5 Minutes with Quila on Why Being a Working Parent Is Made Easier at Sportsbet

Sportsbet’s flexible culture really considers the varied needs of our people, and we understand the support team members with kids need to balance their home and work lives effectively.

We’re happy to see our flexible working and parental leave policies make things so much easier for our employees. When Quila Cervelli, mum to a toddler and twin babies, joined us recently, we worked out a great return-to-work program that suited both her family and our team. We asked Quila to tell us more about the support she’s had so far, as well as her advice for other working parents.

Hi Quila, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you ended up here at Sportsbet.

I'm a New York City native who now lives in Melbourne with my husband and three kids. We have a three-and-a-half-year-old (going on 13!) daughter and ten-month-old twin boys. We also have two Labradors. Needless to say, we have our hands full!

I guess you could say my situation is quite unique as I was recruited for my role at Sportsbet while I was on parental leave. When I interviewed, my people leaders were very open to waiting until my twins were a bit older until I started here. I was also really clear about my future availability.

Together we designed a return-to-work program that suited both parties – at the moment I’m working three days a week and will slowly progress to a nine-day fortnight when my kids adjust to childcare (and build their immune systems!)

What has the support from Sportsbet looked like in terms of your day-to-day?

On my first day at Sportsbet (working from home), my entire family tested positive for COVID – yikes! My people leader knew I had to support my family for the week until we were healthy and generously allowed me to put off work until we were back to feeling 100%. I was then able to make up some of my hours in the coming weeks so I could get my important tasks done.

In general, I've felt incredibly supported in co-building my whole set up here. My team respects my home commitments and I feel like I have constant access to information on my non-working days as I have access to Slack, Outlook and all other systems required to keep me connected.

Day-to-day, I get to dictate my working hours. I like to start early and finish a little earlier so I can do school pick-up. I find that with the use of Slack, I can stay across any of the big ticket items and log on a little later at night to catch up.

Have you had a chance to enjoy some of our other staff perks too yet?

Absolutely! While it's only my first month, I am loving the random acts of kindness through deliveries of snacks, lunch and even wine!

I’ve also noticed that it seems like ‘reward’ is the name of the game at Sportsbet. I believe that gratitude and recognition go a long way in making employees feel empowered and there's no shortage of celebrating our hard work here.?

Finally, what’s your top tip for other working parents?

My number one tip is to set boundaries during the recruitment process or when returning to work from parental leave. Boundaries can take the form of new working hours, digital availability, communication preferences – or it can mean that you have to be a bit more fluid with the times you log on to do work.

I also find that discussing my availability with my leader and team – as well as popping in a line in my email signature – helps remind people of when I'll be online.

Great tips – thanks for chatting to us Quila!

Interested in joining us at Sportsbet? Check out our latest job opportunities here .