.  A true privilege to hear their story, and we truly think they are the incredibles.

Wonder Woman


by Helen Butler

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Ok folks, it’s been a while but we are delighted to bring you, the one, the only, the delightful, incredibly talented, gorgeous, considerate and effervescent Angela Sparano to our Podcast Chewing the Fat on Flexibility.  Angela is one of the most delightful, pragmatic, strategic, consultative, passionate and engaged HR Practitioners (how manages risk not puts roadblocks in business’ way!) we have had the privilege to know over the last 10 years and we’re delighted she’s sharing her story on Chewing the Fat on Flexibility.

Angela is now on a delightful flexibility journey, 15 years into her career and we couldn’t be more proud of her pursuing her passion in the artistic field of Interior Design and continuing in her professional pursuit as a HR Professional.

Angela is a gorgeous woman (guys, I’m hunting down a suitor for her so send your CV with supporting “qualifications” to me so I can screen you appropriately 😉 ).  She’s a real Honey, someone whom I’m blessed to have known and worked with who has carved her own path in the flexibility field without the back up of legislation, but truly because she’s a hard working amazing woman.  I’m delighted to bring you this PodCast tonight and I hope you enjoy as much as I’ve enjoyed knowing this amazing woman!

Click on our iTunes Account Here or click on play below to hear the delightful Angela Sparano.

 

Want to attract more women to your workforce? Read this …….


by Helen Butler

women

ABS has done a major recruitment drive during 2015 and made some major inroads in increasing gender diversity.

Success!  

43% of women are in senior executive roles as compared to 21% in 2014.

How did they do it?

A few things.  First, they introduced new recruitment measures – removing names and genders from CVs. The other thing they did, They asked women what they wanted.

Imagine that!

They started designing jobs that met the needs of employees: with flexibility, work from home options, and the ability to work from another office. Hiring staff were directed not to make assumptions about what women want and to encourage women to apply.

Looking to hire women? OR, looking to increase flexibility requirements in your workplace?

A few tips:

  • Cut the assumptions.
  • Ask female AND male candidates about their ideal working scenario.
  • Make the shortlist ‘blind’
  • Address language on the job description
  • Take a good, hard look at your company website.
  • Create a gender-balanced interviewing panel.
  • Introduce a formal mentoring scheme.
  • Show you’re committed to hiring women by offering great entitlements.

FlexConnect equips and empowers Organisations, Managers & Employees for Flexibility.  Take our diagnostic to see how you’re equipped for flexibility.

http://www.womensagenda.com.au/talking-about/editors-agenda/item/7068-how-to-double-women-at-the-top-in-just-a-few-months

Family Ties – Green Eggs & Chipps


by Helen Butler

We are absolutely delighted to be able to bring you the two amazing men in our life – Garth, Helen’s Husband and Tim, Leonie’s Husband.

We thought it would be great for you to hear about their experiences of flexibility, as you would have gathered from the journey so far, we love our blokes, maybe have given them a swot (in Helen’s case) or two, or (in Leonie’s case) we’ve heard how amazing her life is (dymo labelled tupperware in her pantry etc etc).

What did we get out of this – our blokes are fabulous, but have an interesting take on flexibility, their personal and professional experiences.  Both our families didn’t keep up with man as the main breadwinner constantly, we flip flopped, took breaks, took turns, consulted and had a right royal time lolling through work and life and family. 

We were delighted to be introduced by the delectably gorgeous Eleanor Green who made a special guest appearance, twice …..

Over vino and thai, we chew the fat, literally, on how different couples journey through the tumultuous world of family, work, relationships and maintain some level of sanity.

We hope you enjoy and say Thank You to our adorable blokes, who give so much to us and love us, faults and all.  Enough gushing now, press play!

Annabel Crabb, E-Men & Me


by Helen Butler

Blokes & Flexibility – a 12 month journey

Helen is flying solo for this one and had the pleasure of attending the WGEA’s event on Equilibrium Challenge which followed 5 men for 12 months who chose flexibility at work, in different shapes and forms, and for different reasons.

The always delightful Annabel Crabb hosted the conversation, and besides being overwhelmed by her genuineness and charming self, Helen completely fell in love with her shoes! Foxy Lady is all we’ll say! 🙂

We’ve whipped up a short PodCast for you on their views, what flex is for them and the conversation that took place around that. It’s encouraging that there is a dialogue around flexibility for men as well as women. Check out their website at www.equilibriumchallenge.com.au.  Enjoy!

The Dynamic Duo


by Helen Butler

The divine and effervescent and absolutely fabulous Dynamic Duo who are “Coaching for Mums” Nina Marshall & Vanessa Potts joined us for a vino and cheese to discuss all things flexibility.

Nina & Vanessa have a fantastic story to tell, from Global Corporate High Flyers to travelling the world (several times), career breaks, becoming a family, returning to work and then becoming Business Owners.  Their stories are amazing, thoughtful, inspiring and altogether fun, but there’s no denying these ladies are smart, hard working and committed to enjoying life as best they can.  We loved it!

These women are fabulous and we are truly honoured to have them along to share their thoughts, journey, flexibility paths and now, how they are helping Mums get back into the workforce.

The Monks’ Word ….


by Helen Butler

The delightful, talented, clever Andy Monk joins us to discuss his views on flexibility.

WARNING: He has an infectious laugh, with gorgeous dimples (seems to be a Monk Family thing) a brain that is amazing and a down to earth good bloke persona.  He’s clever, manages several business, is the Chair of Australian Organic, an Adjunct Associate Professor, has two gorgeous kids who he is the primary carer for, what can we say, he’s an all around good guy!

This episode is punctuated by no vino sadly, but we gladly scoffed cups of tea, apple slice, custard tarts, lamingtons, cheese and crackers – an interesting combination!

His views are refreshing, we talk about how to challenge the work status quo, blokes crashing the morning coffee after the school drop-off, the importance of networking, the mindset of flexibility and who are the hardest, most productive and effective employees?