Gillian Franklin Motherhood Makes Women Better At Work Interview

Gillian Franklin Motherhood Makes Women Better At Work Interview

A massive 69.1% of Aussie mums believe that the skills they have developed as a mother have made them better at their jobs, according to an independent national survey conducted on behalf of The Heat Group, Australia's largest cosmetic company.

When making hiring decisions, businesses should consider the highly developed skill sets of working mothers that will benefit their workplaces, including multi-tasking, people management, collaboration, and delegation.

Gillian Franklin, Managing Director of The Heat Group says that mums think that the ability to multi-task is the single most important trait that has benefited their career the most. 'Mums are the ultimate multi-taskers often at times having to do three things at once just to keep up with the household tasks they have at hand," says Ms Franklin. 'This high degree of multi-tasking has made them capable of churning through work tasks more efficiently."

This survey revealed that 13.4% of mums believe they have developed the capability of managing others effectively through having to deal with their children in their home lives.

'This skill has served mothers well in the workforce where assertiveness and decisiveness come in extremely handy. I witness this every day with our Heat mums who are highly productive, have excellent time management skills and are focussed," noted Ms Franklin.

'Mums often have to run their households with military-like precision. Having dinner on the table at specific times, running to schedule with sports pick-ups and ensuring the laundry is done so that the family has clean clothes. Women have to pre-empt situations and plan their family lives, even to the minutest detail. This in my view reinforces the argument that we should be doing whatever is possible to encourage and support more mums in their return to work."

Ms Franklin said: 'This augurs extremely well for women in the workplace particularly when strategy and planning is an integral part of their workday."

Interview with Gillian Franklin (Managing Director, Heat Group)

Question:Why did The Heat Group decide to conduct this survey?

Gillian Franklin: We are passionate about promoting the benefits of women in the workplace and for Mother's Day, wanted to not only celebrate mums as mums but to encourage businesses to celebrate and value 'mums as workers".


Question:Were you surprised that the survey revealed that -motherhood makes women better at work'?

Gillian Franklin: No we expected this but it was good to see the community agreed with our theory.


Question:How do you see this implemented in your own life?

Gillian Franklin: I am definitely a better worker for being a mother and a better mother for being a worker. I am very focussed in both roles and ensure I am using all my time in the most effective way. I have lists everywhere! In the car, next to my bed, in my husband's car – I am always thinking and my memory is not great so I write everything down that I have to do.


Question:What are the main skills women develop when becoming mothers?

Gillian Franklin: Negotiation skills (who else can successfully negotiate with a 15 year old?), collaboration – when the kids are arguing about whose turn it is to do the dishes, mum always has to arbitrate, compassion (healing that broken heart), time management, organisation skills, managing a tight budget, and the list goes on. All extremely necessary and important in any role in business.


Question:Why is this result important for employers to realise?

Gillian Franklin: Too many companies are currently focussed on the cost of employing mums – they talk about the impact of paid maternity leave, the difficulty of managing teams around flexible hours and days etc. We need to change the language of business from cost to benefit about employing mums. Diversity works – there are so many studies that prove this. Now we need businesses to have a sincere commitment to diversity and in particular to support working mums.


Question:Why else is it beneficial that business hire mothers?

Gillian Franklin: From an economic perspective, Australia will struggle in years to come as women will not have enough super to retire on. Women live longer than men and can then become a cash drain on the economy. Also, once women remove themselves from the workplace for the 5-8 years to take care of young children, when they return to work they never catch up financially, one of the reasons we have women earning .85c to men. We need to be strategic and take the big picture into account and give women the opportunity to be equal financially.


Interview by Brooke Hunter