GC Career Story: Richard Austin

I took a bit of a risk leaving a full-time, permanent role to come here, but I’d heard very good things about the organisation. Standguide was the second Welfare to Work company I’d worked for and, if I’m honest, the experience wasn’t great, but I did get the Welfare to Work bug. I enjoyed what the programme was doing for people, and I wanted to join the company that everyone seemed to be telling me was the best one to work for, which was Work Solutions.

It was a risk, but it paid off and I was made permanent at the end of that cover.

We later won the Skills for Employment contract, so I moved across to be a Learning Mentor to help get it started. After a couple of months, I was promoted to Lead for that contract. I then took on maternity cover for the manager of that programme for 12 months, followed by another maternity cover for 6 months in Salford on the Work and Health Programme.

When she returned, the Skills for Employment contract had come to an end, and I successfully applied for a role as Integration Coordinator of the Work and Health Programme for Trafford. Just under a year later, the manager for that programme left, and I was successful in getting that job, starting in March 2020, three weeks before Covid hit.

I stayed in that role until June this year when I moved into my current role as Service Manager on the Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care (IPS PC) programme, covering Salford and Wigan.

Over a decade with GC

In the almost 13 years I’ve been at GC, I’ve had 7 roles across four different contracts.

I really like the whole ethos of the company, and the values very much align with my own. I like the fact the GC offers progression, if you work hard and put the effort in it does get rewarded. I've worked for some fantastic managers here that have really supported and developed me.

The flexibility is another big thing for me. I've got a 4-year-old and the flexibility that GC allows means I get to see him so much more than just a couple of hours in the evening. I’m able to drop him off and pick him up from nursery and still do more work hours around that.

But overall, the main thing that keeps me at GC is feeling like I’m making a difference to people.

Finding a fulfilling job

At the start of my career people always talked about how important job satisfaction is and I never really understood what they meant, probably until I started working on Welfare to Work.

As an Advisor, there’s a real buzz when you support someone who arrives at rock bottom and help them take steps forward, watching them grow in confidence and come out of their shell. That’s what makes the job so rewarding.

I love the role I’m in now, but you don't get that same buzz as you did when you help someone directly. But now as a manager, the satisfaction comes from seeing my team do well, which I know probably sounds really cheesy, but seeing them all happy in their roles is what motivates me now.

All of the colleagues I've worked with are in this industry for the right reasons. They don't come into it for the glory. They come in just because they want to make a difference and they want to help people, and that's a massive part of why I'm hoping I'm going to be here for many, many years to come.