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Embracing Equity with Alex Beckwith, Head of Operations at Page Resourcing
For International Women’s Day, we want to raise awareness about equity in the workplace and showcase the importance of creating a work environment where everyone is treated equally and can thrive professionally. To do this, we interviewed leaders about their experiences and the ways they promote equity.
Why is it important to celebrate International Women’s Day?
It’s a day to reflect on how women have shaped our world culturally, socially and politically. It’s a chance to celebrate women’s accomplishments over time, and it also gives us an opportunity to consider how much further we still have to go.
I think it’s also a day to raise awareness of how we can all play a part in the progress of women’s rights. We can reflect on our own lives and consider how we can better educate ourselves not just on the topic of women’s rights, but also on any other biases we may have.
As a woman, what are some of the challenges you’ve overcome in your career?
The most prevalent challenge for me as a woman would be feeling comfortable working flexibly and feeling that I can have a balance between my career and my life outside of work. To put that into context, after the birth of my first son, I was the first person in my team to work flexibly.
This was a fairly challenging environment to come back into — not only because I was returning from a year of maternity leave and all of the new learnings and ways of working while having a new baby, but also because I adopted a different working pattern in an environment where that hadn’t happened previously. It took me a good year to get comfortable with owning my working hours.
I had to get comfortable pushing back when I was asked to work on my nonworking day or when I was challenged about being as productive as someone on a 5-day working week. I made sure I put myself in the best position for promotions in my career, regardless of how many hours I worked in the office.
It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had to overcome, but it’s taught me a lot. Now, 10 years later, I’m a huge advocate of flexible working, not just for mothers, but for anyone. It has allowed me to grow as a leader and have open conversations with individuals in my team about working flexibly, ensuring my team feel comfortable to be their authentic self at work.
What advice would you give to women who want to pursue a career in recruitment?
If you’re someone who likes to work with people, someone who wants to coach and develop and make an impact on somebody’s life, then this is a really great career for that. It’s not just about sales calls and targets. It gives you the opportunity to meet with some really influential and inspiring people, and it allows you to change people’s lives.
Recruitment is a career that you can do anywhere in the world, pretty much at any time of the day. For me, it’s a really flexible career option for any woman or anyone who wants to have a balance in life.
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