The world of flexible working has evolved over the last two years as the ‘work from home’ mandate demonstrated how productive remote working could be. With more and more people seeking flexibility foremost over salary for a better work life balance, employers and government are taking notice! But with only 27% of jobs being advertised as ‘open to flexibility’ and 84%+ people seeking flexibility (according to Timewise research), how can you ensure you get the flexibility you need as you return to work?

Nikki Slowey, Co-Founder of Flexibility Works had some great tips for members of our Women Returners Professional Network in a webinar we co-hosted.

While employers may not have explicitly stated that a new role is open to flexibility, they may well be happy to consider it for the right candidate. This is even more likely at the moment, as vacancies are at their highest level since 2001.

The three pillars of flexibility

When considering flexibility, Nikki advised that you think about what flexibility you need. What are the responsibilities you have that you need to consider as you return to work? Taking this into account, the three areas to reflect on are:

Where you want to work – at home, in the office, at the client site, in a shared work space

When you want to work – 9-5, core hours but flex to start or finish early/late, compressed hours, term time

How much you want to work – full time, part time, annualised hours

Within this, Nikki advises that it’s important to think about both your non-negotiables and your negotiables. For example your non-negotiable may be that you want to work part time, but your negotiable may be that you’re happy to flex the days you work according to your employer’s needs. Given that flexible working needs to work for both the employee and employer, a level of flexibility on your part is highly recommended.

When to ask about flexibility?

While the statutory right for all employees to request flexibility kicks in after 26 continuous weeks in employment (Children and Families Act 2014), many of you will be looking for flexibility from Day 1.  There are a few options here and it’s very much a personal choice as to what you feel most comfortable with.

One option is to proactively and confidently raise it at interview, but not at the start. Wait until the interview’s been going well and you’ve had the opportunity to demonstrate your fantastic skills and experience and fit for the role. You could refer to previous examples of when you’ve worked flexibly, and how successful this was, to prove how this could work.

You may prefer to wait until you’ve received a job offer and then to negotiate flexibility, in the same way that you’d negotiate other terms such a salary, at the point at which you have maximum negotiating power!

Either way, being clear about balancing your needs with your employer’s needs is the way forward. Make sure that what you’re requesting can work with the demands of the job.

A win-win

Flexible working is definitely here to stay. More and more employers are citing evidence of the real business benefits of flexible working, such as increased employee engagement, retention, loyalty and productivity as well as increased employee wellbeing and reduced absence. There has never been a better time to think about what flex you need and to confidently and proactively discuss it with your (future) employer.

Our Senior Coach Kate Mansfield, spoke to Louise Deverell-Smith, founder of Daisy Chain about the subject.

One question I’m often asked is whether it is really possible to work in a senior role in anything other than a full-time capacity. It’s definitely the case that increasing number of both men and women are negotiating part-time roles in more senior jobs (see Timewise’s Power Part Time List for some great examples), however it remains very difficult to be hired on this basis.

Job-share is an interesting alternative, which can give the organisation the full-time coverage they often want for a senior role, while allowing you and your job-share partner to benefit from a part-time working model.

Can job-share work in a senior role?

Much as I love the concept of job-sharing, I haven’t come across many case studies of job-sharing at a top leadership level, so I was very encouraged this week to read a Womanthology interview with Mary Starks, the Director of Competition at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA): Why Job Sharing is a Two-Brainer. Mary started her career as an economist and has worked part-time since 2005, joining the FCA as a job-share in 2013. She is enthusiastic about the benefits both to the organisation and the individual if you can make it work:

“if an organisation can get the right job-share partnership in place, it gets two brains, two sets of accumulated experience, and the more productive halves of two people’s weeks for the price of one. It’s also a very enjoyable way to work, particularly as a senior leader – you share the highs and the lows and avoid the “loneliness of leadership”.

Job-sharing and returner programmes

Mary acknowledges the challenge of finding “the right combination of people at the right time”. It strikes me that a returner programme cohort or a return to work support group could provide the ideal opportunity to meet another high-calibre professional with similar and complementary skills, at that precise moment when you are both looking for a permanent role on a part-time basis. It hasn’t happened yet, so far as I know but, as the market develops, I hope to see job-shares as one of the successful outcomes of professional return-to-work programmes.

Further Reading
Sharing is Caring: Job sharing as a supportive way to return to work

Note: If you’re inspired by reading about the culture at the FCA, and have a background in commercial/regulatory finance or accounting, look at this supported hiring role where the FCA are welcoming applications from career break returners and part-time work is available: FCA Finance Specialist

Update 2/2/17: Just after I wrote this blog Timewise published their latest Power Part-Time list which featured 9 job-shares – 2 in the private sector at The Guardian and Lloyds Banking Group and 7 in the public sector at Age UK, the Green Party, the Home Office, Croydon council, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Ministry of Defence and the Scottish government. See more here.

Posted by Julianne

1) Think beyond part-time

2) Start searching for jobs that interest you

3) Lead with what you can offer

4) Raise flexibility later on

The big question: At what point do you ask about flexibility if it’s not included in the job advert? Try not to ask during the interview, but after you’ve been given the offer, or maybe in the final round of a stage-based process. If flexibility has been mentioned in the job advert, it’s fine to raise beforehand.

5) Negotiate flexibility realistically
Some jobs aren’t suited to flexibility but the majority will have some element of adaptability. Prepare a business case as to how you can make flexible arrangements work. Flexibility is a two way process and it is worth considering what are your sticking points and where you can compromise. The employer needs to feel comfortable with the arrangement too.

• If you’re looking for home-working, identify tasks that can be done away from the office and consider any cost savings for the business of remote working
• If you want to work fewer hours/days and the job was advertised as full-time, make sure it’s realistic to do part-time or you’ll end up doing a full-time role for less pay. If your past experience was at a more senior level, you might be able to make a case that you can do the role in fewer hours.

If you’re applying directly for a permanent role and are sensing that the hiring manager is seeing your request for flexibility as an insurmountable barrier, suggest a trial period. Once you can prove that the arrangement works, it will be easier to make it permanent.

Posted by Donna

• Reduces Stress

Although progressive
employers understand that mentoring support is a key requirement to retain and
develop parents as they return to work, it can still be rare. The
great thing about job sharing is that successful partnerships self-mentor as part of setting up and
maintaining the jobshare. Ruth, who switched from part-time work to job sharing in order to progress to a more
senior level as Director of Strategy, said “I feel less stressed as a job sharer,
because there’s a proper release valve. In other roles you might vent to your
partner or husband at the end of the day, but they’re not in it, so with my job
share partner we can really vent to each other and share the challenges, which
means it’s not all in your head, and I find that to be really valuable.”

• Increases Confidence

• Improves
  Focus

This week I contributed to a Guardian online live webchat Q&A on improving your work-life balance. It struck me that the vast majority of the questions people posted were on job flexibility: how to find it, how to ask for it and how to make it work once you have it.

A flexible interesting job can seem like the Holy Grail if you’re a working mother, enabling you to find time for both work and family with the stability of an employed role and without running yourself into the ground. Unsurprisingly, questions about how to work flexibly feature regularly in the conversations I have with women returning after a career break.

I’ve found that many women get off on the wrong track. They translate a desire for flexible work into a rigid quest for a part-time job, 3 or 4 days per week. Yet if you just look at online part-time job ads, you’re likely to get disillusioned very quickly. Of the 10,000+ ‘family-friendly’ jobs advertised on Mumsnet today there are only 37 in the part-time category, 12 of which have a >£30k salary. Timewise are doing their best to change this, but the numbers of higher-level part-time roles on their job board are still limited.

This doesn’t mean that flexibility doesn’t exist at a more senior level, even in large corporates. In my conversations with organisations, I hear an increasing openness to flexible working and a recognition that many (if not most) of their more senior employees do work flexibility in some shape or form. But flexible rarely translates into 3 days part-time. In most cases, it’s more about full-time hours, but with flexibility about where & when you do them.

Don’t rule this out – considering flexible full-time jobs as an option will greatly increase the range of positions available to you, and many women have found the work-life balance they want in these type of roles.

Types of Flexibility

Here are some of the most common options; think whether any (alone or in combination) could create an attractive working pattern for you:

Flexitime
Typically this means that you choose when you start and end work. This can fit well with parents of school-age children wanting to make the school pick-up. One returning banker negotiated an 8.30-3.30 schedule for a senior wealth management role, where part-time work was seen as out of the question.

Working from home (remote working)
Increasing numbers of professional roles don’t involve being in the office all the time, reducing commute time & meaning mothers no longer have to miss important school events. Kate, a lawyer and mum of four featured in our success stories, found a role with a public regulator which was mainly home-based. Even within large corporates, you may now be able to work from home on a regular basis (e.g. every Wednesday), or to find a company culture where the team works from home on an ad-hoc basis whenever this suits the individual and the business.

Compressed hours
You work your weekly hours by starting early and finishing late on 4 days to create one day off. This is more likely to suit you if you don’t have young children, maybe if you want to continue to have time for voluntary work, hobbies or other activities.

Extended holiday leave
It’s not only in the education sector where you can enjoy extended time off to manage the school holidays. In the web chat the HR Director from Deloitte said that they had introduced Time Out, where employees can request an unpaid block of 4 weeks leave each year. Taking unpaid leave can suit the business too if summer is a quieter period for them. If the lost salary is a problem, look for companies who allow you to accrue leave from overtime to use as ‘time off in lieu’ when you want it.

Finding a flexible role

Finding a flexible job is more about learning about company culture and effective negotiation than combing the online job boards. Timewise research in 2015 reported that only 6.2% of UK roles over £20k salary are advertised as flexible. However they have also found that 91% of managers are willing to discuss flexible working possibilities during the recruitment process. See our previous post for advice on negotiating flexibility.

And if you still see part-time work as the ultimate goal, remember that once you’re in a company it’s much easier to develop all forms of flexible working schedule (helped by the new right to request flexible working legislation). Most of the senior professionals featured in Timewise’s Power Part Time List didn’t start in part-time roles but reduced their hours once they were established and could make the business case for doing so.

See also previous post: How do I find a high level flexible role?

Posted by Julianne

• To what extent could your new job allow time
  and location flexibility?  How will you
  manage the work/non-work interface?
• Will you always need to be in the
  office to carry out every aspect of your role (an increasingly unlikely
  proposition with technology) or can you do some of your work at home?
• What additional support will you
  need to be able to work from home?
• What’s the likely impact on your
  workplace colleagues, your clients and customers?
• How can you minimise the
  disruptions to them and ensure smooth working arrangements?
•  Are you happy to receive calls
  and emails from colleagues outside working hours or do you guard non-work time
  for non-work activities?

Do high level flexible roles actually exist?
This is one of the most common questions that we encounter from former professionals who are investigating their options for returning to work. Fortunately, is it also a topic that more UK employers are starting to address with the help of specialist recruiters such as Capability Jane, Timewise Jobs and Ten2Two. 

For example, last week Capability Jane was advertising a 3 day a week Marketing Director role and a Managing Director role for 16-24 hours per week. Both these opportunities come from SMEs, organisations which often value part-time working because it provides a way of acquiring the skills they need at a lower cost than a full time employee.

Speaking at the Mumsnet Workfest earlier this year, Karen Mattison, the founder of Timewise Jobs, suggested that while many large private-sector organisations are open to offering flexible working as a way of retaining valued talent, SMEs may be more likely to consider flexible working for new hires. 

Timewise Jobs in 2012 initiated the Power Part Time list of 50 senior business women and men, demonstrating that high-level part time working is possible. The 2013 list will be launched in early December, supported by Red magazine.  I hope that these initiatives, combined with the Opportunity Now 2840 survey results will increase the debate on flexible employment opportunities and the creation of more senior flexible roles.

So how do I find a flexible role?
What options does a returner have, apart from signing up to the job websites highlighted above?  


Networking. As with all other job searches, a key component will be networking.  Personal recommendation and validation will get you a lot further in your discussions and negotiations than applying remotely for advertised roles.  If you are nervous or uncomfortable about networking, check our previous posts.

Apply for full-time roles.
You also have the option of applying for full-time positions in the hope that you can negotiate flexible working arrangements once you’ve been offered the role.  You can mitigate the risks of this strategy by learning as much as you can about the organisation’s culture, its openness to flexible working and the existence of other flexible roles.  You will need to build a convincing business case for how you will fulfill all the role requirements in a less than full-time schedule.  

Go self-employed. Often the most flexible way of working is to work for yourself; consider freelancing, associate work, project work and interim roles as well as starting your own business. We’ll be looking at these options in more detail in future posts.

Create your own flexible role. Identify gaps at a previous employer (eg. talent management or business development) that you could propose to fill. Or develop a portfolio of roles, such as non-exec board positions or higher education lecturing. 

Success stories
We will shortly start to publish stories of returners who have successfully found or created flexible roles and will continue to highlight opportunities as we hear about them.  We’d love to hear your own experiences of seeking or gaining flexible work.

For more resources to help you to find a flexible role, see our resources section on www.womenreturners.co.uk.

Posted by Katerina