As part of our series in the run-up to International Women’s Day 2024, our team is reflecting on the issues that affect women in the industries we operate within, and offering their advice on how we can inspire inclusivity and build a more equal future for all.
In this article, Senior Controls and Automation Recruiter Rachel Bastin describes her own experience as a working mother, and how Heat’s flexible and remote working policies have enabled her to return to the world of recruitment.
While many businesses seem to be discussing rolling back their flexible working policies and demanding a return to in-office work, this is ultimately extremely short-sighted: the knock-on effect that removing these work patterns will have on workers who are juggling care-giving and childcare responsibilities cannot be underestimated. Interestingly, research from UCL has found that in the UK, 45% of female breadwinners still do the majority of household tasks, compared to just 12.5% of male breadwinners, and that the average female breadwinner spends the equivalent of an entire working day taking care of the house on top of their full-time job. For many women, the introduction of flexible working on a widespread basis opened the door to countless opportunities that would not have otherwise been feasible, allowing them to fit their responsibilities around their working hours in a way that strict in-office work requirements do not allow for.
A report conducted by McKinsey found that 90% of women want the ability to work remotely and with it ‘have experienced an increased sense of belonging, greater psychological safety, and, thanks to less unstructured time with colleagues, fewer microaggressions. This is even more pronounced for women of colour, LGBTQ+ women, and women with disabilities (Fortune).’ What this ultimately means is that, by enforcing a reintroduction of mandatory in-office work patterns, businesses will likely be excluding women from their workforce and will struggle to attract individuals with the skillsets that they urgently need to thrive. And, when the data is showing us that companies with more women in leadership have more engaged workers and are more profitable, the impact this could have on the business’ bottom line is significant.
To find out a little more about the real-life impact that offering flexible and remote-work can have, we spoke to our own Digital Contract Recruiter Rachel Bastin to get her perspective: after a hiatus from the world of recruitment to raise her son, Rachel returned to work and joined the Digital team here at Heat as a fully remote member of the team. Read on to find out her thoughts on the subject…