Marketing in Kensington - what's your ideal work schedule?

[Marketer]

What work pattern works best for professional working mums?

Is it better to offer short hours over a 5 day week or normal office hours over a 3 or 4 day week. What's the best balance between working at home vs working in the office? How about a full time job that runs term time only or some combination of all the above?

I'm putting together a job description for a client whose budget won't get them the skills they need on a full time basis, but who can be very flexible about the work schedule. They're only a small business and this is their first marketing hire so they need to attract and keep someone brilliant on a annual take home of £25-£35K. I'd really value suggestions on what members feel would work best and any issues that might arise.

Thanks

For employees with school age children, if the job is one that most people have a short commute for (unlikely I am guessing) then 5 short days (say finish at 2.30pm) is in theory good as the employee has a chance to be in every day and feel on top of emails, messages etc.

However, in practice, I think 2 or 3 days is better as the employer probably wants to be able to schedule meetings in the afternoons sometimes and it is better to be realistic about what can be offered, also if the commute is long enough that the employee still needs after school childcare it is cheaper to use this only 2 or 3 days a week.

Also, I think a lot of people wanting a part-time job have pre-school age children which means that they would usually be much better off only needing to book childcare 2 or 3 full days a week, it is nigh on impossible to buy only the hours you need for 5 short days.

If the company can be very flexible about the schedule, can they advertise the role as X hours per week, and then discuss the exact details of the schedule with their preferred candidate? Different people will have different preferences - I suggest a flexible company is most likely to get what they want by finding the right person first and agreeing the schedule later.

I agree - unless they have specific times when the employee needs to be there, then say how many hours per week and any core hours they need to work.

I am curious about the job - am looking for marketing job in this location!