Part time working: Part of the solution to tackling child poverty

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Women Like Us, The Europoint Centre, 5-11 Lavington Street, London SE1 0NZ Company registered in England and Wales: 5274371; VAT registration: 863248804

Overall Aim To highlight the link between stimulating the supply of part time work in London, improving families’ life chances, and lifting them out of poverty

Project Duration 18 months, February 2011- July 2012

Part time working:

Part of the solution to tackling child poverty

Final Evaluation – August 2012

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2 Objectives

In early 2011 Women Like Us began delivery of an employer-first pilot to trial demand side (employer facing) measures to highlight the link between stimulating the supply of part time work in London, and helping to move mothers into work and out of poverty.

To achieve this Women Like Us had the following objectives

To engage a wide range of employers and employer intermediaries to trial activities to stimulate the generation of new quality part time vacancies.

To promote these quality part time vacancies to low income mothers, and provide them with intensive job brokerage support to enable them to optimise their earning potential, moving them into quality part time jobs and out of poverty; and

Assess the impact of this approach, by building an evidence base and sharing it with both policy makers and practitioners, through our Public Affairs division, helping to shape future welfare to work and employment and skills provision.

The activities Women Like Us undertook to achieve these objectives included:

Employer facing activities

• Undertaking a range of engagement activities with employers and employer intermediary groups in London to stimulate attitudinal change in employers’

perceptions of part time and flexible working, by speaking at various events, and also through a range of marketing and PR strategies. Direct approaches to CSR and HR teams initially focused on offers to run seminars and capacity building sessions on part time working for internal teams. This approach included 1) building on existing relationships with employers and promotion of appropriate vacancies to pilot

candidates, and 2) direct outreach and engagement to new employers. In addition Women Like Us’ job broker also worked to source vacancies on behalf of clients ie within the ‘hidden’ job market/through networks previously unknown/inaccessible to them.

• Activities to engage with and influence employers’ hiring decisions were developed from Women Like Us’ previous experience in operating its specialist recruitment service and from findings of a research project¹ funded by Joseph Rowntree

Foundation to identify what would trigger employers to offer more quality part time vacancies.

• Following initial employer engagement activities and consultation with a wide range of stakeholders it was determined that the best way to stimulate interest was to combine the positioning of the business case with just-in-time practical support to overcome operational barriers. This led to the development of a job design helpdesk in partnership with CIPD, which was launched mid way through the pilot, and received considerable media coverage.

1 ‘Building a Sustainable Part Time Recruitment Market’ 2012 Stewart et al

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• Through the helpdesk, practical job design support was offered to over 100 employers to help them re-think job design and overcome operational barriers to creating a quality part time vacancy. We estimate that 20% went on to create a part time vacancy.

Job seeker facing activities

• 207 low income mothers² from across London who had engaged with Women Like Us were supported through the pilot. Women Like Us also determined that clients would be prioritised who had evidenced intermediary level skills, but were in low income households specifically because they could not find a part time vacancy to match their earning potential - ie for whom a lack of quality part time work was their key barrier, not lack of skills.

• Awareness of the project was raised through existing outreach at school gates, other projects, word of mouth etc, directing people to register at the Women Like Us website and new Timewise Jobs website;

A specialist job brokerage service was given to mothers focused on

- Understanding the current part time labour market and employers’

expectations;

- Planning career direction and awareness of individual strengths and skills;

- Preparing targeted CVs, applications and cover letters, and preparing for job interviews;

- Building effective job search skills; where and how to search for quality part time roles, build networks and source vacancies within the ‘hidden’ job market.

Better off in work calculations were conducted with mothers progressed into work, to measure impact on household income.

Achievements

This pilot has enabled Women Like Us to build a strong evidence base to highlight the link between stimulating the supply of part time work in London, and reducing maternal workless and poverty. And it has enabled Women Like Us to develop its policy and public affairs work which has helped to shift policy makers and labour market influencers from a supply-led to demand-led debate, positioning the creation of more quality part time jobs as a key part of the solution to tackling maternal worklessness and poverty.

2 Criteria: not being in work, having at least one child and a household income of under £20,000 per annum. Assessment also includes review of ability to earn £18k+, used as a proxy for intermediary level skills. The household income figure was determined by WLU based on benchmark analysis for London, using a number of indicators, and then making a judgement on a level that could be set and efficiently implemented by WLU’s frontline team. We looked at the official poverty indicators, whereby poverty is defined as 60% or less than median household income, and compared this with research done which shows that a coupled parent would need to have household income of £29,000 to achieve what might be considered a “minimum national income standard” ( Joseph Rowntree minimum national income standard report 2010).

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Specific achievements from pilot delivery include:

Engagement with over 300 employers through a range of events, promotional activities and the helpdesk, providing them with information and advice on the social and business benefits of creating quality part time jobs which has

influenced their hiring decisions.

Of 100 employers who directly used Women Like Us’ helpdesk, 20% went on to create quality part time vacancies - a high proportion of which were advertised with Women Like Us, and which would otherwise not have been designed.

43% (90) of all low income women supported (207) progressed into part time work. This significantly outperforms average welfare to work performance.³

The average Full Time Equivalent (FTE) salary for clients who went through the project was £21,740.

This is an average hourly rate of £11.94, which is 44% higher than the London Living Wage (£8.30) and a massive 96% higher than the minimum wage (£6.08), highlighting that there is a market for ‘quality⁴’ part time and flexible job roles.

Analysis of women joining the pilot who were living in poverty (ie on an annual household income of £16,000 or under⁵) and moved into work highlights that household income increased to over £20,000 for 85%.

From a recent sample of 54 women who went into work between September 2011 and June 2012, 74% sustained work for at least 13 weeks, with 66% having the potential to still be in work at 26 weeks. This suggests that jobs are also highly likely to be sustainable due to their part time nature and higher pro rata salaries.

This assessment is supported by anecdotal evidence from Women Like Us’ current longitudinal research project that is tracking 80 mothers on their journeys into and on in work.

The establishment of a unique free service for London employers through the Flexible Job Design helpdesk, filling a significant gap in the market for employer facing support services.

Building of a significant media and online profile through strong employer facing networks has proved highly effective in attracting employers. The launch of the helpdesk was covered in Evening Standard and HR Magazine, mentioned on Recruiter online and in People Management Magazine. It has also been mentioned in online newsletters by the FSB, CIPD and LVSC and the British Library Business and IP Centre. The helpdesk is currently featured on the CIPD website (in the HR Links section), and the business support directory of

www.londonbusinessnetwork.com.

3 Well above anecdotal work programme average job sustained rate (3 mths) of 22-28%.

4 In line with the Joseph Rowntree Report into the establishment of a part time recruitment market, a ‘quality part time’ role is benchmarked against a FTE with a £20,000 annual salary.

5 Eligibility is £20,000 household income but a large proportion of mothers were in households with under £16,000 income.

Used as proxy for poverty.

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5 Appendix

CASE STUDY – Stella

Stella is 48, a single parent with an 8 year old daughter. The Women Like Us programme was recommended to Stella by a friend. When she joined the programme she had been out of work since 2004, after taking a career break to raise her daughter. She had previously worked in the licensing trade, printing, administration and finance. During her career break she completed a diploma in IT and an NVQ in business administration.

Stella wanted to find part time work that would fit around her family responsibilities; in particular she was very keen to be able to take her daughter to and from school. Given her age and the current job market, she did not feel optimistic about finding a suitable role. Stella came on several Women Like Us workshops including Career Direction, Effective Job Hunting and Interview Success before working with our job broker, who helped her tailor her CV and cover letter for specific roles.

At the same time Women Like Us had been marketing our Job Design helpdesk through various small business networks and in regional press. A leading hairdressing salon called us after seeing an article. They had been advertising for a financial assistant locally and had struggled to get good candidates. The fact that the article highlighted the range of candidates available was the main draw. This reflects the findings of Women Like Us’ research with employers (46% said they would consider recruiting more quality part time staff if presented with a greater supply of suitable part time candidates).

The salon talked through the core requirements of the role, and what flexibility could be offered, with our employer engagement manager. The job - for a part time financial assistant, FTE £20,000 - was subsequently advertised on Women Like Us’ jobsboard and our job broker contacted Stella and suggested she apply.

Stella was given intensive support with her CV and to prepare for interview. Her application was successful and she was able to negotiate hours of 10a.m.–1p.m., four days a week, allowing her to take her daughter to and from school. When asked what difference the support from Women Like Us had made, Stella commented:

“You helped by making me aware what employers wanted, and what they wanted to hear; how to word the letter, the content of the letter. Having someone professional to talk to - I spoke to quite a few people and decided just to talk to you. In the beginning I felt I would never get a job, I had low self esteem, and low confidence.

CAR (Circumstance, Action, Result – the Women Like Us approach to describing experience on a CV or in an interview) really helped so much”.