HAMPSHIRE employer Zurich UK has seen the number of women hired for part-time roles almost double in a year after offering all jobs on a part-time or flexible basis.

The insurer, with hundreds of staff at Whiteley, made the move after establishing that a lack of part-time senior roles was making female staff less likely to apply for top jobs.

It saw a 95 per cent year-on-year in increase in women hired into part-time jobs between January and November last year. The number has increased five-fold since all roles were offered as flexible in 2019.

Zurich became the first company in the UK to advertise all vacancies with the option of part-time, full-time, job share or flexible working in 2019. It came after Zurich partnered with the then government-run Behaviour Insights Team to identify issues that were blocking career progression for women, The change of policy, coupled with the use of gender-neutral language in every job advertisement, led to a 16 per cent rise in women applying for jobs.

The Southampton North and Romsey MP Caroline Nokes, who chairs the Commons’ women and equalities select committee, said: “Recent years have shown the great benefits that flexible working can bring to workers, but it is becoming increasingly obvious as a benefit to employers too, especially when it comes to attracting talent. Zurich’s work in this area shows that small changed to job adverts and roles offered can be a great benefit to workplace equality.”

Steve Collinson, chief HR officer at Zurich UK, said: “The pandemic accelerated demand for flexible working, but our data shows that offering roles as part time can also be a real driver in bringing more women into an organisation, especially in senior roles.

“As advocates of flexible working for over a decade, we are proud of the success of this initiative and pleased to see that the positive trends are all heading in the right direction.”

The number of male workers hired part-time at Zurich also tripled between January and November last year.

Part time workers made up 13.5 per cent of all Zurich UK hires in 2022, up from 10.7 per cent in 2021 and 6.5 per cent in 2019.

Since the beginning of 2019, 89 per cent of part time starters have been female compared with 11 per cent of men. Across the UK’s workforce some 38 per cent of women work part time, compared with 13 per cent of men.

The government recently announced that millions of workers will be able to request flexible working from day one.

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