Why Care?

“As a manager, this type of work arrangement is phenomenal, because I can give the flexibility and then I can get the coverage and help meet my quota.”

In this episode, Sophie Smallwood, Co-founder of Roleshare talks to me about her first maternity leave experience where she took a full year but was actually feeling ready to come back before that if there would have been the option of 3 days. She tells me about her experience of overcoming the challenges to come back to a fast-paced organisational environment of a digital global player (Facebook) - a challenge faced by many successful career women.

She explains the story about how she took a leap of faith to set up her tech start-up company, Roleshare.com, together with her partner, to create a platform to match people wanting to job share and for companies to find their perfect job share pairs. Together we explore why companies do not have a choice to invest in job sharing if they are going to compete for talent.  And how they need to make flexibility truly happen for roles at all levels of the organisation and for everyone - not just working mums.

“We believe in equal opportunity for flexibility - gender neutral and reason neutral.“

Sophie Smallwood is a career-driven leader and committed parent, her mission is to enable a sustainable workforce, where people get more from their roles and where full-time balance at work and in life is possible.

Roleshare is a matching site for professionals who want to combine their skills to share their roles with others for greater career flexibility. She previously worked as a Strategic Client Success Manager at Workplace by Facebook and was a Head of Customer Success at Ebay. Mum of two (her newborn baby features as a special guest on the show!), she speaks five languages and in her free time she can be found on family adventures or on a spin bike.

Show links:

Follow Sophie on her personal LinkedIn page or the Roleshare LinkedIn page.

Twitter @roleshare or Instagram @roleshare.

“Men often say to me: “So what can I do?” and the first thing I say to them is: listen.”

In this episode, I have the privilege of talking all things inclusion to Rob Baker. He is a thought leader on diversity & inclusion and on engaging men to support gender equality: at work, at home and in all aspects of life. In recognition of his achievements in supporting women in the workplace, he was named an Agent of Change 2019 by Management Today. He’s just completed an incredible 42-year career at Mercer, with his final role being Leader of Diversity and Inclusion Consulting. And has now embarked on the next stage of his career, setting up Potentia Consulting (whilst consciously not calling it retirement) and of course is an amazing member of the Avenir team!

Rob and I explore how organisations can become more inclusive, happier and successful by valuing everybody in the organisation and unlocking each employee‘s unique potential. Rob is not new to the experience of being in the minority and tells us about his time served on the all-female board of the PWN (Professional Women’s Network), where he was Co-President. He also offers his personal ‘ah-ha’ moment when he read Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates and gives us an insight into the little things men can do to promote everyday gender-equality.

Rob also reflects on the moment of profound change we are experiencing with the Covid-19 crisis and together we explore the current paradigm shift for inclusion at an organisational level as well as at a micro-level in each family‘s home. He shares how many leaders still think diversity sounds good, but they do not see the immediate need to act now. Today, I wonder if progress in inclusion and diversity in organisations will move up the leadership agenda with the global movement of #BlackLivesMatter, which began after this podcast conversation. I hope you enjoy listening!

Show links:

Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates available on Amazon.

PWN Global: https://pwnglobal.net/

Follow Rob on his LinkedIn page or on Twitter: @robertbkr.

“If all men and women could let men be more gentle, vulnerable and caring, that would be useful”.

What better way to kick-off my podcast series than talk to the articulate and inspirational Inclusion & Diversity thought leader, Brian Ballantyne. Brian is a Senior Program Manager for Inclusion & Diversity at Amazon, father of two and author of the book, Confessions of a Working Father. In this episode, Brian and I discuss the challenges of working from home and parenting from work or PFW, as Brian calls it – a concept that has come into its own following the Covid-19 lockdown (we didn't know this at the time!). We also discuss the notion of the ‘ideal worker’ and the what commitment means to employers today and how it manifests. Brian explains his strategy for work life balance and coping with the demands of being “Mr. Available”.

Brian gives us his personal and honest view on the consequences of gender stereotypes and the importance of psychological safety and a sense of belonging in an organisation. He also offers an insightful link between the climate crisis and an overheating at an individual level through an increase of psychological pressure and overtiredness as downsides of technology.

Together we explore the importance of a change of culture and Brian gives practical tips on how organisations can achieve a caring and inclusive culture as well as how men can be allies to gender equality.

Brian Ballantyne is father to two children (age 13 and 11), and like most working parents he is figuring out how to integrate work and family life. His career has been working for large multinational companies like Heinz, Vodafone and now Amazon, where he started off in Product Marketing and now is a Senior Program Manager for Inclusion & Diversity within the International Technology team. He is a long-time supporter of women’s advancement, and the inclusion of all people, e.g. LGBTQ+, accessibility, etc. With that aim in mind, he wrote a book “Confessions of a Working Father” to encourage more men to invest into active parenthood.

Please do be sure to check out Brian Ballantyne's book - Confessions of a Working Father. All proceeds go to charity.

Follow Brian on his Linkedin page.