I gave evidence at the Committee hearing in January 2016 when this recommendation was put forward. At f1 we interview over 2500 people a year who work in the marketing, communications and media sector, of all ages, backgrounds and levels of experience. 50% are female and 50% are male. These people are looking for new jobs; some are entry level at £20,000 up to MD and Marketing Director level at £180,000 per annum. Over 25% of these candidates would like some flexibility in the hours they work from an office. They do not classify themselves as Part Time workers. They do classify themselves as needing some flexibility in how they work and where they work from. We manage over 1000 permanent and short term contracts a year from client companies and under 3% of these are given to us as 'part time/with opportunity for some flexibility' working contracts. All of our clients (mainly in the private sector) subscribe to having flexible working practices - this is written in their corporate literature. Yet only 3% of the roles they give us to fill can (apparently) be done flexibly. This means that the only people who get flexible working are the people who currently work for their business. There is little flexibility offered for new roles. So, we give our clients' shortlists of people who we believe can deliver to the job spec BUT who cannot all work 5 days a week from an office. We do not necessarily tell our clients which candidates need some flexibility, agreeing with the client that they will select on merit and ability to deliver in the role ie we create a level playing field for all candidates. Often, this results in flexibility being created for the candidate the client ultimately selects. Each year we run a Returners to Work programme called Back2businessship and all of the women on this programme need some kind of flexibility in their working week. This doesn't mean part time necessarily or part effort - it means 'some flexibility'. This flexibility does not necessarily lead to lower productivity. These women left the Marketing profession on salaries of over £60,000 a year - these are qualified women who can contribute to the economy and to business, who want to return to the work place. The only way back in for them is to bridge the gap on their CV's by taking a paid flexible working returnship which we organise for them. Talking to these women we can understand their frustration by the (often) low paid roles that are advertised as part time. The roles they are qualified to apply for sit in the full time bracket yet they worry about applying for them because they know they need some flexibility. The reality is that most businesses will look at giving flexibility to the right person in a newly advertised role. If they interview them in the first place. Is there unconscious bias against part time working? Is there discrimination against flexible workers for newly advertised roles. Yes on both counts. By getting rid of the drop down boxes in on line ads (permanent and part time) it would give a level playing field to all applicants applying for a role. And maybe we would start the long road to valuing people on their output in a role not their input.

Workingmums.co.uk specialises in advertising flexible new jobs. For over 10 years, we have been working with employers to encourage them to advertise new flexible jobs, recognising that without this many people who need flexible working are effectively stuck in the job they already have, with all that that means for their career progression. Over the years, more employers have advertised flexible jobs with us, but it is an area where there has been slow movement despite the amount of research which shows the benefits of flexible work cultures. We are concerned about the weakness of current flexible working legislation. We receive emails every week from our readers who have had problems with employers turning down requests either on the eight very broad grounds on which they can be turned down or for other reasons. Many do not appeal because there is no longer a statutory right to appeal and because they do not believe that it will make any difference. Moreover, since employers no longer have to give a sufficient reason for turning down a request it is harder to counter a rejection. Our annual survey shows 18% of mums have been forced to leave jobs because a flexible working request has been turned down. Over a quarter of mums in work [26%] said they had had a flexible working request turned down. Some 12 per cent said their employer did not even seem to consider their request at all and over a quarter [27%] said the reason given for turning down the request was not one which is allowable under flexible working legislation. For women currently on maternity leave the figures were higher: 35% of those who had had a flexible working request turned down had had it rejected on grounds other than reasons which are allowable under flexible working legislation. Some 68% said they did not feel the rejection was justified. However, 79% did not appeal. This was not surprising given only 5% appealed successfully. Some 41% of those on maternity leave said refusal of flexible working would mean they might not return to their job, yet 50% said they had not discussed flexible working before going on maternity leave. Consultation with our employment law experts shows that they know of few cases which have been successful at tribunal which are solely based on the flexible working legislation. We also work with some of the most progressive employers and are keen to promote best practice in this area. A handful are beginning to introduce recruitment policies which have flexible working as the default option - where managers have to justify not advertising a role as able to be worked flexibly. This is progress, but there are still very few employers who do this and at this rate of change it will take many years to fully normalise flexible working. We would therefore like to see more encouragement for employers to advertise flexible new roles from day one. We are also concerned that flexible working may be getting a bad name in some circles because of bad practice by some employers and pressure on managers which means many people are working all hours, leading to burnout. Managers - and their managers - need to set realistic expectations and job descriptions need to take into account what is reasonably achievable within contracted hours, however flexibly these are worked. More needs to be done to highlight best practice in this area and to promote good quality flexible jobs which enable career progression. This is something we are keen to contribute to with our best practice reports. Good flexible working works in the interests of both employee and employer - where it goes wrong is when that balance goes too much in one way or the other. Links: Workingmums' latest annual survey results - https://www.workingmums.co.uk/mums-forced-due-lack-flexible-jobs/ Call for change to flexible working legislation - https://www.workingmums.co.uk/flexible-working-legislation-need-reformed/ Workingmums.co.uk Best Practice Report 2016 - https://www.workingmums.co.uk/workingmums-co-uk-publishes-2016-best-practice-report/ White paper on unlocking the female talent pipeline - https://www.workingmums.co.uk/employers-come-together-share-information-unlocking-female-pipeline/