How to support your employees’ outside ambitions

Secondsight advisor Sally Read-Cayton is a keen professional athlete. Claire Souter discusses how we were able to support her sporting ambitions, and how you can support your workers with theirs. Sally Read-Cayton is a remarkable lady. At the age of 50 she has three children, a full-time job working as a financial adviser with Foster Denovo/Secondsight, and this August she represented Great Britain in the International Association of Athletics Federation’s world championships in Beijing. What’s more, she won the 400 metre race! This was the first event of its kind for women aged 50 and over.

We appreciate the need to recognise what is important to individual staff members at any given time. It may be they require more flexibility around childcare/out of work priorities, or they could have suffered a bereavement. You have to treat each set of circumstances individually.

Sally needed to take valuable time away from the office to train, and also to travel to Beijing to compete. She was able to undertake her training regime and fit her work responsibilities around it.

Whatever flexible working arrangement we implement for a particular member of staff, we’re mindful that we are setting a precedent and may need to provide justification for the actions taken.

Published in HR Magazine, read the rest of the article in full here.