Bespoke working that suits Nicola

Advertorial

We know that flexibility and agile working are ever more popular in many of our working lives. Personal arrangements and responsibilities now mean that fewer of us have a ‘one size fits all’ working pattern. Recognising this, AWE is increasingly offering greater fluidity when it comes to working for the business.

One such person benefiting from a different way of working – with an arrangement that works for her – is our senior engineer, Nicola. Throughout her 21–year career at AWE, Nicola has not only excelled in engineering, but also become the proud mother of three children. Starting out as a graduate trainee, Nicola has risen through the ranks and is now a group leader within our engineering function and looks after a team of 180.

Nicola’s success has been enhanced by achieving a good work / life balance through an arrangement that sees her work, in the main, during school term-time. This allows her to have the best of both worlds. Nicola explains more:

“As many working parents discover, juggling your job and family life can be tricky at the best of times. I’ve always loved being part of AWE’s engineering team and how my role both challenges and develops me. However, I wanted to continue building my career, but also be there for my family whilst they were growing up.”

“I first came across the idea of term-time working whilst looking at AWE’s flexible working policy and realised it could really be of advantage to me. I knew that term-time working was quite an unusual contract but could prove a win-win situation. After broaching the subject, my line manager was fully supportive, so I adopted a new working pattern that suits both me and the business.”

“My contract is very much personalised to me and works through agreeing the number of hours I’ll work across the year and pro-rating it so that, in the main, it ties in with term time. A real positive is the planning ahead, which gives me peace of mind over my working dates and when to book leave.”

“On a typical day I start work around 7.30am and always have a busy and varied day, that includes managing a multi-disciplinary technical team, implementing engineering strategy and ensuring we provide the right skilled and competent engineers across our programmes. I finish at 2.30pm so I can pick up my children – who are 9, 12 and 13 – from school.”

“AWE’s flexible approach to working also helps, meaning I can work from home or outside of core hours if required. Previously I benefited from AWE’s flexibility as I’d worked a three-day week when my children were pre-school age, but this new pattern supports my current lifestyle even further.”

“The managers and teams I work with are really supportive of my working pattern, which has made the switch so much easier. I’m glad that I made this change as it’s helped me get the balance between my two passions – family first and then engineering. I hope that, if possible, other businesses and people consider working patterns that are more tailored to their lifestyle and commitments.”

AWE knows that creating a diverse workforce is critical to our future, and we’re committed to a positive and inclusive environment. We’ve adopted a modern approach to our ways of working, providing greater choices in where, when and how our people work – you can choose full or part-time hours to fit around your commitments and we’re open to flexible working arrangements.

Check out our latest jobs at https://www.workingmums.co.uk/jobseekers/top-employers/awe-plc/ or https://www.awe.co.uk/careers – if you want to pursue a role, then let us know your preferred work pattern so we can discuss further.