Supporting mature-aged women.
Women get slammed from all sides as they age, facing the double whammy of sex and age-based discrimination, they are fastest-growing group sliding into poverty and homelessness in this country.
Here at Fitted for Work we are passionate about providing work opportunities for older women which provide financial stability, connection and growth.
Last year your donation helped change a woman’s life by supporting 12-months valuable workplace experience to a mature-age woman. Amanda Carlile, our General Manager, is looking forward to welcoming this new staff member to a dynamic role at Fitted for Work…
“The six months since our hugely successfully crowd-funding night have flown by as Fitted for Work’s National Operations moved to our very own building in Richmond, Melbourne.
Using our recruitment social enterprise, SheWorks, to connect with a pool of work ready mature-age women, we planned to recruit a woman aged 55+ for the new administration role in mid-March 2020. This coincided with Fitted for Work‘s relocation, a very exciting time for us and the perfect opportunity to create an office support position, as we have so many more considerations now that we are independent.
We secured a fantastic mentor ready to provide ongoing support and help the successful candidate thrive. Our mentor helped develop a position description for an Office Coordinator / Team Assistant, a role where no two days are the same!
The role we crafted will work across all areas of the organisation. Originally, we envisaged this role as supporting each area for a certain amount of time. However, we realised we could better support our new employee’s growth and development by helping them progress longer lasting projects, in which they could invest and deepen relations within our team.
About the role
The new Office Manager/Team Assistant plays an integral role in the successful running of our Richmond site and provides support to the leadership and coordinator teams. This dynamic role gives opportunities to work with a variety of people as the first point of contact for the organisation and to develop a wide range of skills including: liaising with reception to register visitors; daily maintenance of shared spaces; meetings and events set-up; coordinating office maintenance schedules and printer servicing, stationary and office supplies orders and liaising with suppliers and contractors; maintaining an electronic database of keys/fobs and codes; and helping to drive well-being activities through staff and volunteers events.
What’s next?
Just as we prepared to recruit, the whole world changed with Covid-19 and social distancing. As you can appreciate, remote work arrangements don’t provide the best environment for starting this new position, dependent on supported learnings and engagement with technology and focused on the effective operations of our new (now entirely virtual!) offices.
Our plan, as work arrangements evolve, is to progress recruitment timed for when we can operate on-site again. We are also exploring if and how this role could function remotely and have contacted SheWorks clients to assess those who are work-from-home ready.”
Whenever our new Office Manager/Team Assistant comes on board, we are ready to nurture and support them.
We are really looking forward to welcoming them to the Fitted for Work team! Amanda Carlile, General Manager.
* Image by Fi Mims Photography: Shirley Graves-Mortimer, National Programs Administrator, Fitted for Work
