Businesses need to do more to support working parents, lawyer says

A senior lawyer at ANZ has urged businesses to reassess their hiring practices and support mechanisms for parents, particularly those re-entering the workforce after a career hiatus.

Speaking recently on The HR Leader Podcast, Porscia Lam, a senior procurement lawyer at ANZ, shared valuable insights into the steps that businesses should take to make the workplace more inclusive for parents.

In the same episode, she discussed the unique challenges she encountered while attempting to re-enter the legal profession, despite the increased availability of support for partners transitioning back into the workforce.

Lam suggested that businesses adopt a more open-minded and flexible approach to their recruiting processes, saying that lawyers returning to the workforce bring valuable skills and experience that can be instrumental to a firm’s success.

“I think making a real effort to offer interviews to candidates who have that career break but otherwise have every other attribute that you would be looking for in a candidate is a really important first step,” she said.

A key strategy proposed by Lam for those returning from a career hiatus is to facilitate discussions regarding flexible working arrangements during the recruitment process, even when positions are advertised as full-time.

“Having discussions about roles that might be advertised at full time and having a discussion about whether they could be done on a part time basis is really helpful as well,” she said.

Lam shared her own experience implementing this strategic approach, which enabled her to restructure her work schedule to a four-day workweek instead of adhering to a traditional full-time schedule.

“The role that I ended up taking was advertised full-time. But then, when I had the discussion with the hiring manager, I could recognise the fact that I came in with more experience than they necessarily needed and was able to hit the ground running faster and possibly do things more efficiently. I was able to take the role at a four-day-a-week arrangement,” she said.

She explained how this approach has proved advantageous for both parties, saying that it “helped me with my personal obligations at home, but also still made sure that the business got what they needed in terms of output”.

In addition, Lam suggested that businesses should explicitly say in job advertisements that they are open to discussing flexible working arrangements or reduced hours for the right candidate.

“But maybe even having that in the job ads to say we consider this to be a full-time role but we would be open to discussions about flexible working or reduced hours for the right candidate. I think that opens the door to have that discussion a little bit more,” she said.

On the other side, Lam said that candidates can take proactive measures to successfully navigate their return to the workforce.

“For the candidates themselves, there are things that they can do. For example, looking for different types of roles to the ones that they were originally working in,” she said.

“Contract roles I found were really good, good for me personally as a candidate because it meant that I could forecast six months or 12 months in advance and work out the logistics at home for six months rather than continuously the way you would for a permanent role.”

She said that gradually re-entering the workforce through contract positions made the transition to work less daunting, allowing her to manage her family and work commitments more effectively.

“That certainly makes the challenge seem less intimidating and certainly it helped me mentally feel more prepared to tackle the role when it was, you know, a contract role as opposed to a permanent one,” she said.