Rachelle Tappenden

Ask Rachelle Tappenden how she ended up as Workplace & Administration Manager at Toyota Finance Australia, and the answer involves a country NSW pub, a London banking precinct, and a career that only makes complete sense in hindsight. After studying hospitality at Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School, she built her early career managing corporate reception and conferencing across the Deutsche Bank portfolio in London, discovering that the skills that make great hospitality also make great corporate operations. 

Since joining TFA in 2022, Rachelle now oversees the company's workplace portfolio across six national offices. 

Rachelle, how would you explain your job to someone who has never come across workplace management before?

Workplace is a beast. At its core it’s where the people of the business come everyday to do their work, but for my team and I, it’s where we make sure the office is doing everything it should to help them do it at their best! From accessing the office, to making sure all the lights work, the AC is cool enough (or warm enough), that desks work, tech works and that you are safe in its surrounds. Across those six offices we know our landlords, our building managers, our leases, we know our people and what colour paint was applied to walls. We need to, we must, because it’s what’s important to our people and getting things done. 

What was your very first job — and what did it teach you that still sticks with you today?

I worked in my dad’s pub in country NSW. To begin with,, I was a Friday and Saturday night waitress at the small internal restaurant and when that closed, I went to work behind the bar. It taught me a lot about people. How to talk to all sorts of people. Being a small town everyone knew everything about everyone and so there was trust borne out of these conversations. From there I learnt not to judge too quickly either, some people have been dealt a hard and difficult hand, others thrived in the gossip of the town and many were good souls. It was a wonderful insight into people. And Workplace is very much the same – my ‘pub’ is now in Sydney CBD and I love talking and meeting all the different people that come through it and making their day with the services we provide. 

You started your career in London in hospitality — managing reception and conferencing across the Deutsche Bank portfolio. How did a BCom in Hospitality and Tourism from Blue Mountains International Hotel School end up leading you to where you are today?

I studied Hospitality as this was what I had grown up in and was ingrained in me. So, when I could, I moved to London and pursued this career. And it was fabulous. The change from hotels to corporate came from a turbulent role, and I decided to pivot and move into the corporate world – and it paid more too! I revelled in a Monday to Friday role, with paid overtime, in the ‘business’ part of London that was glamorous in ways that hotels weren’t. But nothing changed, I was still employing all my hospitality traits to my new corporate life – listening to customers, having challenging conversations, figuring things out on the spot, clear communication to all stakeholders. When I returned to Sydney, I knew I wanted to stay in the corporate space. I found a corporate reception role and from there just took up new and exciting roles which finally led me to a Workplace position. The opportunity at TFA was one that took me by surprise, I think I thought it would be at a dealership! But it has turned out to be the most amazing journey of learning, project madness and fun. 

What are the most important skills that you have needed to build across your career to get to where you are now?

So many soft skills come into play here – and we don’t recognise them enough nor do people use them enough. Especially in the corporate space. Listening, and I mean really listening is key to good communication overall. You can’t claim to be a good communicator if you don’t listen, and in corporate, everything is due yesterday and listening with intent is the crux of understanding. 

Empathy is also so important, especially when leading teams. The two combined can really tell you a lot about someone and how they are professionally and personally. I want to be able to walk away from my job on the daily and know that my team knew that I listened and actively showcased care and respect towards them to allow them to be the best they can be in their role, and to promote them for all their hard work and dedication. 

Technically, I have learnt a lot on the job. ‘Facilities’ is a fascinating space, and I wish I did more science in high school! It would have helped now…but here we are. Each day I learn more about the technical elements that apply to this role and any facilities-based function out there. In a previous role I had a great manager that was very technically sound, and he taught me a lot about the facilities nature of the role.  From there I listened to the questions he asked contractors and learnt to understand their ‘lingo, asked lots of questions and developed sound understanding across multiple areas. 

Currently I’ve really had to up my learning in the EV charging space, and it has been fun to learn about electrical distribution boards, sub boards, load management, unit speeds and all things related in this space and then impart new found learnings to my management team. Whilst I don’t have all the answers I know where I can find them and love to learn about new solutions to our teams’ needs across Australia.

You led the transformation of Toyota Finance Australia's Sydney headquarters — and the results are remarkable. Voluntary office attendance has soared, Tuesdays and Thursdays now hit full capacity, and Mondays have gone from 80 people to over 180. What did that project actually involve, and what are you most proud of?

Our Head Office relocation project was truly a great time to lead in my role. Overall we had your standard project team; a project manager, change manager, business owner and various other business partners engaged, so that all facets of the business had a voice in the change. Through this we all had a deep respect and acknowledgement for what each person brought to the team and the project. We all had a job to do, while still going about our daily BAU, yet  we came together with passion to see a new workplace truly transform our ways of working as individuals and as teams. 

Our Project Manager was outstanding, she led with purpose, passion and the pursuit of making all our people, from the top down, feel engaged as we embarked on this change. We discovered early on that by setting boundaries as to our roles in the project we achieved great things together, and today, nearly 2 years on that respect still carries over in our regular interactions.  

The final product of our project has led to a bright and modern workplace where we know people actively want to come in and do their best work. I worked hard on lessons learnt from previous project builds and the functionality of the space and making sure we integrated a truly practical and sustainable approach into the build. 

We were fortunate enough to have a barista service built into our workspace that offers subsidised coffees to staff and visitors and creating that point of difference in the office – coupled with awesome views of Sydney Harbour. We’ve seen a huge increase to our staff attendance with Tuesdays and Thursdays bursting with teams, and our Mondays and Wednesdays are equally sharing great results. 

What also adds value to the office attendance being so high across the week is our activation of the space. We created spaces that have a multifunctional purpose and with that we’ve seen some great use of the office. We have had some social events that really bring the workplace to life – Animal Welfare League, KidsCo vacation care programs, Social Club trivia nights, various staff functions, Melbourne Cup, Biggest Morning Tea gatherings, Sydney Street Choir performances and internal forums hosting up to 250 people onsite in one space – it really is such a fun and diverse mix going on.

You have also managed the office fitouts for Toyota Finance across multiple states. What were some of the learnings from this?

When I first joined TFA in 2022 I was thrust into a relocation project for our Melbourne based Sales and Fleet teams, then it was a project to relocate our Brisbane colleagues into a new space with a new fitout and now I’m starting up a project to move our Perth team into a new home and a new fitout after over 20 years in one place. 

I’ve seen a lot of change for so many teams and learnt so much about communication, design, implementation, process, technology and people. We employed good vendors and suppliers to guide us on our journey and their teachings has aided my project management growth immensely. We needed to all trust one another as we each had a role to play in creating these spaces and transforming the way people work. 

Workplace management is a field that often sits in the background — seen as operational rather than strategic. What do you wish people understood better about what it actually takes, and what it actually delivers?

The strategic element we have in the Workplace space is the management of our portfolio – and for anyone in facilities management it is to how best make that portfolio work smarter and not harder. When I first joined TFA we had our sites and vendors and confusion of roles and requirements. My team has since grown, I’ve redefined roles so everyone has a clear purpose and expectations on the management of our sites andthe budgets assigned to those sites. Our sites now feel more involved as they have a main point of contact for all things relating to their office, team and building. We’ve streamlined vendors, creating national contracts to make the relationships easier and cleaner. And then we have the management of leases, start and end dates, option terms, capital works requirements and any relocation scoping as required. 

It takes a lot to make our spaces just simply hum in the background. We are unfortunately in a position of being reactive majority of the time, but we have set ourselves up for success with lots of streamlining and a proactive approach to management where we can. 

What is one thing organisations could do right now to genuinely improve the experience of women who work for them? 

Just be true to equity – in salary, in the boardroom or balancing headcount. Women have proved to bring so much to the table professionally and personally. We’re creative, strong, fiercely protective, passionate, educated, intelligent, masters of time management, and we deserve all the opportunities of men. 

Is balance actually achievable, or is it a bit of a myth? What tools or habits do you rely on?

It is a bit of a unicorn this thing called balance! I try to strike the right balance in life and sometimes I get it right and other times I give up. As a female, mum, sister, friend and a cog in the corporate wheel, it can get very tiring trying to find this balance. I want to achieve much professionally but also be present for my daughter, and be the best representative of ‘balance’ I can. It is  likely to remain a talking point in many years to come as she navigates being a professional and possible parent in her life. And at the end of a lot of days, I proudly walk away knowing I have done the absolute best I can to make things happen in so many facets of my life.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received — and who gave it to you?

So simplistic in nature, but the best piece of advice was ‘always ask ‘why’?’ It keeps you learning and allows you to build more on the topic at hand. For many years, I just accepted things as they were and I feared the ‘why’ (classic old school parenting and grandparenting!), and the more I asked ‘why’, the clearer it all became. I do need to remind myself to do it more because it isn’t an instinct for me to question, howeverI am engraining this approach more into my daughter so that she doesn’t fear asking for more in her life.