By Chris Thomas
Palace Magazine Nov 2007
This month, in our regular series of interviews looking at Palace people, we spoke to Emma Stewart, co-founder of Women Like Us.
Women Like Us is an award-winning social enterprise that helps women with children to make the best choices for their working lives, and helps employers find experienced, part-time staff. They do this by offering coaching and advice, and delivering bespoke recruitment and consultancy services, specialising in flexible working.
- Emma (centre right) with Karen (centre left) talking to mums at a school gate
How did it all start?
In 2004, whilst having a conversation with my colleague and future co-founder Karen Mattision about how hard it was for employers to find experienced part-time staff and an idea was born. As we talked to other mums we realised we had a ready made network of women many with exceptional experience looking for part-time employment.
We piloted Women Like Us in north and central London and we haven’t looked back and neither have the hundreds of women and employers that Women Like Us has matched since we started. We now operate in over 50 schools across north and central London and we are currently extending into south London as we speak, through which we reach 26,000 women.
What are the main barriers stopping women getting back into the workplace?
Once you stop working you are out of the loop. Mothers become ‘lost women’
For many mothers the biggest hurdles are confidence and a desire to be close to home. That’s why we focus on job in the local community.
Women often overlook the skills they gain from being at home such as budget and project. This can be brought out in coaching sessions.
What’s so different about what you do as opposed to a regular recruitment consultancy?
We reach women where they gather everyday, where they feel comfortable and where they are most likely to talk about returning to work – at the school gates.
We partner with schools by sending information home to mothers in their children’s bookbags and by having a Women Like Us representative on site to provide support and advice to women interested in our services.
From school gates to salaries is what we are all about. We are an all-round consultancy for women returning to work.
What services do you provide once someone has registered?
Once women register with us we offer a range of practical services tailored to support them in finding flexible work, be it managing transition in careers, advising on job searching and applications, starting up a new business or supporting women who have moved to the UK for the first time.
…and for the employer?
An employer’s biggest barrier to success is not being able to find suitably skilled staff. Our women have those skills across all sectors and now want that experience in part-time roles.
Feedback from the 25-30 employers who use our services each month is that the women put forward by Women Like Us are better skilled, more enthusiastic to work and more reliable than the average applicant.
Our women provide a depth of experience that enables them to bring more to an organisation that simply fulfilling the job description. This means employers receive incredible value for money in return for flexibility.
We can also help employers assess and implement flexible working practices.
Current employers include Royal Mail, Asda, Transport for London and the London Fire Brigade.
What kind of jobs is on offer?
As we have women with all types of experience we have all sorts of roles to fill. Our recruitment team specialise in part-time vacancies across all sectors and with all sizes of organisations. We have roles from admin assistants to interpreters and from marketing and pr execs to lawyers. We also help women to set up their own business.
How do husbands/partners fit into all this?
That’s an interesting question. It’s very important to sit down with your partner and discuss how domestic duties will be shared. I am incredibly lucky as I have a very supportive husband who also works locally so we can share things like the school run.
Tell us about the awards you have won.
Last month we won Best New Social Enterprise Award. The awards are run by the Social Enterprise Coalition on behalf of RBS, NatWest and the Cabinet Office, in association with The Observer, Capacity Builders, DCSF and DBERR.
What exactly is a social enterprise?
It’s any business that trades for social purpose, with its social aims and outcomes embedded within the organisation’s structure and activities.
Our social aim is to support women with children to return to employment that fits around their family life, and we reinvest our profits back to the business to continue to achieve this objective.
Whilst our goal has a core social purpose, we choose to operate as a social enterprise rather than a not-for-profit organisation, as this allows us to run a competitive service for both women and employers. We are funded from a range of sources, from government contracts and trust awards to recruitment and consultancy fees.
It’s great to do a job where you can bring women back to the workplace. High levels of ‘worklessness’ amongst women – particularly single women with young children – is one of the prime causes of poverty and social exclusion.
In January we were North London small business finalist as Employer of the Year.
So you practice what you preach then?
Yes, the majority of our own employees work from our Archway offices in North London working part-time, flexible hours. We strive to provide a working model of successful and beneficial, flexible working environment and illustrate, by example, ways this can be achieved.
So what are your plans for the future?
Well, in the immediate future, November 9th, we are officially launching the expansion of Women Like us in to South London with guest speaker Harriet Harman, so you’ll be hearing more about us at the gates of various schools in Crystal Palace. This will be followed by with a pilot in the West Midlands. Over the next few years we plan on establishing a full expansion of our services to the rest of the UK.
Have you any advice for mums looking to get back to work in the Crystal Palace area?
For mums thinking of going back to work and would like some help register on our website www.womenlikeus.org.uk.
Local employers please give us a call on 020 7281 6522.
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