..........................A
and home life...
It’s home time - dinner time almost. You’re
still in the office because you can’t escape the
incessant phonecalls and requests from coworkers,
let alone finishing your to-do list. If
only it was because of your over achieving A
type personality!
As you travel home, the faces of your children
and husband flash into your mind; you’d rather be
home with them right now than just making your
way there. Then you think about having more time
for friends, your mother, to look after you fitness,
to read a magazine even! …Sound familiar? It’s
difficult when you need to travel towards the city to
Harvest Management’s CEO Ingrid Maynard
built her business to business lead generation
company around providing all employees,
including working mothers with a supportive and
flexible work place.
One of Harvest’s core values is ‘Balance;’
employees are given an environment in which
they are encouraged to have a balanced
approach to life, remembering that their spiritual,
social, physical and family aspects are just as
important as their financial and intellectual; to
have quality time with themselves, their family
and to renew.
work in a role that is financially rewarding and uses
your skills....or do you?
Balancing work and home life today is
everyone’s challenge.
Women in particular are feeling more pressure
than ever as they juggle the need to contribute
to their family financially, as well as emotionally,
while also gaining satisfaction from what they do.
Women who are returning from maternity leave,
who have children, who want to feel they are doing
something worthwhile after their children have left
the nest and who want to keep their grey matter
stimulated. Women like you and me.
When we’re such willing participants in the
workforce, why is it still so hard to obtain jobs
where management also understands the bigger
picture of our lives, and works with us so that we
all benefit?
In a time of full-employment, it’s up to employers
to change their attitudes to recruitment, but
especially on retention.
Employers need to start thinking outside of the
recruitment square they’re in. It’s time to widen
the net to include women normally in employers’
peripheral visions such as mothers returning to
the workforce or to mature aged workers with
extensive work and life experience. To attract and
keep them though, employers must be genuine in
their willingness to create a culture around family
values, and valuing each employee as an individual
with a life outside work. Flexible working hours is
just the beginning: it’s about company culture.
“I grew up in a work sense at The Body Shop’s
head office in Mulgrave, so it’s part of my DNA
to know that in order to engage people at work,
employers need to treat their employees as people
who have lives outside work. Offering child care
as a benefit is something I did instinctively when
I started, because I saw it could be done at The
Body Shop, and what it meant to working mothers
to see their children whenever they wanted to at
work. Our family style culture has really grown
from there I guess.”
While Harvest doesn’t just employ mothers or
women (Harvest has 4 male employees), it is
inclusive of partners in all functions, of children at
most functions, and sees itself as the vehicle for
its team members to achieve their personal and
professional goals. “What gives me satisfaction,”
says Ingrid “is watching people travel through
Harvest richer for the experience. Hopefully
it’s a place they’ve grown as people in terms of
knowledge, skills and attitudes, where they’ve
made friends for life, and where they know they
can return to if they ever wanted to.”
No wonder then, that the business has more
than quadrupled in size since its inception three
and a half years ago. Harvest’s clients work with
dedicated Business Development Consultants who
are happy in their workplace and role. It gives
clients a level of comfort working with a company
they know will be consistent in the longer term
because happy workers usually means they’ll stick
around. This means that clients are far more likely
to deal with one person consistently so
momentum once built is maintained.
Because Harvest’s role is to extend their
clients’ sales functions by doing the first
part of the sales process for them, the
relationship Harvest develops through its
team with clients is key.
Denise Thomas, a Business Development
Consultant at Harvest who has been
with the company since 2005, said the
company has allowed her to achieve
balance in her work/home life, because
she no longer travels to work, “I used
to have to travel extensively in my last
job, and knew that I couldn’t continue
doing it, if I wanted to achieve balance.
I was looking for a career, not a job. And
Harvest has given me all of that!”
Mature aged people are in much the same
category as women returning to the workplace
struggling to find part time work, or more flexible
hours.
Experienced workers offer a level of loyalty,
commitment, and experience not necessarily
available with generation y employees. With an
aging population, especially on the Mornington
Peninsula, it makes sense to consider workers in
the 50 plus age group.
To survive and thrive organisations must consider
what they can offer to attract women returning
to the workforce as well as older workers. They
must consider what’s important to them, what they
value, and how to keep them engaged once they’re
in the workplace.
Beverley Lewis, another Business Development
Consultant at Harvest Management, who has been
in sales for 25 years, commented that she started
at Harvest because “no one else would have me!”
she laughed, “No, I love the industry, and Harvest
has provided an environment for both mature-aged
workers and young people. We have a great mix
and get along really well. It is also a great family
environment.”
Forward-thinking companies are recruiting,
retaining and developing new opportunities for
these workers, and are reaping the benefits.
Life is too short to spend in a job where you’re
travelling too much, seeing your family too little and
not enjoying yourself while you’re there. Maybe it’s
time to consider a little job sea-change: after all,
wouldn’t it be great to work here on the peninsula
and still feel stimulated, appreciated and proud of
where you work?
Harvest Management is in a constant
state of recruitment for Business
Development Consultants, to carry
out our lead generation services.
Harvest provides a supportive, stable
and family-oriented
workplace, where you can
achieve the life balance you
always wanted.
To find out when
the next group
interview is, please
call Ingrid Maynard:
1300 300 485
HARVEST YOUR CLIENTS : GROW YOUR BUSINESS
Harvest Management Pty Ltd .1300 300 485 . www.harvestmanagement.com.au
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