FWDay2018 – What are employers missing when it comes to Flexible Working?

Having worked in Recruitment and Human Resources for over a decade, I’ve always been part of a team that was majority female. The constant exposure to fellow colleagues going on maternity leave wasn’t new to me. And certainly, it wasn’t challenging to the success of the business as far as I was concerned. So, when my colleagues would come back on reduced days or hours, it was something that was normal. Even expected.

Some minor changes with duties needed to be reallocated but nothing that was a major inconvenience. It worked for the business and everyone quickly adapted.

When I first started my coaching business on the side, my manager was fantastic and initiated the conversation around flexible working. They were offering me the option of working part-time so I could spend time setting up my ‘side-hustle’. And although I didn’t take them up on their offer, it did make me feel valued and that I counted for something.

During my time in recruitment, I found it interesting most positions were almost always advertised as ‘full-time’. Now, this is starting to change with employers realising potential employee expectations are changing.

However, it always seemed as if the ‘part-time’ option needed to be suggested rather than expected. The standard reply from many managers would often be “you need to work here a couple of months before we can consider that”. Therefore reinforcing the mentality that you need to prove your worth before you can make demands.

But working flexibly isn’t a demand. It’s part of life.

Generally, employers don’t expect a return to work parent to come back full-time, so why is there an expectation of other employees needing to do their jobs full-time? There should not be one.

Along with parenting, there’s a rise in people working a side business, also known as ‘side-hustle’. There are people who want to pursue their passions, there are people who want time to travel and so on.

There have definitely been changes towards workplace flexibility over the recent years, and it is taking shape thanks to large and small businesses and platforms like FlexCareers. I strongly believe this.

However, there’s still a mentality among many leaders that strongly believe everyone must work the Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm in the office to be effective and productive.

For flexible working to become the norm rather than the exception, the mentality needs to be changed from the top-level down. That’s the only way it will become more widely accepted at a fast rate the world needs.

ABOUT THAI

From humble beginnings as a Factory Worker, overworked and lacking real direction, Thai has now managed to take control of his life’s path and found a career that is the best fit for him. He is now proud to be a successful business owner of Careerists, a Career Coach and public speaker. With 10 years corporate recruitment experience, he has learnt to take the recruitment blueprint and break it down into its core structure. Providing deep insights on how and why you are marked and judged throughout the recruitment process. Explaining how the decision is made to hire an employee from the recruiters perspective.

Having interviewed over 10,000 people in his career and providing operational and strategic recruitment expertise across industries such as Finance, IT, Telecommunications, Government, Utilities, Education and Mining, Thai’s coaching has helped individuals gain employment in corporate companies by providing clarity on career paths as well as arming them with insider-recruitment techniques to succeed.

You can connect with Thai for a FREE 30min chemistry session to discuss your coaching needs here.