Flexible Working in Nelson Tasman

Nelson Tasman offers the perfect environment for flexible working, and every day our employment practices are transforming to allow workers the freedom to enjoy the stunning natural landscapes, vibrant arts scene, and consistently high sunshine hours that our region beholds.

What's more, with everything so close and highly connected, employees have more time to enjoy life, making the reality of flexi-work even easier. Below you will find stories from some of our local employees, those who are making the most of the flexi-work options in Nelson Tasman, and what this means for them. 

Brett Halliday - Export Sales Manager Asia, Sealord

Brett Halliday - Export Sales Manager Asia, Sealord

"My wife and I made the move to Nelson Tasman in February 2017 with our one year old son. We were moving back to New Zealand after five years abroad and wanted to reconnect with our beautiful country while continuing to move forward in our careers. Charis is a Senior Manager, in Financial Accounting Advisory Services at EY and was returning to work after a year of maternity leave, and I was the Global Sales Manager for a Canadian agriculture company and wanted to find a role that allowed me to build on my experiences and skill-set within regional New Zealand.

Nelson Tasman gave us the ability to keep both career paths advancing strongly while raising our young family in the relaxed, sunny and adventurous environment we love. Charis mainly works from home, childcare is a 10 minute walk, and my office at Sealord is less than five minutes’ drive. This allows me to be flexible with the hours I spend in the office (normally starting early and finishing early), and to reduce the amount of time our son spends in childcare. We both travel regularly with work and  with frequent and direct flights around New Zealand, the travel is easy. After spending years commuting one hour plus daily, we get so much more time with our family, with daily swims at the beach, long summer evenings in the sun, and local food and wine to enjoy.

The flexibility of working in a growing region, with the lifestyle Nelson Tasman has on offer, has been everything we wanted as our home base to raise our family."


Bevan Somervell - Database Administrator, Datacom

Bevan Somervell - Database Administrator, Datacom

"When I heard I could work for a national leader in IT and remain based on my lifestyle block just outside of Nelson, I jumped at the chance! My boss and closest colleagues are based in Auckland and I work for major companies all over the country. Thanks to Datacom's flexi-work options and Nelson Tasman's easy connections to the rest of New Zealand, I am able to work from the Nelson City office and still enjoy my farm and the lifestyle it provides. One day a week I work from home allowing me to enjoy the farm even more.

This flexi-location model is used in different ways for five other people in the Nelson office and it provides a win-win for both Datacom and the staff - resulting in a great team culture and the ability to retain very loyal and highly skilled IT professionals."


Anneke van Laanen - Quality Manager, Cawthron Institute

Anneke van Laanen - Quality Manager, Cawthron Institute

"We are very lucky with our employer, the Cawthron Institute, as any request for part-time hours will be seriously considered. For me that means that I now have the option to reduce my hours from full-time to 4 days a week. In my experience working full time means that there is limited time for reflection and before you know it you have been an employee for over 10 years! It feels a bit like an intercity train, it just goes and goes. There has been a period in the past in which I also worked just 4 days and the difference in work life balance was fantastic. You can liken it to a stop train, you go then stop and consider what is important to you in life.It might be biking the lovely trails, visiting cafés,  walking on the beach, taking pictures, spending more time with family & friends, joining a volunteering group or just enjoying the sunshine. 

All these things I love so much and is the reason why we moved to this area from the other side of the world. One more week until my part-time working life starts and I already have a long list of wishes to spend my time on."


Carl Sheehan - Laboratory Technician, Cawthron Institute

Carl Sheehan - Laboratory Technician, Cawthron Institute

"After being employed in various roles in science I made the bold move to change my career and retrain as a secondary school science teacher. The qualification is completed by correspondence but as a 30-year-old adult I still needed a source of income to support my family. Cawthron has always offered a fairly flexible working environment but I could not have completed my qualification without the understanding and support they have given me by providing flexible working hours to accommodate my studies. This included a reduction in my hours but also the flexibility to shift my hours depending on what assignments, lectures or workshops I needed to complete.

Without this flexibility, I do not think that I would have been able to achieve my goal of becoming a science teacher - and to inspire the next generation of world-changing scientists!"


Hannah Norton - Destination Identity Manager, Nelson Regional Development Agency

Hannah Norton - Destination Identity Manager, Nelson Regional Development Agency

"Having the ability to work flexibly provides many benefits to both my work and personal life. I moved to Nelson Tasman in early 2018 and initially the flexibility made this transition a lot easier for me. My partner was still based in Auckland and we were tying up loose ends such as selling our house, so having the ability to work remotely for a day or two every few weeks took away any unnecessary stress and helped me settle in to my new home and role even easier. Now we are fully based in the region, working flexibly gives me the opportunity to enjoy the extraordinary lifestyle we moved here for - and to a greater level than we ever imagined.

The time I used to spend negotiating Auckland traffic is now spent running, mountain biking and kayaking all within five minutes of home and the office, and by adjusting my work hours I have been able to enjoy this during daylight right through winter. Working flexibly also has huge benefits for my work, especially in terms of my productivity and thinking time. By mixing up my working environment, I find I can achieve a lot more than in a traditional working environment, and this leaves me with renewed energy and enthusiasm."


Lachlan Boyle - Commercial Manager Export Sales, Sealord

Lachlan Boyle - Commercial Manager Export Sales, Sealord

"Working flexibly allows me to be the best I can be, both at work and outside of work. Having trained for various long distance triathlon and multi-sport races over recent years, I was keen to continue this when moving to Nelson Tasman and to Sealord just under two years ago. I competed alongside my fiancé in the 2018 tandem teams Coast to Coast and am now building up for the 2019 one day longest day race. Sealord have been really supportive of my sporting endeavours and by having the ability to work flexibly, I have been able to pursue my goals to a level that wouldn't have otherwise been possible.

Getting outside in the sunshine and fresh air also helps with my mental well-being - giving me more energy and some great thinking time, supporting my work when I'm back in the office."


Stuart MacIntosh - CEO, Pic's Peanut Butter

Stuart MacIntosh - CEO, Pic's Peanut Butter

"Nelson Tasman is an extraordinary place to live and this seems to be the attraction for most people moving to the region - whether returning Nelsonian’s, other NZ'ers or overseas immigrants seeking a better lifestyle. However for me, lifestyle requires more than just fresh air – finding a position that provides challenge and job satisfaction is critical to establishing oneself and family in a new location. I have been fortunate enough to find that with Pic's Peanut Butter. I work a flexible-location schedule where I fly in on a Monday, fly out on a Thursday and work from my home office in Auckland on a Friday. With 600 flights in and out each week and in today's rapidly increasing digital world, Nelson Tasman is highly connected with the rest of New Zealand, making this an easy and viable option.

For me it means I can enjoy the best of both worlds - making the most of a fantastic career opportunity, enjoying the Nelson Tasman lifestyle and most importantly maintaining a close relationship with my family which is extremely important to me."


Cindy Steele - Senior Product Development Technologist, New Zealand King Salmon

"Over my 15 years at New Zealand King Salmon I have been able to work in a variety of flexible ways to suit my lifestyle and situation at the time. This includes reducing my hours after the birth of my children (and then increasing them again as worked for me), and having the flexibility to shift my working hours and location to fit in with my husband's shift work as a fireman. It has been this that has allowed me to balance my family needs with my career and not feel like I need to sacrifice in either."


Intepeople

Intepeople

"At Intepeople we’ve embraced flexible working conditions for some time. We encourage all our staff to have a good work life balance so they can bring their best to the work place. With a number of part time mothers on our team it’s important they have the flexibility to work the hours that they can around child care and have that ability to take time off for attending events such as school sports during the week. For one full time team member we’ve reduced their hours from 40 to 35 to allow them to work flexibly to meet family commitments, and have also equipped them with a laptop at home so they can work from home if children are off sick, or to catch up working at night or on the weekends.

Having upgraded our IT system some years ago and moving to cloud based applications, we can allow for remote connections for almost all our team to work from home if required. Encouraging flexibility has been great for our team and builds a strong culture, greater productivity, as well as loyalty. Managed well there are no downsides."


logo