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Working in recruitment is not easy, it requires persistence, resilience and flexibility.

Combine this with looking after small kids and it’s a tough job!

Last weekend was Mother’s Day here in Australia and after a call my Mum in New Zealand, I stopped and thought about how Morgan McKinley supports our working mothers. If working in agency recruitment is what you love to do, you need to find a recruitment consultancy firm that supports working mothers.

Our Sydney office is a prime example with the Managing Director’s role being a job share role shared by 2 mothers – Vanessa Harding-Farrenberg and Louise Langridge. You can read about their success stories here and here.  

So, how do you ask for flexible hours? Whilst this can be daunting, I want to share with you my top 5 tips:

1. Be confident. Of course you will be nervous that your case won’t be accepted – stick to the facts and talk with confidence. Demonstrate how you can still contribute to the company in the new work pattern.
2. Discuss how the flexible hours will change your current work pattern. The key things you need to include in putting your case together are: highlighting the benefits of the flexible work pattern from the point of view of your manager; thinking critically and troubleshooting solutions to any potential problems that you foresee may occur due to your proposed flexible working option; and proactively suggesting any flexibility that you could offer in the event of urgent work or busy periods.
3. Remind them you are career focussed. Just because you want to change your work pattern doesn’t mean you need to put your career aspirations on hold. It’s all about talking through how you will get to where you want to be with the change. Maybe it will just take you that bit longer?
4. Don’t have unrealistic expectations. This one is probably most key in working in agency recruitment. Even in a regular work pattern, there are times that you need to answer emails and calls from clients and job seekers outside of normal work hours. If you tell your boss that you are still available to do this on the odd occasion, it shows that your work is important to you.
5. Ask for help. Maybe it’s all too much and you are just not sure how you could even think about implementing flexible hours into your work. Ask HR or your manager for their advice. They may have some suggestions that you have never thought of or give you some direction on what you need to think about in order to make it work for you.

And to all those working Dads out there, you can ask for flexible hours too!