Meet Yvette. Yvette is an assistant project manager in Kier. She works across four projects in the Midlands in our thriving Water business. She has two kids and loves her holidays. She also happens to be the wife of a serving soldier within the Royal Corps of Signals - the Army’s communications’ specialists.
"Change is part of life in the military. It makes you resilient and able to handle anything. I bring those skills and attitude to work each day and know it benefits the projects I am on. People often doubt military spouses. They look at our CVs and wonder, why all the changes? However, if they took a chance to get to know us as people and professionals like Kier has, they would see just how much we have to offer."
When Yvette met serving soldier Adam in 2015, she was no stranger to military life. With an ex-Royal Navy father, a grandfather who fought with the elite Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) in North Africa and a grandmother who sewed parachutes in war time Britain, her family’s links to the military were strong. Still, dating and then marrying a serving soldier meant that Yvette’s life – and her career path - would always be just a bit extraordinary.
Adam’s role as a serving soldier added an extra layer of complexity to their newly-married life. Just after their first child was born, Adam was deployed to Estonia as part of a NATO mission and what began as a six-month deployment was extended to nine.
"Within our first five years together, we had packed up our lives and moved to new areas several times. During Adam’s second deployment, I was juggling a newborn baby and trying to put roots down for our family in the South West, where we’d recently moved to. Then the COVID pandemic hit and we had to navigate lockdowns as well. But, it made us resilient. We learned to make the best of things, to make the most of our time together and it taught us how to be adaptable in all areas of our lives."
Yvette decided to make the most of the situation and, with a background in administration, she secured a new role that she loved. Adam returned home and Yvette and her family finally regained a sense of normality. But, more change was to come when Adam received a promotion – and with it – a posting order to York.
Sadly, because of the move, Yvette was unable to continue in her role and, on top of the pressure of relocating her young family, she now had to find a new job. Yvette didn’t have to wait long before she was offered a role as a site administrator a mere ten miles away where Kier Construction was building the UK’s first all-electric prison at HMP Millsike.
"I felt really at home in Kier. The Armed Forces Inclusion Network (AFIN) was new to me – I had never been in a business with such an active, thriving forces community and felt like the business understood what it meant to be a military spouse. I still have to help colleagues understand that I live on a military camp and that my husband is a soldier but, having a military community around me that gets it, has made a huge difference."
With both Adam and Yvette progressing in their careers, they received the news that Adam would be posted to Nuneaton in 2024.
"I was so proud of Adam but devastated at the thought that I would once again have to leave a job I loved at a company I loved working in."
Thankfully, Yvette’s worries were unfounded, and her manager and team wholeheartedly supported her in balancing home life and her career.
"I had been nervous about telling them about the posting due to previous experiences elsewhere, but I shouldn’t have worried. Initially they supported me with a hybrid working model, where I could balance home life in the Midlands and work in York while we looked for a longer-term solution."
Yvette’s human resources business partner worked with the AFIN to look at career options that would work for her. The network connects colleagues across the business, across location and profession, and it wasn’t long before a veteran within the network connected Yvette to a job opportunity closer to her new home.
Making the move happen is an example of people across Kier working brilliantly together. It involved moving business divisions and getting Yvette established in a new sector, however the wider Kier team collaborated to ensure a smooth transition for her. Ensuring that colleagues like Yvette can thrive in Kier is part of our commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant.
"It has made a big difference and made me feel really supported. The impact of the network isn’t just something you can measure with a statistic or KPI – it is how it makes the business feel. It means I can have my career, a steady income and a bit of continuity in my life. I am so glad we were able to make the move work and I am really enjoying my new role in the water sector – I’ve even been promoted again and am now an assistant project manager!"
You can read more about our commitment to the Armed Forces here.