Ten2Two is ten years old!

We’re delighted to announce that it’s our tenth birthday this year!

A lot has changed since we placed our first flexible candidate all those years ago. In fact, we’ve decided to do a bit of research about how attitudes have changed these past ten years – we’ll be sending out a survey to thousands of our valued clients and professional Members to get their views and will be sharing the research here.

Flexible working – what’s changed?

Ten years ago, flexible working patterns were largely associated with low level roles. But today, it is recognised as a bonafide everyday term with government legislation now in place to support flexible working pattern requests. It isn’t the proviso of women returning from maternity leave either – many senior staff members now work flexibly, including men and women, parents and non-parents. Plus research tells us the Millennials expect a flexible future.

The rise of the flexible man

Many senior execs work nine day fortnights, have extended summer breaks, work from home or work short days. And with the introduction of Shared Parental Leave, Dads are also keen to get in on the act. We’ve seen an increase in the number of men seeking part-time and flexible roles through our flexible recruitment agency. You just have to look at the school playgrounds to see a more varied crowd of parents at drop offs and pick-ups.

A positive effect for employees

What’s more, every month, new research seems to appear supporting the case for working more flexibly. We’ve seen countries like Sweden and Denmark explore shorter working days. And research suggests that staff loyalty and wellbeing is boosted by flexible working. The rise of smartphones and the use of Wi-Fi have all contributed to the idea that working out of the office is acceptable.

A flexible future ahead

You just have to look at how our part-time and flexible recruitment agency has grown to see how popular the concept is; we started in Berkhamsted in West Herts and have expanded into six additional areas – North Herts, Sussex, Kent, Hampshire, Gloucestershire & Bristol and Milton Keynes all offering our unique proposition – part-time professionals for Local Businesses. Ten2Two has placed hundreds of candidates into part-time and flexible roles and engaged with hundreds more in their quest for the utopia that is a work/life balance.

A change for the better?

Flexible working still has ground to make however. Some things still feel the same and some employers are still yet to realise the huge variety of formats that flexible working can take. Sadly, these employers are happy to let an employee go, wasting years of training and experience or spend a full time pay budget rather than offer flexible working patterns over full-time working.

If you’d like to find out more about the future of flexible working or explore your flexible working formats, please get in touch. You can contact your local Ten2Two office via our website. In the meantime, please look out for news coming soon about our flexible working research.