Jane O’Mahoney has worked for Parliament for 33 years across a range of roles. She currently sits within the People and Culture team.
An inspirational HR Gamechanger, Jane O’Mahoney has been instrumental in a number of initiatives to support the interests of employees, in particular core frontline staff.
Parliament has a diverse workforce of 3,500 people, with around a third working in Estate-based roles i.e. onsite for most of the time, ensuring its smooth and effective running.
Example of Estate-based roles include the doorkeepers working in the Chambers, catering staff, cleaners, 24/7 security personnel, maintenance teams, onsite digital providers, a vote office, Hansard (the publishing facility) cashiers, visitor assistants, and the education team.
Jane O’Mahoney, Deputy Director of Workforce Transformation at the House of Commons
“We are really keen on Parliament being an inclusive and welcoming workplace. In the Estate-based community we have a number of under-represented groups. People come to work here from the length and breadth of the country, but many of our frontline staff live closer by and come from the diverse communities within Westminster and around.”
“I was working in the Civil Service when my boss showed me an ad about working within Parliament. I have always found the building iconic. I remember thinking: ‘Imagine that being your office!’ That was the initial draw for me. But what’s kept me here has been really interesting work, knowing what I am doing is important and having the pleasure of working with a brilliant community of diverse colleagues.”
“Initially, we undertook a hybrid working pilot. Then we took the decision that each business area should determine its own percentage of site-based time. We truly support hybrid working here. On the Estate-based roles there is definitely still more work to be done – as with most frontline workforces around the UK. We include ourselves amongst the UK employers who are working hard to figure this out. There is an understanding that their roles are tied to the estate, though there is the appetite for more flex where possible, and we are looking at this. Our guiding principle is to aim for fairness in all things.”
“I am proud to represent the interests of our core frontline staff, and to have raised understanding around their needs and challenges. Our Estate-based community are at the heart of our Inclusion and Diversity strategy. And we have worked hard to understand their full experiences in the round.”
“Many of our frontline staff work entirely behind the scenes. We have done a lot of work on making their lives and work seen and understood, and on co-creating solutions together. The Clerk of the House of Commons, who is our most senior leader, sponsors this work and has really backed and supported it personally.”
“I am also proud that this approach won The Inclusion Award within our own internal House Values Awards. You are put forward for this award by colleagues, so it feels very special.”
“Everything we do is underpinned by the ethos of ‘supporting everyone to thrive’. And we do this in the face of working in a very challenging environment – it is all at once, where legislation happens, a living museum, a symbol of Britain, part-construction site, a major tourist attraction, a 24/7 employer – the list goes on. We stage huge events, such as the lying in state of The Queen. Everything must be seamless, perfect. But we do not compromise on our values for our staff, nor on our desire to be an exemplar of modern working practice.”
“When we introduced hybrid working, we encouraged the set up of ‘Team Charters’ to ensure an equitable approach, and make teams aware of others’ working patterns. We run Listening Circles – ways we can intentionally engage with frontline workers to understand how their shifts and patterns work with their lives, or cause difficulties. How much notice those on shifts get, versus how much they actually need to plan childcare, etc. From these, we now have an Estate and Hybrid Working Policy, created this year, which sets an organisational commitment for all staff to have the opportunity to develop and train inside of working hours. There won’t be the expectation to catch up on emails outside of hours, after the training.”
“Thanks to the Listening Circles we also have brilliant support in place for financial wellbeing, neo-natal leave, menopause and stress management.”
“We think more roundly about health and wellbeing too. We have an onsite gym, and a fantastic catering team who offer healthy meals. We are about to launch ParliNet – a replacement for our intranet with all employee policies easily accessible. We also have a physical lifestyle and health kiosk – a booth where you can go and take your blood pressure, your weight and establish more about your health and wellbeing. Some people work really odd hours here and we want everyone to have access to the tools they need to live happy, healthy lives. This also came from the Listening Circles.”
“…I’d change the perception held by some, that working from home means taking your foot off the pedal. Just because you are in a different location doesn’t mean you are working with greater ease or at a slower pace.”
We are a true multi-generational, diverse workforce. We have excellent rates of retention – the senior Chef on our catering team will have worked at Parliament for 50 years next year. My tips for success are:
One size fits all, fits no-one. I am passionate about this.
When presented with challenges, try always to see the art of the possible. Have a vision, stay focused and bring others with you.
Build your skills of empathy. That’s what it is all about. Take the time to listen to people – and you’ll reach a new level of understanding. Treat people with care, see their value and try your best to understand their circumstances – and you get the best from them.
My own personal flex journey started in 2009, when I became a single parent unexpectedly. I had to recalibrate, keeping the full-time work – being the single earner – but also providing care for my son.
I needed full-time work but flex around the edges, in essence. And that is what I got. We agreed a compressed work week of 4 days, with 1 day working from home. That part of my change involved moving away from London, to Warwickshire – and yet I got to keep my job that I loved. This was agreed and supported – and a complete life raft to me.
I have worked in 9 different jobs in the organisation since – but that flexible pattern has stayed. Post pandemic we are required to be on the estate 40% of the week, so now I travel to work 2 days on site rather than 3. It really works for me and countless others
Published November 2023
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By Amy Butterworth, Consultancy Director
It’s no secret that frontline and shift-based jobs are harder to make flexible than office-based ones. From the obvious barriers around working from home to the requirement to have a balance of skills on a shift or site, there’s just less room to manoeuvre when a frontline employee needs flexibility.
Here at Timewise, we see this as a challenge, not a barrier; we’re working with employers across the frontline, including NHS trusts, construction companies, schools and retailers, to level the flexible playing field.
But although the dial is starting to shift on access to formal flexible arrangements, most frontline staff are still missing out on something else that many office-based workers take for granted – ad-hoc flexibility.
Sometimes, life happens in a way that requires flex at short notice; an hour here, or a morning there, in a way that can’t be planned in. It might be a child’s school assembly, or an elderly relative’s doctor’s appointment; it might be something as seemingly trivial as a tiny window in which to book tickets for a favourite band’s farewell tour.
Faced with these scenarios, most office-based workers would simply come in late, or take a bit of time out, and make it up later; but for a frontline employee, that’s not an option. Rosters are often created months in advance, and while colleagues might be willing to swap shifts or cover for each other, it’s not a given – and puts the onus on the employee to call in a favour. So as well as exploring more formal flexible arrangements, proactive employers are also looking at ways to give their frontline and shift-based staff access to this more informal, ad-hoc flexibility.
By Amy Butterworth, Consultancy Director
I’m sure few would disagree that an excellent line manager can make all the difference to an employee’s career. Those who feel supported to do their best work are likely to thrive; those who feel undermined or neglected may struggle (or vote with their feet).
So it seems sensible that, when workplace norms fundamentally change, organisations would make sure their line managers are trained to adapt their practice accordingly. And yet, despite the widespread uptake of hybrid working both during and since the pandemic, this hasn’t been the case.
Research from University of Birmingham has found that only 43% of managers had received any training in how to manage hybrid teams. It’s highly likely that these managers will be struggling to successfully implement hybrid arrangements, particularly more informal ones which they need to design, agree and monitor themselves. And this lack of training could certainly be a factor in the finding that 47% of line managers are finding work more stressful than pre-pandemic.
Both we and the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) believe that hybrid working is a hugely valuable tool in the flexible working toolkit, with the potential to support key workplace issues such as talent attraction, retention, diversity and wellbeing. And we both know from experience that, when line managers are supportive of flexible working, and role model it themselves, it makes employees feel significantly more comfortable about requesting it.
So we’ve come together to turn the knowledge gap on its head, by creating a programme of hybrid training that will build managers’ skills and confidence. This will not only enable them to support their teams to work in a hybrid way, but also help them think about how they could work flexibly themselves, which will have an impact across their organisation.
The training will be delivered as a six-week programme, and will focus on three core areas which our hybrid research identified as particular concerns: the role of a manager of a hybrid team; ensuring fairness and inclusion, and enabling connection and cultural cohesion. We’ll provide workshops for each area, supported by group clinics that will give participants the chance to come together and reflect on their learnings and practice.
All the sessions will be run by our expert consultants and will be backed up with helpful resources, case studies, tools and templates from both Timewise and the CMI’s libraries, which participants can take back to their workplaces and put into action.
We’re really excited about this partnership, which brings together two social businesses with a shared determination to make the world of work better for everyone. And because we also share a belief in the value of research, we’re running the first one as a pilot, with robust evaluation in place, so we can assess its impact on managers’ knowledge and confidence before rolling it out more widely.
The first programme will start in the autumn, and we’ll share our learnings from it once it’s complete, with the aim of refining and scaling up the training so that more companies can benefit. We can’t wait to get started and will let you know how we get on – watch this space.
Please click here to register your interest directly with the CMI: https://www.managers.org.uk/campaigns/making-hybrid-work-for-you/
Updated June 2023
Flexible hiring – advertising job vacancies as flexible from day one – is a key building block for fair access to work. It is a lifeline for people who need to work flexibly; a tool for employers to attract more talent; and at a societal level, it can help tackle inequality.
Yet the latest Scottish Flexible Jobs Index finds that only 28% of advertised vacancies offer flexible working, barely any higher than the previous year (27%). This rate lags far behind both demand for flexibility and workplace practice – 8 in 10 Scottish people want to work flexibly, with 6 in 10 already doing so.
There are also several underlying concerns. Home-working (including hybrid) is the only form of flexibility that is increasing, while part-time arrangements (highly sought by people with caring commitments) show no growth at all. And potential inequalities between workers are exacerbated by wide discrepancies in access to flex at different salary levels, by occupation and by region.
Employers need to change their approach as a matter of urgency, especially in light of forthcoming legislation on the ‘day one right to request flexible working’. Our report contains recommendations for employers and policy makers on how best to adapt.
By Nicola Smith, Interim CEO, Timewise
Though job vacancies are declining, we still have 1.1m unfilled vacancies in the UK and acute talent shortages across most sectors, and on average just one person applies for every full-time (a ratio of 1:1).
No wonder government & employers are looking to retirees & people managing long-term health conditions or disabilities to fill the gap.
Much discussion has been had around the benefits of offering flexible working possibilities, with the CBI stating in its most recent Future of Work conference that flexible working has finally ‘mainstreamed’.
But in reality, the UK’s jobs market is seriously lagging behind what’s actually happening in the world of work. According to our analysis of 6 million UK job ads, fewer than a third include ‘flex options’ of some kind. Within that, just 12% offer part-time work and 12% home-working, some or all the time.
Employers – please understand that many older workers and long-term sick are probably not even looking at jobs that don’t mention part-time work (which make up a whopping 88% of all vacancies).
You have to get yourself into the mindset and behavioural patterns of the person making the search. People who need part-time jobs, search for the part-time options they are looking for: 2 day marketing jobs, 3 day finance jobs etc.
If part-time isn’t mentioned in the ad, it simply won’t be found.
This is what we call ‘the unseen jobs’ problem.
If you want to appear in the searches and feeds of those who need flexible work: you must include part-time options in your job ad.
Doing so immediately upgrades your chances of filling a role. Remember my 1:1 stat in the beginning? Well, 4 people are chasing every available part-time job in the UK. Your odds of finding talent for a role, at all increase greatly, once part-time becomes a possibility.
And don’t forget – Day One Flex rights are on the horizon. Meaning that soon, any employee starting a new job with you can request part-time hours or a flexible pattern with you from day one in that new role with you. Stating flex possibilities in the job ad from Day One means you’ve taken control from the start, set out the parameters and made potential working patters clear to all.
Get this right now, and by the time the legislation comes around, you’ll be leaps & bounds ahead of competitors, and you’ll have transformed your power to attract talent from within these two pools and beyond.
Published March 2023
Domiciliary care roles have a reputation for offering flexible work that will suit people (mainly women) with their own family caring responsibilities. However, the flexibility on offer is often ‘poor flexible work’. Zero hours contracts bring unpredictability and insecurity, while the ‘flexible hours’ that are available are mostly at unsociable times – early mornings, evenings and weekends, which are prime times when carers need to be with their own families.
Timewise teamed up with London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD) to explore what carers say they need to make the job fit better for them. Our aim was to provide insight as to how small changes and greater transparency around the nature of working patterns could potentially enhance retention during the first few months of the job – a ‘crunch’ point when many new recruits realise the schedules are not a good fit.
We developed and tested a guide for carers with a focus on how to manage the realities of scheduling. Guidance for hiring managers was also produced, highlighting the need for transparency and support.
This project by Timewise and LBBD has reinforced previous evidence of the need to improve flexible working options for care workers, to make it a more attractive career choice.
Published February 2023
By Nicola Smith, Director of Development and Innovation
There’s been much discussion in recent months about increasing numbers of older workers leaving the workplace. The ONS figures back this up, showing that over 200,000 people aged 50-65 have left the jobs market over the last two years. Commentators, including the Resolution Foundation and the Institute for Employment Studies, have also concluded that post-pandemic shifts in labour supply have largely been driven by falling numbers of people aged 50 and over looking for and available to work.
So it follows that a key way to fill the high number of vacant roles would be to encourage and support older workers to stay in their roles, or come back into the workforce. And the good news is, flexible working can help make this happen.
It’s worth noting that ‘over 50s’ is a very wide category. As a result the health status, caring responsibilities, skills and incomes are probably more varied within this group than those of people in any other commonly used age bracket.
And while it’s relatively well understood that flexible working can support those with ill health and disabilities to remain in or return to the workplace, that’s not the only factor. There are other reasons why members of this group are leaving employment – and for which flexible working can also be part of the solution.
Recent ONS analysis gives some particularly useful insight into the varied experiences of older workers who have left the jobs market since the pandemic begun. Findings include:
Crucially, the figures also show that, among those who would consider returning to work, a third said the most important factor was flexible hours. Good pay came second (at 23%), followed by being able to work from home (12%) and work that fits around caring responsibilities (10%), both of which are linked to flexibility.
Clearly, then, offering flexible working is a critical part of the answer to employers’ retention and hiring woes. By helping to overcome the medical, personal or financial reasons why older workers are leaving the workplace, it could encourage them to stay for longer, or encourage those who have already left to come back.
Our work with the Centre for Ageing Better set out how and why employers can use good flexible working to boost the retention of older workers. And when it comes to supporting them back in, the answer is clear: employers need to advertise flexible roles from the point of hire. In both cases, this means going through a job design process that explores when, where and in how much time the role can best be fulfilled.
Today’s data make an even more compelling case for why everyone needs to act – and is a pertinent reminder of the benefits that more, good flexible working at the point of hire could bring for business and workers alike. We know that many employers are already doing this well, and that many others recognise that they need to make the shift; if you need support with this, we’re here to help.
In the meantime, keep an eye out for our new Flexible Jobs Index, launching later this month, which will highlight how far we still have to go in terms of making flexible jobs available from day one. It will be published alongside a new study, undertaken in partnership with the IES and supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which explores the challenges employers face and the actions needed to widen access to good flexible roles.
Published November 2022
By Melissa Jamieson, CEO, Timewise
Here at Timewise, we are proud to be a social business. We invest our profits back into our work, creating a virtuous circle in which we build on the insights we’ve gained to deliver better, more targeted solutions for our clients. And we share our learnings as widely as possible, to help drive change within and across as many sectors as possible.
As part of our social model, we set ourselves a suite of objectives against which we monitor the impact we’re having on businesses and individuals. And three years ago, we set some particularly ambitious goals, and committed to tracking our performance against them over time.
The outcomes are clear – and are set out in our latest social impact report , which also includes case studies and other feedback from businesses and individuals. But the topline summary is that we smashed our targets on all five measures.
For example, having set ourselves the challenge of working with 100 employers to influence their flex strategies and practice, we collaborated with 151. Having aimed to positively impact the lives of 1 million people through greater access to flexible working, we reached 1.7 million. And having a target of widening access to flexible working at the point of hire by posting 25,000 jobs on Timewise Jobs, we actually posted over 42,000.
So what does all this mean, overall? It means more individuals who want or need to work flexibly have been able to find a job to match their circumstances. For many people, such as those who are carers or have health conditions, this flexibility can be the difference between working or not. This in turn has a positive impact on societal issues such as child poverty.
It also means that more businesses now understand the role that flexible working plays within issues like talent attraction, retention, well-being and inclusion – and critically, understand what to do about it.
The result is a win-win-win scenario which benefits businesses and candidates alike. It increases the options for new candidates, and makes it easier for those already in work to move or progress, taking their flexibility with them. And it supports businesses to find, keep and nurture talented individuals, who are happier, healthier and more productive at work.
We’re publishing this report at a time of great uncertainty. The jobs market is hugely unsettled; companies are battling with a skills crisis, and with a marked candidate shortage. And the cost-of-living crisis is making it more important than ever that we help as many people as possible find work that fits with their lives.
So, having proved over the last three years that our work has measurable impact, we want to see action on a greater scale. And we’re calling for a shared commitment from businesses, government and social funders to invest in innovative solutions that will help make good flexible work available to all.
We need government to build an infrastructure that supports flexible options. We need businesses to develop change programmes that create the right flexible jobs for their structure and their people. And we need social funders to get behind organisations like ours, so we can explore what works and share our learnings to drive wider change.
We’re here to help, in an advisory or a practical capacity; please get in touch if you’d like to know more. In the meantime, having smashed our three-year targets, we’re evolving our approach and developing a new suite of goals that match where we are now. We’ll update you all about this in the next few months; watch this space.
Published October 2022
By Dr Sarah Dauncey, Head of Partnerships and Practice, Timewise
The pressure that the cost of living crisis is putting on household incomes is inescapable. In ONS data from early September, 82% of adults reported being very or somewhat worried about rising costs of living. According to the New Economics Foundation, three-quarters of households will see the cost of living outstrip incomes by the autumn budget. And the economic fallout from the Chancellor’s ‘mini-budget’ on 23 September has intensified the problems facing households across the country.
Low-income families, who spend a greater proportion of their income on food and energy, are worst hit. In research from the Living Wage Foundation, 78% of low-paid workers said the cost of living crisis is the worst financial period they have ever faced. And as part-time workers are twice as likely as full-timers to be trapped in low pay, they are likely to be disproportionally affected.
It’s crucial that employers do all they can to support their employees through the cost of living crisis, and raising pay in line with the Living Wage is a good starting point. And another measure that employers should take is to offer good quality flexible working for all employees, at all levels.
The problem, however, is not just that we don’t have enough flexible jobs, but also that we don’t have enough good quality ones. As our 2021 Flexible Jobs Index noted, only 1 in 4 jobs are advertised as flexible in any way. There are even fewer part-time jobs advertised (just 1 in 10), and they are clustered at the lowest-paid end of the scale, with very few higher-paid ones available.
This is a particular problem for parents, carers or those with health issues or other responsibilities, who simply can’t work full-time. Being able to find a quality part-time or flexible role can be a gamechanger, allowing them to get into (or back into, or progress in) the workplace and increase their household income. And the availability of good flexible jobs also has a positive impact on society as a whole. Evidence shows that flexible working can play a part in tackling social inequality, reducing child poverty, supporting social mobility, and increasing workplace diversity. This has long been the case, but is now more critical now than ever – when people are talking about choosing between heating and eating, it’s time to take action.
Just as the impact of a lack of flexible working is a societal issue, the solutions cut across many different parts of society too. For example:
At the time of writing, the Chancellor has stated that he will tighten benefit rules for part-time workers to increase economic productivity, requiring them to work longer hours or take steps to increase their earnings. This is a retrograde step, which will keep people who need flexibility out of the workforce, pushing more into economic hardship.
Instead, we need to use flexible and part-time working to unlock the jobs market, which will support people through the cost of living crisis, as well as contributing to growth. This has long been true, but is now mission critical. Collaborative and coordinated action is urgently required.
Published October 2022
By Emma Stewart, Co-Founder of Timewise
It’s well established that maternal worklessness is a core factor behind child poverty – and that flexible working helps parents and carers work. So, two years ago, the Scottish Government took the decision to join the dots, commissioning Timewise to improve access to fair flexible work for parents and carers, as part of their Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan.
Having carried out a feasibility study, we concluded that the only way to have the broad impact that the government required was to take a systems-led approach. There were already a range of labour market support services being offered to both jobseekers and employers, so we felt the most sensible route was to equip the intermediaries to advise on flexible working.
The result was Fair Flexible Work for Scotland, a two-year programme through which we created a network of Change Agents from 70 intermediary organisations (including recruiters, enterprise agencies and local authority employability teams), and trained them up to offer the right support. We also connected them to a range of wider experts on flexible working, including the Scotland-based Flexibility Works.
For employer-facing intermediaries, our focus was on how to help businesses adjust to new ways of working (including hybrid) and upskilling hiring managers to create better flexible jobs. For those who were jobseeker facing, we explored the best way to deliver advice for people (particularly parents and carers) on finding quality flexible work.
We achieved this through a series of interactive workshops and a toolkit of resources, as well as access to follow-up clinics tackling specific challenges and opportunities. We backed these up with up-to-the-minute data on the jobs market, via a new Scotland Flexible Jobs Index. And we also provided practical masterclasses directly to over 600 employers, offering clear guidance on how to improve their flexible working offer.
So, did it work? The answer is a resounding yes, across a variety of measures.
Initial feedback showed that we have succeeded in equipping our Change Agents to incentivise and support action on flexible working. Highlights include 80% saying they have a better understanding of how to influence employers to enable a fairer, more successful approach to hybrid working, and 76% strongly agreeing that “I am motivated to take action to ensure fairer access to flexible work by more people.”
We’re also pleased to note that the system is already becoming hardwired into how people operate; for example, Scottish Enterprise advisers now ask that any jobs created as a result of their business growth grants are advertised as flexible from day one.
And there’s qualitative evidence of emerging changes in approach from both employers and individuals, with even traditional employers such as the Scotch Whisky Association now offering a range of flexible arrangements for existing and prospective staff.
So what’s the secret of this programme’s success? Certainly, the participants feel that there is real value in this kind of collaborative approach, which brings together stakeholders from both the public and private sectors. And the systemic way the programme has been designed also makes it easy to share what works and scale up its impact.
The Scottish Government agrees too. This approach – supporting labour market intermediaries to not just advocate for, but provide, practical support on flexible working – is a key factor in encouraging Fair Work in Scotland. And, as the Fair Work Criteria now includes a specific request for companies accessing any government funds to offer flexible working from day one, it’s more relevant than ever.
Employers are (rightly) being asked to deliver on metrics around employability, inclusion and wellbeing, but they don’t always know where to start. This model doesn’t just set expectations; it also provides support, building systems capability that can then be maintained and rolled out more widely through existing intermediaries
So we’ll continue to monitor the impact of the support provided by this new network of Fair Flexible Work Change Agents, to build evidence of the effect it has on unlocking a better quality flexible jobs market, and the impact this has on tackling child poverty. And having proved the concept in Scotland, we’re now keen to replicate it elsewhere in the UK. We’re currently discussing it with some local and combined authorities in England, and are keen to get cracking; we’ll keep you posted.
Published September 2022
