Simply Hired UK Blog

Four Tips for Finding a Family-Friendly Workplace

Family-friendly benefits, including statutory maternity and paternity pay and flexible working, regularly earn headlines and spark heated debates. Although these benefits have been expanded over the past year, many UK employees feel companies are coming up short when it comes to supporting families.

According to our recent survey, only 36% of you describe your company as family friendly and 73% of you feel that your company does not provide family-friendly benefits. Nearly half of you (48%) reported that your company does not allow employees to work from home for any reason and 30% feel that you are discouraged from making special requests when it comes to scheduling around childcare. When it comes to salary and advancement, 58% of you feel mums are treated unfairly.

Yet despite these gloomy statistics, many companies recognise that family-friendly policies are key to attracting top talent. According to the results of the survey, 26% of companies are very flexible when it comes to scheduling around childcare, letting employees adjust their hours as needed, and 28% are somewhat flexible, allowing employees to make changes when emergencies arise. When it comes to working from home, 24% of you can do so for any reason and 25% are allowed to in special circumstances.

If you are a job seeker with a family to consider, it may be important to you to find an employer with family-friendly policies and benefits. Our survey shows that these companies are out there. Here is what you need to know to find one:

1.    Educate yourself—Read up on your rights so you know what you can reasonably ask for and expect from a potential employer. Visit Directgov for an explanation of all employment rights or refer to the Working Families fact sheets section.

2.    Look for endorsements—Start by looking at companies known for setting an example when it comes to family-friendly policies. Working Families publishes an annual list of the Top Employers for Working Families and the Guardian have compiled a list of employers commended by the government and the schemes they have been running to improve equality in the workplace, broken down into categories such as ‘Flexible Working’ and ‘Women Returners.’
 
3.    Do your research—To find a company that walks the walk when it comes to family-friendly benefits and gender equality, look for the signs:

• Top-level employees that practice flexible working
• Women holding executive or senior roles
• Modern IT systems that can support employees who work remotely
• Transparent salary and advancement processes to ensure equal pay for all employees

4.    Ask the right questions in your interview—It is important to get a feel for a potential employer’s culture and its attitude toward working mothers so you can determine if it will suit you and your family’s needs. Questions to ask include:

• What family-friendly policies do you have in place?
• What are the typical working hours? Do people generally work beyond them?
• Do you have a workplace nursery and how many places do you have?
• How many women return to work after maternity leave?
• How many people work flexibly?

Happy searching!

Simply Hired Launches in Austria

Today, Simply Hired continues to expand its international presence with the launch of a job search site in Austria (www.simplyhired.at). The new site for Austria launches with more than 60,000 available local job listings, as well as a range of social job search features including integration with LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

The new job search engine for Austria joins localised Simply Hired websites in 17 other countries on five continents and in nine languages. Simply Hired currently indexes over five million job listings worldwide and powers jobs on more than 10,000 network partner sites. 

Read the full press release for more details.

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Simply Hired startet in Österreich

Simply Hired setzt die Erweiterung seiner internationalen Präsenz mit dem Start einer Job-Suchmaschine in Österreich fort (www.simplyhired.at). Die neue Seite in Österreich startet mit mehr als 60.000 Stellenanzeigen und einer Reihe von Möglichkeiten zur sozialen Stellensuche. Darunter sind Integration in LinkedIn, Facebook und Twitter™.

Die neue Job-Suchmaschine für Österreich gesellt sich zu den örtlichen Webseiten von Simply Hired in 17 anderen Ländern auf fünf Kontinenten und in neun Sprachen. Simply Hired listet derzeit weltweit mehr als fünf Millionen Stellen auf. Das Unternehmen stellt Jobs auf mehr als 10.000 Partnerseiten ein.

Job Seekers’ Week in Review

A roundup of the most useful articles and blog posts for job seekers over the past week.

This week...

• At the Independent, Melissa Viney shares stories and advice for looking for a dream job later in life in Don't let age get in the way of a career change...or a path to fulfilment.

• In Turn your weaknesses into strengths on Jobsite Insider, Vince writes about the importance of a positive attitude in your job search.

• On Only Marketing Jobs, Simon Lewis ticks off the reasons why internships and voluntary work pay off in How working for free earns you more money.

• Clare Whitmell offers guidance for writing an effective CV in Deciding what to include in your CV on the Guardian Careers Blog.

Have a great week and happy searching!

Job Seekers’ Week in Review

A roundup of the most useful articles and blog posts for job seekers over the past week.

This week...

• On the Guardian Careers blog, Clare Whitmell warns about the need to be selective in what experience you should include in the post Deciding what to include in your CV.

• Vince at Jobsite Insider writes about how to assess when the right moment is for a job change in Deciding When to Change Jobs. Time to Move On?

• At Only Marketing Jobs, Simon Lewis considers How Long Your CV Should Be.

• On our own SimplyBlog we share more advice from the experts, this time on How to Get Your Foot in the Door.

• The Mirror offers advice for leveraging social networks in your job search in Boost your job prospects with online profiles.

Have a great week and happy searching!

How to Get Your Foot in the Door

Internships, networking and a brilliant CV are all important tools for job seekers embarking on a new career. Yet even when you’ve ticked all the boxes, you may still find getting your foot in the door at that first job to be a frustrating challenge.

To advise you we once again turned to the experts, asking established professionals to offer their tips for getting a start in your career. Here is what they told us: 

John Stein, founder of The Winning Formula, said: “A spate of family illness followed by redundancy forced me to re-evaluate my priorities. That’s when I decided to start out on my own with a business consultancy franchise firm. Working for myself was something I had always wanted to do, and now I can offer that same flexibility and work/life balance to other would-be business coaches. Nobody can guarantee you a job for life anymore and self-employment fulfils me in a way the corporate world never could. Embracing an opportunity like this gives you amazing confidence in your abilities and allows you to choose your own path.”

John Grant, managing director at ASM Ltd, said “My first serious job at British Caledonian Airways was as a Consumer Research Analyst - a role where I spent a lot of time walking up and down the corridor to my boss’ office to correct the latest report I’d written. In those days there were no word processors or even Excel as we know it today. The experience taught me the value of perseverance, attention to detail and a will to win; combine those factors and you get there in the end. Above all though, that experience taught me to treat people like you’d like to be treated, be honest when you cock up (we all do!) and smile...it gets you a long way!”

Richard Alberg, CEO and founder of MyNewJob.me, said “It is often easier to get a new job when you are already in one. It shows initiative, builds experience and positions your CV more positively. Internships or work experience may not pay very much but they frequently prove invaluable. For example I know of one case where someone took several work experience jobs the final one being with a marketing agency. The 3 4 weeks he spent there went well and then a permanent employee resigned. So he got the job   right place right time. You can't win if you don't buy a ticket.”