Search Results for: maternity leave

October 2, 2018

Flexible and part-time workers outperform full-time colleagues

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News

A new report from the charity Working Families assessing the flexible, agile, and family-friendly working policy of its employer members claims that flexible and part-time workers appear to outperform their full time colleagues. The 2018 Top Employers for Working Families Benchmark report captures the experience of 630,000 employees across some of the UK’s leading public, private, and third sector organisations. The report was launched to mark the National Work-life Week, Working Families’ annual campaign to encourage employers and employees to talk about wellbeing at work and work-life balance.

September 13, 2018

Over half of men want to be more involved in childcare, major new report claims

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News

More than half of men who have children or other caring responsibilities want to be more involved in childcare, a new study commissioned by Business in the Community, in partnership with Santander UK, has found. The Equal Lives research asked 10,225 UK parents for their views on work and care, and found that traditional gender roles in caring are seen as increasingly outdated, with 85 percent of men believing that they should be as involved as women in caring for their children.

July 19, 2018

Firms are reluctant to hire women if they suspect they plan to have children in the near future

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Nearly one in three UK bosses admit they have or would reject a female job applicant and might be generally reluctant to hire women if they suspect they ‘might start a family soon’. Although this form of employment discrimination is unlawful, 15 percent anonymously admitted that they had broken sex discrimination laws. The new research of 501 bosses, carried out by law firm Slater and Gordon, also revealed that one in four bosses has rejected or would reject a woman, simply because she was a single parent. A further 29 percent said they have discounted or would discount a woman for a job role because she had young children and 28 percent said they have or would because she was recently engaged or married.

February 19, 2018

Employers in the dark ages over recruitment of pregnant women and new mothers, report claims

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Workplace

British employers are ‘living in the dark ages’ and have worrying attitudes when it comes to recruiting women, according to a new report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Claiming that many businesses’ attitudes are decades behind the law, the survey of 1,106 senior decision makers in business found around a third (36 percent) of private sector employers agree that it is reasonable to ask women about their plans to have children in the future during recruitment. The new statistics also reveal six in 10 employers (59 percent) agree that a woman should have to disclose whether she is pregnant during the recruitment process, and almost half (46 percent) of employers agree it is reasonable to ask women if they have young children during the recruitment process.

December 13, 2017

Returnship programmes offer parents route back into work, yet only 4 percent of employers offer them

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Workplace

A totaljobs study of 2,600 jobseekers and nearly 100 employers claims that while a ‘returnship’ initiative can offer a valuable route back into the workforce for anyone taking a break in their career, their success is hindered by a lack of awareness, rather than a lack of interest. The study found that 85 percent of employers are not aware of returnship programmes despite the fact that two thirds of recruiters believe they would offer returnships if they were incentivised by the government and 72 percent of employees would consider a returnship programme if they’d taken a break from the workforce.

October 3, 2017

Discrimination rife in the recruitment process and pregnant women face greatest stigma

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Workplace

Three-quarters (74 percent) of HR managers have witnessed discrimination in the recruitment process – with a quarter (24.5 percent) calling it a regular practice; and less than a third of HR managers (32 percent) can confidently say they are unprejudiced themselves during the recruitment process. According to research from digital recruitment platform SomeoneWho, almost half (48 percent) admit bias impacts their candidate choice, while a further fifth (20 percent) said they couldn’t be sure. The research also found that female candidates face a number of stigmas when looking for work. One in 10 recruiters said they would avoid a female applying for a male dominated role. A further one in 10 said they’d be reluctant to recruit a recently married candidate, as they were more likely to go on maternity leave soon. Shockingly, a fifth of HR managers said they would overlook a pregnant candidate. One in 10 HR managers would be reluctant to hire someone with a thick accent. A further 10 percent said they’d be less likely to select candidates who attended a state school.

July 28, 2017

Men and women report similar work life balance problems

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing

Contrary to commonly held perceptions and media narratives, women and men report similar levels of work-family conflicts, both in the form of work interfering with family and family interfering with work, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. The study found men are less likely to complain about or address the issue however. Researchers spent several years examining the findings from more than 350 studies conducted over three decades that included more than 250,000 participants from across the world. The results were surprising, said lead researcher Kristen Shockley, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Georgia. The research was published online in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

April 12, 2017

Research shows how the gender pay gap can be directly related to motherhood ⁰

by Sara Bean • Comment, Flexible working, News, Workplace

A new piece of academic research provides more evidence that the underlying reason for the gender pay gap is the discrepancy between the way women with children are treated compared to men, and other women without children. According to new research from Université Paris-Saclay, mothers are paid 3 percent less for every child they have compared to their female colleagues who do not have children, while fathers suffer no such penalty at all. The figures were compiled from a 16-year study of data from organisations in the French private sector between 1995 and 2011 by Lionel Wilner, Director of Graduate Studies at engineering and statistics school ENSAE, a founding member of Université Paris-Saclay. He separated the effect of childbirth from other firm-specific wage determinants, and accounted for full-time and part-time work, to find that the difference between mothers and non-mothers is approximated a 3 percent lower hourly wage. The effect was found to be more pronounced after the birth of the first child. More →

November 29, 2016

Rigid attitudes to flexible working prevents lawyers raising it with employers ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

Flexible working may be gaining ground across the professions but it remains so rare in the legal industry that more than one in three (35 percent) lawyers say they would not feel comfortable even beginning the conversation about flexible working with their employer. The reason for this, suggests new research from My Family Care and recruiters Hydrogen, is down to a rigid culture which encourages working anti-social hours; as almost a third (29 percent) of the 140 of lawyers asked, saying that the majority of their colleagues think that people who work flexibly are simply “having an easy life.” Yet despite this, over two thirds (67 percent) would rather choose flexible working over a 5 percent salary increase. The research also found a large gender divide when it comes to flexible working. While significantly more female lawyers work part time (34 percent of women compared with 10 percent of men), female lawyers say they work considerably more than their contracted hours: 35 percent compared to just 28 percent of males.

October 19, 2016

Third of new parents in US feel bosses presume they’re less committed ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Nearly 70 percent of expectant women and new parents say their employer tops the list of considerations when deciding to start a family. The new US-based study suggests that today’s generation of parents are determined to build families without postponing or abandoning career ambitions, but find themselves faced with an unfriendly and unsupportive environment at work. The third annual report in the Modern Family Index (MFI) series, commissioned by Bright Horizons Family Solutions found that women and men are waiting longer to have children, with the data showing births are down among women in their twenties and up for women over age 35. And though virtually all women surveyed are excited to return to work after a maternity leave, more than one in three new parents report feeling that their boss presumes they are now less committed to work and would prefer if they left.

September 5, 2016

Mothers with young children a third less likely to be in work than fathers ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News

The growing body of evidence highlighting the challenges faced by working mothers has been broadened with the publication of a new report from the TUC which claims that mothers with young children are a third less likely to be in work than fathers. The TUC found that on average just 64 percent of mothers with children aged 0-4 are in paid work, compared to 93 percent of fathers. The analysis claims that the age of a woman’s youngest child has an influence on whether or not she works. The employment rate for mums increases by 11 percent to 75 percent for women with children at primary school (aged 5-10) and by 17 percent to 81 percent for mothers with secondary school age children (11+). For dads of pre-school children, employment rates are above 90 percent. This suggests that mothers’ work decisions are affected by regional variations in the availability and cost of childcare, transport and housing, and access to good quality flexible and part-time jobs.

May 16, 2016

Women (and men) don’t enjoy the full wellbeing benefits of flexible working ⁰

by Dr Daniel Wheatley • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

There has been significant expansion of flexible working arrangements (FWAs) in the last two decades, driven to some degree by the work-life balance agenda. However, in practice work-life balance and flexible working continue to be viewed as a ‘women’s issue’, as women more often reduce hours or work part-time. But recent research conducted by my own department suggests that women working flexibly are not experiencing the potential wellbeing benefits when compared to men. Flexible working arrangements include part-time, flexi-time, job share and homeworking. Part-time accounts for approximately 40 percent of female employment and is the most common FWA used by women. Term-time working is also used predominantly by women, reflecting the typical gender roles regarding caring for school-aged children. Meanwhile, flexi-time remains the most common arrangement used by men, at around 19 percent.