‘Own it’: Henkel’s Nikki Vadera on why working mums are a ‘competitive advantage’

Henkel consumer brands marketing and digital director, Nikki Vadera, is on a mission to reframe and reclaim what it means to be a mother and a senior leader.

“I was fed up of seeing the quote that said: ‘We expect women to work like they don’t have children and mother like they don’t work,” she explains.

“I’m like no, I’m not going to do that. I’m not going work as if I don’t have children. I have children. It’s part of who I am.”

The Henkel marketing boss rejects any negative connotations associated with employing parents, arguing working mothers are a “competitive advantage” for any business and boast a host of transferrable skills, from organisational prowess to efficiency and agility.

“The way I flipped it was, having a mum on your team is probably one of the best things you can have. It’s someone who knows how to multitask. It’s someone who knows how to stay calm in stressful situations. The transferable skills of a mum to the workplace are phenomenal,” Vadera argues.

“I see it as a competitive advantage that I’m a mum and if people see it differently, then that’s their call.”

When I came in from my son’s nursery concert, I didn’t slip into the meeting. I didn’t say ‘Sorry I’m late’, because I’m not sorry I was late. I planned it.

Nikki Vadera, Henkel

Rooted in a belief in the importance of being “unapologetically” yourself, Vadera has reframed her thinking to prioritise being a mum and if that doesn’t sit well with someone else that’s “their issue”.

“I’m replaceable at work. I’m not replaceable at home and that’s my mindset. That’s the shift. I’m not replaceable at home. Anything happens to me, my kids don’t have the mummy that they need,” says Vadera.

“Anything happens to me at work, it might be a bit of a sad, regretted loss – I’m good at my job, but you’re going to get someone else through the door tomorrow. That’s how I’ve reframed it and I’ve reframed it quite openly with the business.”

This openness involves being clear about her condensed working pattern, blocking out time in her diary for important events such as nursery concerts and sports days, and fully exercising her right to flexibility as she did prior to having children.

“I probably am more conscious than anyone not to let the quality of my work slip, because I do want to prove you can employ a mother and she’s going to be amazing at her job,” she explains.

“Probably better than your hardest worker, because of her ethos. She has to get it done in those hours. She doesn’t have the flex outside that.”

It helps that Vadera has built trust and respect during her more than seven years at Henkel, while the company culture promotes flexible working. She has cultivated a team ethos that values flexibility. Her team has set core hours and beyond those are encouraged to work in a way that best suits them.

‘Overwhelmed and undervalued’: Half of marketers grappling with ‘emotional exhaustion’

Of course, as a leader, it can be difficult to always “live and breathe” that mantra in your daily life. Delivering to a high standard and appearing like Superwoman outwardly, working excessive hours took a toll on her mental health. Vadera was signed off with burnout as a preventative measure at the end of last year.

She is by no means alone. Marketing Week’s 2025 Career & Salary Survey uncovered an unfolding burnout crisis within marketing.

Most of the more than 3,500 respondents have felt overwhelmed (58.1%) and undervalued (56.1%) over the past 12 months. Half of the sample (50.8%) have experienced emotional exhaustion, while well over two-fifths have felt a lack of enjoyment in work that used to engage them (48.2%), had a detached/negative attitude (47.6%), and felt a sense of ineffectiveness (40.3%).

Vadera describes the realisation she was heading towards burnout as “the biggest flick of the light switch ever”. She is a firm believer in treating burnout with the same seriousness as you would a visible physical injury, describing it as essentially the brain and body shutting down.

“Your duty to yourself is prevention and making sure you don’t get to that point where you’re trying to do everything and be everything to everyone,” Vadera explains.

Her decision to talk openly about taking time off had a big impact on colleagues throughout Henkel. Vadera received messages from people across the business thanking her for having the courage to speak out, an experience which has informed her approach as a working mum.

“You forget people are positively watching you and how you conduct yourself. So even when I came in from my son’s nursery concert, I didn’t slip into the meeting. I didn’t say ‘Sorry I’m late’, because I’m not sorry I was late. I planned it, it was in my diary. We’re human beings outside these four walls and part of success in business is relationship building, and understanding each other,” Vadera explains.

“Relationship building also means knowing people’s personal circumstances, so that you can get the best out of them. If a business wants to be profitable, it comes from motivated people. It’s all about high-performing teams. How do you keep your team motivated? You give them a setup that works for both you and the business. That’s irrespective of being a parent.”

Owning it

When it comes to her approach to leadership, Vadera wants to remove any taboos about being a working parent.

She feels frustrated when parents feel any shame in asking for flexible working, nor does she believe flexibility should be incompatible with seniority. Pointing out everyone has the right to request flexible working, Vadera works condensed hours, meaning a longer Tuesday and Wednesday, and every other Friday off.

“It is my right to request flexible working. There are eight reasons why a business can decline those flexible working requests. [Tell the business] ‘I don’t believe any of those criteria are applicable to me. Business, please come back to me within your three-month allocated time slot’ and make it clear that they have to have a reason to reject your flexible working request,” she advises.

“It’s owed to you, unless they can find a reason to reject it. That’s a total flip on: ‘Please can I work flexibly?’”

I was fed up of seeing the quote that said: ‘We expect women to work like they don’t have children and mother like they don’t work. I’m like no, I’m not going to do that.

Nikki Vadera, Henkel

Obviously, these aren’t always easy conversations to have. While she acknowledges everyone has a different set of circumstances to deal with, Vadera believes the more parents talk about the fact they’re making flexible working a success, the better. Having those role models counters the prevailing mentality within some businesses that the more hours you put in, the better you are at your job.

“That was a big mindset shift for me, because I was putting in extra hours working like 8pm till 11pm every night last year. That’s when I thought, hold on, is my team resource set up correctly? I’m a very efficient person, so if I’m working outside of nine to five, either my workload is too much, the deadlines need pushing back or I need to make sure my teams are set up in the right way,” she explains.

“We need to stop the equation that long hours, plus visibility in the office, equals success. No. We need to stop that, because actually it’s working a nine-to-five, working flexibly, which motivates people. That equals success.”

Change has to start somewhere and while it will take time, Vadera believes the current generation of leaders is at the forefront. She notes, for example, the women rejecting the trappings of middle management and resetting their priorities.

“There’s a movement of women who are saying there could be a glass ceiling, but there’s also a movement of women who say ‘Actually, I don’t know if I want it’, which is different,” says Vadera.

“There’s the wanting it and being blocked by a business versus: ‘Do you know what? I don’t want to go further now. I’ve reached a point where I don’t want to take more stress. I want to focus on my family and I want to be very good at my job, work my nine-to-five, deliver for the business, but I don’t want to do more than that.’”

‘Be loud’: Why are marketing mums being locked out of progression?

She is seeing this mentality among Gen Z colleagues, where the notion of senior corporate roles and management in general isn’t as appealing as it was to previous generations. This cohort, Vadera observes, is comfortable setting the terms of their working life and sees flexible working as “an absolute given”, not a perk.

“That’s quite jarring for global corporations when someone asks you in an interview: ‘It says in my contract I need to come in three days a week, but I’m probably going to come in one day a week.’ You can see the eyebrows raise, but this is not just one or two people saying these things. This is a whole new generation who are saying: ‘These are the terms I’m willing to work on,’” she explains.

Ultimately, whether it’s flexible working or career progression, Vadera urges businesses to stop framing these issues in relation to motherhood. As she points out, flexible working is a right for everyone and it just happens to be parents who take advantage of it.

We need to remove the “cloud” around being a working parent, she insists, and rewrite the narrative to demonstrate why mums and dads are often the best workers you can employ. This shift starts with the individual.

“Own it. Own being a mum,” says Vadera. “It’s amazing, look what you’ve done. You’ve brought a child into this world. Delivering a product launch. I don’t know, I think that’s a bit easier.”