Marie Claire Australia - 09.2019

(in alphabetical order)

*Julia Gillard did not vote in the Ceiling Smasher category

JUDGES

The

Julia Gillard*

Former prime minister

and Beyond Blue chair

Tanya Plibersek

Shadow minister

for Education

and Training

Nicky Briger

marie claire editor

Virginia Trioli

ABC journalist

Melissa Doyle

Channel Seven journalist

Michelle

Battersby

Associate marketing

director APAC

at Bumble

Kylie Kwong

TV personality and

culinary icon

Olivia Ruello

CEO of

Business Chicks

Terry Little

Managing director

of Estée Lauder

Companies, Oceania

Camilla Franks

Fashion designer

Layne Beachley

World champion

surfer and founder of

Aim for the Stars

Lisa Cronk, AECOM’s inclusion

and diversity manager, talks

about the engineering company’s

passion for diversity, after

taking out the Family-Friendly

Award – recognising a business

dedicated to making the daily

work/life/family balance easier.

MC: Tell us a bit about

how you’ve made the

company family friendly

for working parents.

LC: Since we launched

FlexWorks in 2017 to

encourage more flexible

working arrangements, it’s been

great to see the uptake by all of

our employees – both men and

women. We’ve abolished formal

start and finish times in our

contracts, so people can come

in early to beat the traffic or

later so they can do the school

run. We’ve also introduced

working-from-home policies,

job sharing, part-time

opportunities, remote working
and the option to purchase
additional annual leave to help
with school holidays or trips.
MC: You’ve worked at
AECOM for 14 years. What’s
your experience been like?
LC: I’ve worked full-time,
part-time and taken parental
leave twice at AECOM. In the
past few years my family moved
from Brisbane to the Sunshine
Coast, so I work from home, as
well as in our Brisbane office,
Sydney and Melbourne. I
structure my week so I can
be part of the proud-parent
moments for my own children,
go to sports carnivals and
be home for dinner.
MC: What advice would you
give companies wanting to
be more family friendly?
LC: Lead loudly. You can have a
great flexible working policy, but
The your leaders need to role model.

FAMILY-FRIENDLY FRONTRUNNERS

WINNER:

AECOM

AECOM’s

Michael Jones

and Lisa Cronk.

PRESENTED BY ESTÉE LAUDER COMPANIES