Spotlight on Ashleen

Tell us about your role at SMCT.

I’m a Business Partner within the People and Capability team and I work with different areas of the organisation to provide strategic and operational people-related advice. I work across a wide variety of functions including recruitment, workforce planning and employee relations.

What was your first job?

My first job was as a teenager at the Pancake Parlour as a Shift Supervisor out at the old store that used to be in Chadstone. It taught me some great life skills about work ethics, friendships and how to make the best pancakes!

What is the most important thing you've learnt throughout your career?

The most important thing I've learnt is that an organisation is only as good as its employees. Investing in and treating your employees as assets only helps to inspire continued innovation and high performance.

What's your number one work-related goal this year?

To hopefully see people again face to face before the year is out (in a COVID-safe way of course)!

What do you wish everyone knew about SMCT?

That working for a cemeteries trust isn’t the morbid cliché that people might think it to be – I wish they knew how vibrant and caring our workplace culture is!

What is the first thing you would buy if you won the lottery?

I’d buy a holiday home in Europe, perhaps along the coast in Croatia or Italy – and spend half the year in Europe during their summer, and half the year here in Australia. That’d be the life!