The ‘Meet the Board’ series gives our readers an opportunity to learn more about the dedicated people who sit on the Healthy Workplaces board. In our next installment, we connect with Melbourne-based board member, Chantelle Conway.
What is it about Healthy Workplaces that drew you to get involved?
I wanted to volunteer with a charity that has a strong community purpose and be able to advocate for them. A key pillar of business is their corporate social responsibility program and amplifying the important work of charities. Many of us are in these amazing positions of privilege, and it’s so important we can leverage that and give back to the community.
Secondly, which has been reinforced during the pandemic, is being physically active and it’s been such a concern to employees and employers. When we’re on Zoom, we’re not walking, we’re not being active. That’s a big issue for physical and mental well-being.
I manage multiple countries, and a lot of our team haven’t seen each other for more than 12 months. The conversations among us had just become about working. But this is where cross-functional teaming is more important than ever before, to help change that up and have social conversations.
During the pandemic, companies have focused more on the physical health and well-being of their staff. We had times where we were just doing Zoom after Zoom and staff were spending so much time sitting and being inactive. To address this, we encouraged our team to do walking meetings and put in more break times away from work.
I was delighted to be invited to become a board member. The board has great depth and variety of experiences, and I have found it rewarding. It’s been a great opportunity to learn and to have that regular cadence with them.
As a board member, what key area of expertise do you bring to Healthy Workplaces? Tell us a little about your career background.
I love the fact that the board embraced me even though I didn’t have board experience. I have a lot of leadership experience at very senior levels within some phenomenal companies.
I’m a Psychologist, majored in Neuroscience and published papers in that area. Early in my career, I was doing contracts within hospitals around Australia, and then later had children.
I transitioned from healthcare into technology, working in hardware and software, security and networking at Palo Alto Networks, and Cisco Systems. For the past two years, I’ve led the Australia and New Zealand Southern Region team at UiPath.
My main focus has always been in sales and creating business success through building great teams.
What do you hope participants gain by getting involved? (E.g. Better health outcomes, more energy, or increased enjoyment for physical activity)
Interestingly, what we’re seeing is a lot of people aren’t going to return to the office. There’s going to be a lot more work-from-home, and that accelerates the importance of doing things like Tour de Office or Step Forward, where we need to find other ways to engage as a team.
How do you keep active during the workday?
I am a keen tennis player. My whole family plays tennis, and each year we host a tennis event for 12 families. It’s a fun way to get a group of people together and spend time as a family while doing a fun sports activity. It’s become a big event with a trophy awarded to the winner.
I’m also a massive walker. I walk every day and introduced walking meetings to my team during lockdown in Victoria. I also love to go bike riding with my family.
