My thoughts on agile working

When we released the?2024 Women in Business report ?at Grant Thornton, I was disappointed to see that the number of women holding CEO positions in UK mid-market businesses dropped by 8% in the last year – potentially correlating with the ramp-up from some businesses mandating returns to in-office working.?

Here, I’m going to share my own experiences and values around flexible and agile working, how this informs the way I manage my team, and why I believe more businesses should promote agile working models.?

The facts: pathways to parity?

Our most recent research shows that in the UK, 37% of businesses are now primarily office-based, a 4% increase from 2023. This correlates with a?2.1% drop in flexible working, which concerningly places the UK behind the global average.?

The overall trend is that more people are being required to return to the office, and fewer businesses are adopting hybrid and flexible working policies.

In parallel and potentially because of the increased return to office-based working,?just?22% of UK mid-market businesses have a woman CEO or managing director, down from 30% in 2023. And we know that businesses in which workers are primarily home-based or working flexibly are the ones with a higher percentage of women in senior management roles.

My story?

This latest research has only strengthened my long-standing belief that flexible and agile working are crucial to achieving gender parity in the workplace.?

This is a topic I’m personally very passionate about. Simply put, if the organisation I was working for when I had my son hadn’t been flexible, I would’ve had to leave the workforce.?

After my son Barnaby was born, I planned to return to work four days per week after maternity leave. However, when Barnaby was seven months old, he suffered from bronchiolitis, which resulted in a hospital stay. He was having an asthmatic reaction to the virus and was subsequently diagnosed with viral induced brittle asthma, which meant that every time he got a cold, he ended up in hospital. This triggered a series of over 40 hospital stays of 3 or 4 nights, over a four-year period.?

I had to reassess my plan to return to work. I took a short career break, then transitioned to a one-day-a-week role and eventually increased to two days a week, juggling work and Barnaby's hospital stays. I was supported to work on different days, at different times and locations to accommodate Barnaby's needs. He’s been much better for a number of years now and so I have been able to continue growing my career, while still giving my son the support he needs.?

Without the flexibility of this working arrangement, my career trajectory would have looked quite different. This is why it’s so important to adopt working practices that support people when they experience challenges, and don’t restrict their future opportunities.

Women also often bear the brunt of the mental load, managing everything from medication to after-school activities and appointments, which can significantly impact their work. In an article for the BBC,?The hidden load: How ‘thinking of everything’ holds mums back , author Melissa Hogenboom explains the often invisible and underestimated work that mothers perform in their households. Despite progress toward gender equality, women continue to shoulder a disproportionate share of cognitive and emotional labour related to family responsibilities, which can of course be through choice, but also through genetic makeup or circumstance. It’s important for us to consider how we can limit this potential impact on women’s career journeys.?

Practicing what I preach?

Personally, I don’t mind whatsoever where my team is located. We have a great team culture founded on trust, so, as long as we stay connected with each other, I’m more than happy.?

Of course, we need to consider how best we can support junior team members, especially if they're working from home. This is why I believe in finding a balance between remote and in-office work, and to be considerate about how people learn and socialise at different stages of their careers.?

We’ve moved beyond the home versus office debate. Now it’s about finding a model that supports our work, our teams, and our individual needs. It’s not always easy, but we make it work by adapting and evolving over time.??

Supporting ‘squiggly careers’?

We talk internally and to our clients about ‘squiggly’, non-linear careers. It boils down to acknowledging that both career peaks and troughs are real, sideways as well as upwards moves and that, perhaps, we don’t talk as much as we should about the troughs that people experience – whether intentionally or not. By this, I mean the times when we’ve needed to take a step back and re-evaluate our work-life balance. I've experienced this myself and have no regrets about the choices I've made, but these career decisions can absolutely impact the number of female CEOs we see in organisations – especially if we see age as a barrier to progression.?

There’s a great opportunity to tap into the experience and brainpower of the over-50s workforce, especially women who may have taken time out earlier in their careers to raise families, and now have the time, headspace and drive to fill the CEO gap. It's crucial to recognise and value this experience, and it’s great to see groups like?55/Redefined ?who specifically advocate for leveraging the wisdom and experience of over 50s talent, both men and women.?

There are plenty of opportunities in the workforce, and it doesn’t make sense to narrow the talent pool based on age, gender or any protected characteristic. Flexible working is a brilliant start to making sure that the right people are in the right roles.?

What’s next??

Clearly, inflexible working practices have a negative impact on women in C-level and senior roles. I find it tough to identify a compelling enough reason to support the renewed drive to bring everyone, not just women, back into the office.?

I was encouraged to see how working from home during the initial and subsequent lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic changed the expectation of mandated office-based working and constant travel for certain roles, which made it easier for many women to balance work and life. I worry that if we aren’t deliberate about what we do next, the progress we’ve made could start to roll backwards.?

I would encourage all businesses to learn more about how to improve parity. Reading the pathways to parity report is a great start, as it gives insight into the most effective business models to achieve this:?Women in business 2024: Pathways to parity | Grant Thornton ?

If my story or any of these concepts or ideas resonate with you, I’d love to hear about it. Share your own experiences in the comments, and?don’t hesitate to send me a message on LinkedIn or visit my?Grant Thornton profile .

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