Too many employers have not yet realised the full benefits of properly designed part-time jobs in addressing resourcing needs

Karen Mattison co-founder of specialist recruitment agency Women Like Us, argues that a more imaginative approach by employers to part-time working could kick start a revolution in the way we recruit, employ and grow our workforce.

Giving businesses tools for growth: why Women Like Us is about to pilot a free call number in London, offering employers advice on how to design part-time jobs

Did you know that more than a quarter of the UK’s working population (6.6 million people), now work less than full time hours?

The 2008 recession fuelled a well documented increase in part time employment. Until then, offering part time hours for a new vacancy requiring a mid-senior level skill set, was almost always down to default on the employer’s part, caused by the inability to fill a role full-time.

And then: the downturn. Suddenly, offering part time hours, this ‘only when necessary’ recruitment tool, became something else entirely: a way to keep growing and ‘ride’ out the period of economic decline. It required looking at the role in hand and assessing the outputs needed, and working backwards from there, to decide what hours could be offered.

One such employer was commercial real estate company, Colliers International. Martin Lubieniecki, chief operating officer of the firm’s EMEA’s region, is based in London’s West End. Martin searched for a candidate to fill an accounting role. On assessing the capacity necessary to do the job, he found that the role could be done on a part time basis, requiring around 15 hours per week with flexibility on timing.

Martin explains, “I was always open to part time working, my priority was to make sure I got value for money so there would have been no point simply making this role full time purely out of convention. The main concern was finding the right candidate to work part time. The role had responsibility for the accounting for two companies, and for the employee to work only fifteen hours meant they had to be autonomous as well as highly experienced.”
“The next natural step would have been to go down the traditional accounting recruitment service route, but it didn’t feel right for this role; I worried how many candidates they would have on their books looking for part time hours, plus I wanted to ensure I was able to find a quality individual who could grow with the company. By accessing a pool of part time candidates only we were able to find the right candidate with the right kind of experience we required.”

Martin’s rationale underpins the key driver that has led many employers to consider recruiting part time staff, where they usually would not: the access to candidates with years of experience.
Hundreds of thousands of candidates in the UK are seeking part time over full time hours, and we are only just starting to realise the size and scale of the market. Most are parents, looking to fit work with family, others include professionals who want portfolio careers, mature students looking to balance work with study and even retirees, who want to continue working later in life.

Yet, whilst the candidate market is growing, and many employers say they have thought or are thinking about hiring part time staff, many become ‘unstuck’ at the point of designing the role.
Women Like Us estimates that 65 per cent of the employers who call to use its recruitment service, need help when it comes to designing a part role. The most common questions include: “are part time employees entitled to all the bank holidays?”, “what guidelines should I set for working from home?” and “is there more than one way to calculate a pro rata salary”?

For this reason, Women Like us, a specialist recruitment agency, is piloting a free-phone helpdesk in London and its surrounding counties, for any employers who have questions around creating a new part time role. The development of the helpdesk has been supported by the CIPD and we hope to accelerate the growth of the part time market, enabling the people who want part time work to be matched with the businesses that need them.

Part time recruitment can help forward thinking employers to avoid recruitment freezes and to access a pool of talent rich in experience and skill. This, and job shares and job splits too, give employers more choice – i.e. the option to acquire a mix of skills and talent that would be impossible to find in one person alone.

Designing part time roles is no more complicated than designing full time ones, it simply takes a step outside the box of nine to five, five days a week, to embrace something that could kick start a revolution in the way we recruit, employ and grow our workforce. If you are an employer and want some advice on how to structure, recruit and manage part time roles, don’t hesitate to give us a call.

The freephone Flexible Job Design helpdesk number is 0800 781 1604.
  Lines will open from 10.00am on Monday 23 January 2012.

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