Parenthood is a journey that presents new experiences and new challenges, especially when it comes to work-life balance. There’s a saying, ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’ and this rings true for Service Channel Team Leader Julie Beeten, who has her family there for support. Keeping it in the family, Julie and her husband, along with her mother AND sister all work for ahm and use FlexBetter to their advantage.
Julie began her career with ahm over 8 years ago, after hearing her mother and sister’s praises of the company. Julie’s mum Tess has been with ahm for 18 years while sister Christina has been a part of it for 11 years.
“Just seeing how happy they were working for ahm and how much satisfaction they were receiving from their job was amazing. When an opportunity came up 8 years ago, I didn’t hesitate and luckily enough was successful in getting the job!”
Julie with some of her ahm colleagues at an ahm awards night.
Julie started as an inbound service agent and dealt with transactional calls. Within a year, she was trained to be a part of the Solutions team, where she learned to work with more complex inquiries. She was then selected to be multi-skilled and began her training in processing, evaluating members covers and web chat. Her leadership journey began in 2014, when she was given the opportunity to be a step-up Team Leader on a maternity leave secondment. It was in 2015 that Julie’s career moved forward even more and she found herself with a team of her own.
Julie with some of her fellow ahm Team Leaders.
To add to what was already a family affair at ahm, Julie’s husband Nick joined the business 5 months ago as a Manager in Sales & Retention. With children to look after, Julie and her family have taken advantage of Medibank and ahm’s FlexBetter suite, which offers employees a variety of flexible working options to help them balance their work life, as well as give their family life the attention it needs.
“The business worked with us so that we would have different days off to help out with each other’s families. My sister looks after her daughter and my son David on Mondays, while I look after them on Thursdays. Our mum has the day off on Fridays so she has kindly offered to take them then. My husband works full-time but with FlexBetter, he has the opportunity to work from home when needed.”
Julie with her mum and sister.
Julie with her family and her sister Christina’s family.
FlexBetter exists to make sure that employees are able to do their jobs the best they can in any situation. It allows employees to work from home when they need and have time to do school pick-ups and drop-offs without being restricted by traditional work hours. Julie has experienced the benefits first-hand of how helpful flexibility is to employees and it is something that she encourages her team to take up as well.
“It’s really important to me that my team uses flexibility in their work whenever they need. I try to be really transparent about whats available to them. I work with them about their needs because FlexBetter isn’t only for people with children, it works on different levels and lifestyles.”
Julie with her ahm team.
For Julie, having the flexibility that FlexBetter offers has not only supported her as a mother but has also helped her live a better life. She says that it has allowed her to really enjoy her life as a working mum.
“It makes such a difference being able to balance the job that I love to with my role as a mother. It’s very important to me that my team and I are able to achieve work-life balance and with the support of ahm, this is something we can have. FlexBetter to me means having the best of both worlds and knowing that we work to live, not live to work.”