Working Families welcomes government proposals on more family-shaped jobs

Posted on November 2, 2009
Filed Under Children Parenting, Employment Work, England, Government, Opinion Comment, Wales | Comments Off

Working Families welcomes the proposal from Yvette Cooper in last week’s Observer newspaper that employers may be asked to make more jobs available part-time; and the suggestion that Ministers are considering extending flexible working legislation to cover future employers as well as current ones. Chief Executive Sarah Jackson says:

“It is great that the government is recognising the value that families put on time together, which often constrains the kind of jobs which parents can take on. Most parents who are job-seeking, are looking for part-time work. But there are far fewer part-time jobs available than there are part-time job-seekers. So new ideas to help employers fill their vacancies by creating more family-shaped jobs will help everybody.

“Most jobs are advertised full-time, but we found1 when we tried phoning round that many employers are very willing to consider part-time or job-share applications. If those same jobs were advertised as suitable for flexible working, it could open up a much wider pool of candidates. It’s a real waste of time and talent, to restrict a post to full-time jobseekers only. If employers who advertise via jobcentres can be helped to rethink how jobs are designed, ultimately this will be a real win-win-win, for employers, parents and the economy as a whole.

“The best employers already discuss preferred working hours with job applicants at the time of interview. We’d encourage every employer to do this. It is not just that it saves time and effort later, if a full-time post turns out not to fit with family needs and a formal flexible working request has to be put forward. Being willing to talk about hours right from the start opens up more jobs to parents who might not apply if they think the job is full-time or nothing. This not only gains the employer an application from someone they would otherwise have missed out on but also, as research2 has shown, brings the benefit of a new employee who is likely to be highly motivated and committed to the job.”

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Working Families is the UK’s leading work-life balance organisation. The charity supports and gives a voice to working parents and carers, whilst also helping employers create workplaces which encourage work-life balance for everyone

The freephone legal helpline is on 0800 013 0313.

1 “We need to talk about hours. Job Advertising in the Civil Service”, published April 2009 by Working Families, researched the availability of part-time jobs in the Civil Service. The report analyses how jobs in the sector are advertised and details what part-time opportunities were available during the research timeframe.
2 “Flexible working and performance” report published by Working Families and Cranfield School of Management, April 2008, detailed the findings of a two year research programme into the impact of flexible working on employee performance.

Copies of both reports are available from the Working Families press office.

Note on part-time work

Part-time work plays a significant part in the lifetime pattern of employment for women (42% of women in employment work part-time). However, the lack of good quality part-time work is a real barrier to many women working to their potential. Opportunities to seek employment or a more responsible job is so much more limited because, as people tell the advisors on the Working Families helpline, far fewer jobs are open to part-time hours. The Right to Request flexible working, including working part-time hours, only comes into effect when someone has worked for an employer for six months

Website: http://www.workingfamilies.org.uk

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