Wolters Kluwer - Helen Commander (Employee)

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When English-born Helen Commander was looking to move overseas six years ago, her destination was determined by just two concerns – the location of her employer’s international offices and access to a Buddhist community.

Auckland met both criteria. Helen’s employer, health publisher Adis International, found her a job in their North Shore office, and Helen paid a visit to the Auckland Buddhist Centre soon after her arrival in New Zealand.

“People at work and at the Buddhist Centre were welcoming and friendly so I knew I’d made the right decision in coming here,” says Helen. “By choosing Auckland I was able to keep working for Adis and become part of the Auckland Buddhist Centre Sangha (community).”

At the time of her move, Helen had been working for Adis for five years as a database editor so was familiar with the complexities of developing editorial for a database of drugs and pharmaceutical development. Six years later, Helen is still with Adis (now owned by Wolters Kluwer) due to her employer’s willingness to adapt her responsibilities to suit her needs.

Helen has always had some flexibility around her working hours as Wolters Kluwer’s Auckland employees can work any time between 6.30am and 9pm provided they meet their work commitments. “My boss likes me to be here until at least 3pm so I start at around seven in the morning. That way I can avoid the traffic and get home with plenty of time to meditate,” she says. “Most of our clients are overseas so it’s beneficial for them if we’re here for a wide range of the day as it means there’s some overlap between our working hours and those of our clients.”

Two years ago, she decided she wanted more time to pursue her spiritual practice and to assist at the Auckland Buddhist Centre so she asked her manager, Glenn Whiteside, if she could reduce her hours to 0.8 of full-time. He readily agreed, recognising that the expertise, commitment and knowledge that Helen brought to her work was too good to lose.

Helen managed the Auckland Buddhist Centre for several months in 2006 and currently assists with classes and events. She lives with other Buddhist women who support each other to follow Buddhist principles in their daily lives. “My spiritual practice is my first priority,” she says. “It’s important to have time to meditate, to reflect, to study the dharma and just to have space and time around everyday activities.”

Wolters Kluwer also recognises Helen’s commitment to her family in England. When her mother underwent major surgery last year, Helen flew over to care for her for four weeks using a combination of annual leave, sick leave and unpaid leave.

Helen recently went back to 0.9 hours of paid work, both to help during a staff shortage and to increase her income slightly.

Helen says that experienced staff are valuable to Wolters Kluwer because of the complexity of the work. “In my area, it takes a long time to train people to update the database and it’s only after two or three months that they start to add some value,” she says. “I know it’s hard to retain staff and I enjoy the work so I’ll continue to try and find solutions that work for me and the business. It’s all about negotiation and communication.”