Learning and Development News

Lack of flexibility bars mums from the workplace, claims report

By Elizabeth Eyre (04-07-2008)
0 Comments Comments
Article Rating:

Poor Best

Email to a friend | Print Version

Learning and Development News - Lack of flexibility bars mums from the workplace, claims report

A lack of flexible jobs is stopping many mums returning to work, according to the second annual survey by www.workingmums.co.uk

The jobsite www.workingmums.co.uk polled more than 1,000 mothers in its second annual survey and found that they were keen to return to work and had an “impressive” range of skills and experience to offer employers, but felt there were few opportunities for them.

Seventy five per cent of the 1,100 women surveyed said they were looking for a new job while 55 per cent said they had got a new job after taking time off to raise children. A lack of appropriate and available flexible jobs was the biggest barrier to returning to work for 73 per cent of women yet flexibility was cited by the vast majority of respondents – 86 per cent – as the working condition they most wanted.

Requests for flexible working had been turned down in the cases of 16 per cent of those surveyed, sometimes after employers had given the requests no consideration. Only 31 per cent got the flexibility they requested; 26 per cent reached a compromise with their managers.

“Working mothers have a wealth of experience gleaned from their other full-time job: being a mother. They tend to have excellent time management skills, are good at prioritising, are able to balance a huge number of different tasks and are great at inter-personal skills such as negotiation and patience. In addition, they are seen as loyal and committed members of staff,” says www.workingmums.co.uk founder Gillian Nissim.

“Finding good employees is a difficult task, coupled with the expense of recruitment. Improving retention rates of working mums can help reduce staff turnover and recruitment costs. Why would any employer want to lose these highly skilled and experienced employees?”

The research also found that the most important factor for those returning to work, after flexible working, was being able to ease back into the workplace by gradually increasing the hours they worked, being given time to settle in, being given clear targets and goals, and keeping in touch with managers and colleagues while on maternity leave.

But, although more than half of the mums surveyed said their employers made enough effort to stay in touch during maternity leave, 22 per cent had had no contact at all and 33 per cent wanted more contact.

Nissim said: “It’s important that colleagues and employers maintain relationships with each other and talk to each other. Both parties want to be kept in the loop. Respondents reported that occasional contact with their teams, access to work emails as well as invitations to social events during their maternity leave all proved beneficial for when it was time to return.”

 

 

Back to top | Latest news

 

Readers Comment

Comment on this story here >

Be the first to comment on this news story