Many of our individual clients wish to work part-time in some way or to combine full time work with an element of home working. In some cases, they wish to work part-time with an element of home working.
A lawyer from a large City law firm:
This lawyer made an application to work 4 days a week. Her proposal was that she would make herself available to her clients and colleagues on the day that she was not working if necessary. When a tight deadline arose, she proposed working full-time for a period of time in order to ensure that the high level of client service was maintained. Once that deadline was met, she would return to her normal part time working pattern.
This individual was a highly qualified lawyer of 9 years experience in Litigation. She had a client base which encompassed both UK and foreign clients, particularly from the Middle East thus was operating across different time zones. The litigation work involved some very tight deadlines which could not be missed. She was a specialist in her area so not many others in her team could take on her work on the days that she wasn’t available. She was responsible for mentoring some of the more junior members of her team who sometimes needed her input at very short notice and sometimes this was urgently required.
The business case for this application was:
• The firm would retain a highly experienced and specialist lawyer who would remain loyal to the firm instead of leaving to find a suitable flexible position in a competing firm.
• The clients could be serviced at different times of the day/evening thus allowing more client interaction than a rigid 9-5 which only overlapped the clientís working day with a few hours.
• She would be able to continue mentoring the more junior members of staff with whom she had built relationships
• Her salary would be pro ñ rata therefore reducing the firm’s outgoings
A Firm of lawyers in the West End of London
This firm of lawyers recognised that they needed to attract and retain the best possible talent to ensure that they remained competitive. They were competing for talent with the top law firms and recognised that they could not compete in terms of high level client work nor in terms of salary levels. They decided that they could attract the best talent by offering a genuine work-life balance for their lawyers.
Time4balance was asked to advise them on how they could employ lawyers on a flexible working basis to determine whether there was potential for a sustainable flexible working policy and practice. They needed to ensure that their promise of a better work-life balance could become a reality for all their lawyers and not just a select few who were in a particular practice area.
They required advice on what support these lawyers would need and how that support could be optimised and sustainable. They also needed advice on how to manage the client relationship and expectations if the lawyer working with the client was on a flexible working arrangement.
A bank manager in a global bank:
This highly qualified and experienced individual wished to work a 3 or 4 day. Her role had historically required a great deal of travel all over the world with secondments to a number of branches of the bank worldwide. She requested a transfer to the UK with a commitment from the Bank to permit her to stay in the UK and not to be seconded abroad. She was prepared to travel on business but wished to remain permanently in the UK.
At first the bank refused her request on the basis that her role required her to travel abroad and be seconded as she had been historically. They also insisted that her role was a full time one and could not be performed on a part-time basis.
After advice from Time4balance, the individual and her employer devised a new role for her which drew on her 18 years experience with the bank and allowed her to still develop her career. It was agreed that she would return initially on a full time basis for 3 months which would then reduce to a part-time role once she had established the new role and was proving that the role could be performed part-time. The bank retained a highly prized manager and she retained her career.
