Q&A with new Vice Patron Una O’Reilly
Published: 26 Sep 2024
Una O’Reilly has worked extensively in both human resources and organisational development across hospitality, construction and property, with a track record of creating award-winning people practices that promote inclusivity and engagement.
How did Working Families come to be on your radar?
I first met Working Families when I worked for Westfield as European HR Director 11 years ago. Working in a people leadership role for one of the top leading property development and construction companies, I knew in order to attract and retain top industry and create engaged and commercially focused teams, we needed to have a healthy positive company culture. To do this I needed to understand where we were starting from so I worked with Working Families to carry out an audit through their Benchmark tool. I think we received one of the lowest scores that year which solidified my ambition. We started working to understand what great looked like, not just in our sector, but across all industries. With a lot of support from the executive team, we worked hard to improve our culture and policies, and were delighted when Working Families awarded the company 9 Best Practice Awards and named us a Top 30 Employer for family-friendly workplaces, alongside other business awards.
What has been your involvement with Working Families before now?
I decided to connect with Working Families because I wanted to work with an organisation who truly values people and recognises the importance of a positive, healthy, caring work culture to get the best from people and in turn help deliver commercial results. Initially I was attracted by their values, because I feel very aligned to being collaborative, practical, inclusive and driven. We’ve been working in partnership ever since; I’ve talked at many Working Families lunch and learns events and was privileged to be a judge for their Best Practice Awards in 2023 and 2024.
How has your own life experience driven you to want to be a Vice Patron?
I’ve worked across retail, property development, real estate construction and hospitality, and that’s taught me that it’s not the industry itself that shapes good practices, but the leader and the leadership teams. Having led leadership and company programmes throughout my career to enhance cultures and shift mindsets, I am delighted to be a Vice Patron of Working Families and help make the mission to remove barriers for working parents and carers a living and breathing reality across of industries.
How has flexible working made a difference to your life?
When Westfield appointed me to a director role whilst pregnant, and I joined when my son was six months old. As a working parent I understand first-hand the challenges of balancing work and care, and the difference it makes when you work in a company that has great policies, practices and a culture that supports working families. And, I have seen first-hand how much employee engagement can be transformed when there is strong, positive and progressive leadership.
What do you hope that the charity can achieve in the future?
It is becoming ever-clearer that people want to work where they feel valued and supported, and are given the opportunity to live their best life through having a flexible balance. Employees don’t want to work for leaders anymore who are narrow in their thinking and their approach to good people practice.
Unfortunately, there are still a number of companies that still do not place value on the importance of practices that work for their people. These are the companies that are becoming less and less appealing to the top talent and who will struggle to retain employees and commercial success in the long term.
My hope is that Working Families can continue to support companies across all industries to recognise that employees have choices where to work, and it’s the companies who support a work-life balance that will attract the best people and have engaged and motivated teams.
What do you think are the biggest obstacles in more organisations implementing flexible and family-friendly working?
I think executive leadership teams can be the greatest supporting light and also the greatest obstacle. Communication, collaboration and understanding are key to shifting the dial on this. Once you’ve convinced them it’s a smart commercial decision because of the ability to attract and retain the best people, they can make great things happen. Positive and proactive people and family-friendly practices lead to high engagement, retention and stronger commercial success. Companies who fail to recognise this may fail to attract, retain talent and may be challenged to build commercial success.
Our Patrons
Meet the Patron and Vice Patrons of Working Families.
Employer Membership
A Working Families membership for employers will give you the tools, guides and policies you need to implement agile, flexible and family-friendly business practices.