Recruitment
2017. THE YEAR OF FLEXIBILITY by Emma Cleary, Director , Ten2Two Sussex emma@ten2two.org www.ten2two.org
T
he arrival of a new year is often a time for renewal. It’s a time for planning and making resolutions about how we’ll approach our lives differently. When it comes to the workplace, it can also be a good time to re-evaluate our careers and focus on how we can achieve our goals. So what would you do differently this year? For the 1.5m women in the UK who want to take on more hours than they currently do, this could be the year to do it. However, the issues around getting more women into work continue to be unresolved.
60
We’ve heard that the UK is missing out on up to £170bn worth of economic benefi ts by not having enough women in employment. To match the output of countries like Sweden, more has to be done to create fl exible work for women.
Taking flexible working seriously Until more companies offer roles with parttime or fl exible hours, many working mothers will fi nd it too challenging to increase their output. The lack of affordable childcare is just
one of the challenges facing parents – but it’s still very much a female issue. Around 75% of working women with children are the primary carers, so until the recent shared parental leave legislation matures and workplace attitudes change, this isn’t set to change any time soon. It’s incredibly frustrating but there is a solution, if more employers get on board with fl exible working. Yet just 6% of UK job adverts include fl exibility in their descriptions.