As a Marketing recruiter within the Professional Services sector a high proportion of the candidates I work with are working Mums looking for flexibility or part-time opportunities within their area of specialism. On average the proportion of roles that I recruit whereby the client will consider a part-time solution is roughly about 2%. In a candidate scarce market where specialist sector skills are deemed paramount, why is that fewer and fewer clients will consider recruiting a highly skilled professional on a 4 day a week basis as an alternative solution?

As a part-time working Mum myself I can advocate the benefits to an employer of an experienced Professional who works 4 days. With mobile access to emails my output remains the same yet I also have the time and flexibility to spend more time with my child and ultimately maximise my efficiency in office hours.

Employers are missing out on a huge pool of talent by failing to offer flexible working, according to a survey by Working Mums.

The survey of over 600 mothers reveals that whilst the majority put flexibility as their top priority when searching for jobs, an astounding 90% felt it was difficult to find the flexibility they needed and 83% said that is was hard to find flexible work that utilised their skills.

The survey showed that mothers are hungry for work and often have an impressive range of skills and experience to offer employees but feel that there is a distinct lack of opportunities to utilise them.

Over two thirds of those not working said they wanted to work but just didn't see why they should settle for jobs that did not meet their level of experience in order to get the flexibility they wanted. Additionally, over half felt employers were not sympathetic to mothers and 86% believed flexible positions paid less.

The issue is compounded by the fact that over recent years women in full-time jobs are seeing the pay gap with men disappear and that it was no longer unthinkable that career women's pay will overtake that of men. But mothers who go part-time see their working status decline and their pay levels fall, a series of reports said.

One, by Dr Mary Gregory and Dr Sara Connolly, said that women "are moving into an expanding range of occupations, achieving career success in many…. The UK's long-established gender pay gap is narrowing significantly, and a reverse gender pay gap should no longer be unthinkable."

They added that for mothers who switch to part-time work "the pay gap has been widening steadily over a number of years. They now face a substantial pay penalty not only relative to men but also relative to women in full-time work."

Some employers are realising the potential that others are missing out on. Alex Cheatle, managing director of lifestyle management company Ten UK, says he has built his business around flexible workers, many of whom are working mothers based across the UK who he employs working from home.

"For us time management is critical as is the ability to multi-task. Mums are great at managing time as they are used to keeping unmovable deadlines and to doing many things at once. Additionally working from home works for us, it means we can get someone with local knowledge cost effectively and efficiently.

All considered, isn't it time that the UK Business community woke up and tapped into this highly efficient and cost effective resource as a solution to widespread talent shortages?

KEYWORDS:

part time jobs, part time careers, working mums, professional services, recruitment, marketing recruitment, PR recruitment, events recruitment.

Copywright - www.weareadam.com