Nicole Klasen will often spend weekends attending junior soccer games and getting her hands dirty as her young family’s forever home begins to take shape.
During the week, she juggles motherhood with a high-powered position as Newcastle Anglican’s Executive Director of People and Culture.
Nicole says she is grateful to Newcastle Anglican for helping her balance raising a young family while developing and growing her career.
“I’ve recently come back from maternity leave. Ivy is eight months old now and I have two other children – Ava, eight, and Aiden, six,” she says.
The transition back to work was fabulous with being able to bring Ivy along with me initially and having support from a number of different people and my team was happy to help out if I had to jump into a meeting.
“Juggling three kids at home, a new baby, full-time work and building a house at the same time is a lot.
“Newcastle Anglican provides a true sense of flexibility – it’s not a tick and flick.
“We value people’s work-life balance and understand that family is important and needs to come first. I’m really able to do that and ‘do it all’.
“I can drop my kids off at school and pick them up as well as attend important school events while also meeting the needs of my role and providing to the services and stakeholders.”
Nicole is responsible for the leadership of People and Culture functions.
This includes driving strategic initiatives across the organisation, seeking opportunities to improve and develop coordinated people programs and resources, and leading organisational development and change management.
Nicole started her career in Belmont where she discovered a passion for recruitment and administration.
She completed her degree in human resources while working full time, before joining Newcastle Anglican as Manager, People and Culture in 2021.
She moved into different roles before landing her current position as Executive Director, People and Culture.
“I didn’t settle in previous jobs when I haven’t enjoyed it or didn’t find a sense of being valued,” she says.
“Since joining this organisation, I feel valued as an employee, I’m settled and comfortable in what I’m doing, and my growth since I started has evolved.”
When she’s not working, playing sport or busily preparing for her new house, Nicole finds peace and comfort in nature.
“We are very much a sporting family. My husband plays basketball and I’ve started back at hockey this year,” she says.
“Saturday is full of sports, as well as building the house. It keeps us occupied.
“When we aren’t doing that, I love going to the beach.
“We try and get there when it’s been a big week at work, or the kids have had a tough week. It’s our release.”
Read more stories like this in our new edition of Encounter | Our People.
