Parenting / 10 January, 2022 / Ellie Thompson

Looking For Flexible Work Around The Kids? You Need To Read This.

Daisy Chain was founded due to a need and demand for flexible working. Its aim is to match people wanting more flexibility with companies offering it – and challenging the ones that aren’t.

Flexible working for parents

Like a lot of businesses, Daisy Chain was started due to being enraged. Its founder Louise Deverell-Smith experienced and heard first-hand how people were being rejected and looked over because they dared to ask for flexibility in their work/life balance. This was mainly parents who perhaps needed to finish work at 4.30 to collect their child from nursery (but often offered happily to start an hour earlier) or people that needed a better balance in their working week in order to fulfill their needs. But when they broached this topic in their workplace, they were faced with resistance, suspicion and people questioning work ethic. I mean, really?

What Louise – rightly – couldn’t understand was the fact that these employers were passing over amazingly talented people who were dedicated and loyal because they needed to leave work half an hour earlier twice a week?

A lack of understanding from employers

“When I founded Daisy Chain four years ago, it was a direct response to the lack of understanding around flexible working and my open-mouthed disbelief that employers were passing up seriously talented people because they dared to ask for it. Then, and now to some extent, there was an association that flexible working meant being not dedicated, unproductive or unmotivated and that by daring to ask to work flexibly because you had family or other commitments was deemed disloyal.” she says.

This thinking was – and still is in some places, unfortunately – archaic and ridiculous. And as these recent months have highlighted, you really don’t need to be sitting at a desk 9-5, Monday to Friday to be productive – far from it.

In light of the recent months and flexible working being forced upon employees and employers, we undertook a survey asking about people’s experiences and if this new practice is here to stay.

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It was inspiring to see that 49% were hugely satisfied with their current working set up, closely followed by 36% stating they were somewhat satisfied and that 77% of people are keeping a regular working routine most days. It highlighted, unsurprisingly, that the biggest issues people were facing were childcare and home distractions, but we also found that only 7% of people would like to work less from home going forwards with many opting for a permanent balance of office / working from home life.

This is encouraging and a long time coming. The archaic mantra that you are only productive if you are sitting at a desk 9-5, Mon-Fri is dangerously old fashioned and the companies that are still banging that drum will soon be exposed and will suffer when their talent leaves.

So, from this disbelief and anger came Daisy Chain whose aim was to champion both employees wanting, and employers offering, flexible working and understanding the benefits of it.

Matching people with flexible employers

To date, Daisy Chain has matched hundreds of people with employers who understand the fact that being flexible means they attract and retain great people and that people can still be productive in the time they have. Louise and her team have also had long conversations with those employers that don’t offer flexibility – educating, sharing, inspiring, and getting results!

With lockdown appearing to come to an end, soon and people slowly getting back to work, there is a passionate hope that the lessons around flexible working have been learnt and that any company worth their salt will not only be offering it, but championing it.

Are you looking for a balance in your life?

Here are 7 reasons why you should sign up to Daisy Chain:

1. It’s totally FREE for candidates.
2. You will be connected to family-friendly and flexible employers, who understand the challenges of being a working parent.
3. We are a community of people from Coaches, Fitness experts, HR professionals to Recruiters all sharing our experience and knowledge with you.
4. We only work with Employers that walk the walk and talk the talk around flex.
5. You don’t need a CV to join.
6. You are totally in control of which employers see your profile.
7. We are not a recruiter.  We don’t charge employers like recruiters, and we let people and employers chat openly about flex roles.  We know that one size doesn’t fit all.

Remote working is the future

It will be a fascinating few months coming up, to see what lessons really are here to stay and how many companies will fall back into their old ways with flexible and remote working down the agenda. For us at Daisy Chain, we will continue to work with phenomenal people who really understand the endless benefits of a good work/life balance; we will continue to match great employees with employers and continue to have those important conversations.

Sound good? The team at Daisy Chain would love to hear from you.

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