Global Day of Parents

Friday June 1st celebrates the UN recognised global day of parents. So to us, this is a day where we should all give ourselves a huge pat on the back, Mums, Dads, Grandparents, carers - it's a day to realise all that you manage to achieve with your little ones! WELL DONE!

This is especially true following a half term week...we're all parents too at 9-2-3 and we know that each day doesn't always go to plan...you've booked the time off work, but somehow return back feeling more exhausted than when you turned on your out-of-office!

According to the Office for National Statistics, approximately 57% of all working households in the UK are home to at least one dependent child, aged 15 or under, which makes you realise just how challenging taking time off with little ones can become (let's not even think about the summer holiday break...yet)!

With a growing awareness of flexible working, we hope that 9-5, 5 days a week will soon be a thing of the past. Although it still feels a long way off, more and more companies and employers are beginning to see the first-hand benefits that flexible working can bring to the table. As part of the #fortheloveofflex campaign we've been running, it's clear through our video testimonials from placed candidates and businesses, that flexible working can bring an increase in sales, employee happiness and loyalty. 

An article from Human Results showcases some fantastic ways of how companies are implementing this working practice and making it easier to balance work with the never-ending juggle of childcare. Most notably, we have seen brilliant results from some of the large financial companies such as Deloitte and NatWest Markets who are offering returner programmes, all of which offer flexible roles once graduated and heaps of support along the way to ease you back to the workplace.

Shared parental leave has also been a hot topic of conversation - in this article from The Conversation, it highlights that 'Motherhood is the key reason that the gender pay gap exists'  and suggests that flexible working is one way to tackle this through allowing Fathers to spend more time with their children, and in effect allow for 'tag-team' parenting when it comes to balancing work and childcare.

As a mum myself with two small children, taking a career break seemed like the only option for me five years ago. Childcare was too expensive and my role at the time was far too inflexible to ensure that the kids were picked up on time and cared for properly. Now that I'm returning to work, it's so refreshing to see flexible work in action and how companies, large and small are making this possible for parents, instead of losing a huge pool of talent from the workforce.

We're happy to see that things are moving in the right direction. We campaign hard for it and persistently educate the business' we work with to implement this way of thinking for the future - we feel it's working so watch this space.

We currently have lots of lovely flexible roles available - take a look at our jobs page for more details and we'd be more than happy to answer any questions that you may have surrounding any of the roles listed.

#LetsAllFlexTogetherDay Launch!

The hashtag says it all, lets ALL flex together day is a chance for us to celebrate two things;

• The love of flexible working

• And the 1st birthday of the 9-2-3 Club!

So what better way to commemorate the birth of our unique networking Club by bringing people and business together to give flexible working a go, for one day and see the benefits unfold.

By flexible work we mean a few things:

• Flexible hours - so logging on between school drop-offs i.e. 9am-3pm, or even finish off work at home when the kids are in bed

• Remote/ home working

• Part-time hours - for example, 2/3 days a week, of five hours, five times a week

• Something simple like working through your lunch hour so that you can leave an hour earlier

Just recently, the Financial Times shared an article about a firm that had initiated a 5-hour work week, they ditched the 9-5 and said it was ‘life-changing’ for the business with fewer sick days and record levels of new business. It highlighted two brilliant things, that firms are willing to shake things up and give this a go and that flexible working actually can and does work.

So how can you join in?

Celebrate with us ONLINE:

Employees

If flexible working isn’t on the table in your current job then this is the perfect opportunity to ask them to give flex a go, just for one day and let them see how productive you can be - show them the benefits through the articles we’ll be posting and prove that you can get exactly the same work done (or more), whether this is at home or through flexible hours and perhaps this could help reassure them that this is future-proof - fight for it, it makes complete sense.

Employers

We understand that this is a complete break from the normal 9-5, it may send heads into orbit but this is just one day out of the year for your employees to prove to you how this can work for you as a business. Flexible working is known to encourage employee productivity, improve happiness, so we’re asking you to give flex a go on the 12th September, 2018.

What you need to do:

• Lets ALL flex together on the 12th September and shout about it by using our hashtag #LetsAllFlexTogetherDay

• Let us KNOW about it - post your photo’s to our page, wherever you’re working, whatever time you’re working, join in and engage!

• Tag yourselves and your businesses if you’re working flexibly that day.

We want everyone to know just how great flexible working really is!

Come and celebrate with us in person!

As well as joining our online community, you can come and celebrate with us in person at Unipart's HQ in Oxford (more details to come soon).

We’re planning a great day with some great speakers and as well as all flexing together, we’ll be celebrating the 9-2-3 Club’s birthday!

The 9-2-3 Club was launched 12th September 2017 in Westminster (check us out here), we had a fantastic day launching the club with some great attendees and speakers and we plan to do the same this year, looking at how far the Club has come and how it’s grown with the fab networking events we’ve had the chance to deliver.

The Club has given us a great opportunity to meet fantastic people and business’ and the feedback we commonly get from Club attendees is overwhelmingly supportive, that’s why we want to celebrate with as many of you as we can on the 12th September.

We hope to see you there and for those who can’t, we want to see you ONLINE so we can all flex together and celebrate!

Keep an eye our Facebook and Twitter page as we release more details about the upcoming day!

 

#LetsAllFlexTogetherDay

 

My Visit To Denman College with The 9-2-3 Club

By Jenna Doran

On the 22nd January I took my first step back into the networking circle and attended an event at the stunning Denman College, hosted by 9-2-3 Jobs.

I'm lucky enough to be working with Helen and Lucy at 9-2-3 Jobs having started a social media management training course with Digital Mums and as soon as Helen mentioned the event to me, I immediately knew that I wanted to attend.

This was a great opportunity for a mum like me after being out of work for five years, to get back into the swing of things (not just me but my brain too) and use my voice to have an impact on a fab fundraising campaign, instead of disarming my toddler from her usual tantrum!

The nerves had started the night before, would I embarrass myself? Say the wrong thing? Was I ready? What do I wear? However, upon arriving, all of these questions were brushed aside. Helen was the first lady I met that day and work aside, I quickly realised that Helen was a mum too and since setting up in 2015 has realised a wonderful initiative through her job agency, helping parents back into the workplace with flexible working arrangements putting their skills to work for the benefit of businesses and themselves, whilst still being able to do the school run. 

Why is it taking businesses so long to catch on to this? I'll never know... but I hope that there is enough momentum this year (and I do believe there is), for them to sit up and take note.

Denman College is a truly amazing hub of creativity, offering members and non-members of the Women's Institute a haven of activity to explore their own talents and socialise with friends. It just has to be the next venue for GBBO with its stunning grounds and cookery school which we were lucky enough to be given a tour of by Ruba and her team.

It's reassuring, once armed with a (child-free) cup of tea and a room full of other like-minded mums, that you really do have so much in common. All have had some kind of career break for one reason or another and are looking to be creative again with their talents. Most mums were feeling exactly like me on the morning leading up to the event but all now felt relaxed and comfortable as the event unfolded. 

Having sampled some delicious homemade WI shortbread, we sat down to an introduction from Helen, who reinforced the value of attending events such as these. I wholeheartedly agreed - looking around and talking to the women there, it was obvious we had a wonderful room full of talented individuals and not all of it was being put to its best use in the workplace. Having said that, there were women there who ran their own businesses and it was great to hear their stories, their ideas and their passion to help mothers back into the world of work.

After a short presentation from Ruba about the fundraising campaign for Denman College, we quickly got into some work sharing ideas and working together as a team to present back to the room. Yes, the nerves suddenly shot back into my stomach when having to do this, but the realisation that we were all pretty much in the same boat reassured me. 

After leaving Denman, with some great contacts I may add, it became abundantly clear that the day wasn't just about solving some problems and suggesting ideas for a campaign, it was about bringing women together, unleashing that voice and talent that may have been under-used for some time and giving attendees hope for their potential (and flexible) career in the near future.

Helen and Lucy at 9-2-3 Jobs do a marvellous job and should be applauded for thinking outside the box on this and enabling events such as this to happen.

I can't wait for the next one!

Flexible Working - A Future For All

With flexible working set to become the norm over the next few years, a growing number of employers now embrace this concept and accept that addressing the flexible working gap is a path to attaining a more productive working environment for employees and employer alike.

In a survey of Managers by the Institute of Leadership & Management, 82% think offering flexible working is beneficial to their businesses – with improvements in productivity, commitment and retention.

Figures show there are over 427,000 female professionals looking to return to work following a career break. Price Waterhouse Coopers believe that addressing the career break penalty could deliver gains of up to £1.7 billion to the UK economy alone.  (https://www.pwc.co.uk/services/economics-policy/insights/women-returners.html). 

A number of market leaders, including PwC, Vodafone & JP Morgan, have been looking at ways to encourage women back to work after extended career breaks.  The outcome of one of these projects has been to introduce “Returnship” programmes in various forms, providing “an effective route back to professional roles, with transitional support to upskill and regain professional self-belief”.

At least 76% of women not currently working want to return to work at some stage with a large number of these looking for flexible working in the guise of either reduced/compressed hours or the ability to work from home for at least some of the time. (PwC/Women Returners)

Organisations are beginning to look at how to attract these talented candidates to fill their vacant roles and by offering flexible working to these prospective employees, they can create a positive outcome for both parties:

Here at 9-2-3 we specialise in finding flexible jobs for professional people.  Educating our clients in how offering flexible working will provide benefits for their businesses:

·         According to 76% of businesses questioned for a recent CIPD report, Flexible working improves staff retention

·         Higher Productivity (83% businesses reported higher productivity – Vodafone 2016)

·         Increased Profits (61% saw a rise in profits – Vodafone 2016)

·         Fewer Sick days (A recent survey by Unison showed that sickness reduced from 12% to 2% amongst those that worked flexibly. https://www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2014/09/On-line-Catalogue225422.pdf

We find highly skilled candidates for roles, looking at how flexible working can be provided to meet both the client and candidate needs. We are currently developing a 5 point back to work programme of our own for women returning to work after a career break.  Our programme offers participants the opportunity to take 5 different elements of coaching including: technology, career, confidence, mindfulness and presentation, enabling participants to return to workplace, fully prepared and confident in their ability to kickstart their career again.

In September 2017, a survey was carried out on behalf of 9-2-3, which found that 3 in 4 workers believe we will all be working flexibly within 5 years. The survey also showed that flexibility was the most important factor when selecting a job (along with pay and location – and ahead of the benefits package and career prospects). 

The next time you are looking to recruit, think about how you can make the role flexible and engage a whole group of professionals who are waiting to add value to your company.

To coin a phrase - The future is bright, the future is flexible.

9-2-3 RESEARCH: 1,002 male and female office workers in the UK were questioned (Sept 2017):

The end of 9 to 5...

I’ve been to Westminster this week and called for a revolution! I want to see a revolution in the work place, and an end of the 9 to 5.

While launching The 9-2-3 Club at The House of Commons I called on all businesses to advertise their next hire as a flexible one, and called on all candidates to ask about flexible working arrangements in their next interview – not a demand, just a question.

Of course 9-2-3 only works on roles with flexible working arrangements. We believe that flexible working leads to increased productivity, fewer sick days, greater staff retention – and a more motivated and engaged work force. And flexible working needn't mean part-time hours, for some it means working full-time but with compressed hours or home-working. Flexible working is for everyone.

The 9-2-3 Club is all about giving individuals the opportunity to get together and share experiences in an informal setting, and for those who have had a career break, hopefully enable them to gain in confidence before re-entering the workplace. We have more meetings planned in London and the Thames Valley and some really inspirational speakers lined up (keep an eye on www.923jobs.com/networking for all the details).

While at Westminster I also revealed the findings of a new survey commissioned by 9-2-3. It found the British workplace landscape will be changing substantially over the next 5 years as nearly 3 out of 4 (73%) office workers envisage that working flexibly will become the norm.

Flexible working is here to stay. Let’s start taking action to help it here faster!

As anyone who’s spoken to me will know – I’m passionate about flexible working, and I was thrilled with the support The 9-2-3 Club had at its launch. Representatives from businesses – big and small – along with candidates (those who have had career breaks and those who haven’t) plus others, such as Digital Mums, who like me, are campaigning for a more flexible workplace. The launch wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Victoria Prentis MP, who sponsored the event. She said:  “Having job shared before I became a MP, I am really supportive of any initiative that encourages flexibility in the workplace. It is not just mums and dads who have career breaks – increasingly we are seeing people taking on caring responsibilities for elderly relatives as well. Helping these talented professionals to continue to work is so important.”

I was also delighted that Margot James MP (Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Corporate Responsibility) came along and spoke passionately about the benefits of flexible working – for both employees, employers and society as a whole.

It’s funny to think that all this started a few years ago, while I was pushing my children on the swings at my local playground. I had been struggling to find any flexible or part-time work, and I looked around and saw I wasn’t alone. The playground was full of talented and experienced professionals all looking for flexible opportunities. And at the same time I realized there were lots of businesses out there struggling to find the talent they needed to help their business thrive and grow.

9-2-3 now has more than a thousand candidates on their books, and we look forward to welcoming many more. Companies of all sizes are also being invited to take part in The 9-2-3 Club, and join in the revolution!

Be Bold For Change!

This International Women’s Day, we are being asked to help forge a better working world, and #BeBoldForChange.

I’m definitely in!

I founded the recruitment agency “9-2-3” to try and do just that. I want to help enable and empower women in the workplace. Every day I ask businesses to consider flexible work practices. Every day I speak to talented women who feel their experience and expertise is being wasted because there are so few flexible opportunities.

I look around my local playground and see HR professionals, PR execs, marketing gurus, lawyers and accountants – none are working, because they can’t find roles that enable them to spend some time with their family (or at least pay them enough to cover full-time childcare costs!).

So this International Women’s Day I will be working even harder to try and create new flexible opportunities.

I am also looking forward to launching a Career Development Network that will enable women to connect with one another, and be inspired by other women who might be able to help further their ambitions – whether they are women on boards of big businesses, women who are successfully running their own business or women working for progressive companies looking to recruit flexible talent.

I truly believe in flexible working. All the research shows that flexible working leads to increased productivity, fewer sick days and greater staff retention. So this International Women’s Day, I am calling on businesses to Be Bold for Change and embrace flexible working!

07789270183 / HELEN@923JOBS.COM / www.923jobs.com