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Availability of Part-time HR Manager roles in London

Paula

Dear All,

RE:  Part-time HR manager roles in London.

I wonder if anybody has been through similar scenarios, and if so, how on earth did you manage to resolve it?

I am a seasoned HR professional with experience of working as part of a global HR team at a large multinational bank in the City, this was followed by significant experience of working in a stand-alone HR manager role at a niche Central London-based asset management boutique where I sat and professionalise their HR function from zero.  I am a Chartered Member of the CIPD, have an MSc in HR Development and Consultancy and I am currently doing a PhD in Organisational Psychology.  I am now looking for a part-time (2-3 days/week) role in HR (really....I would consider any role from: HR advisor through to HR manager/HRBP).  I am not afraid of rolling up my sleeves and putting together paper files and dealing with excel spreadsheets rather than custom-made databases, etc..  Quite happy to deal with transactional/operational work as well as advising senior management.  The challenge is that this type of part-time work appears to be like trying to find a needle in a haystack!  So much for HR coaching and preaching to the business on the wonders of working flexibly!

In addition to the above, recruitment agencies, their consultants, and their wall of silence do not make the process of part-time HR job searching very easy to navigate.  I have dealt with recruitment consultants both from an employer's perspective in which they are only too happy to phone you several times a day and meet up with you at the drop of a hat, and also as a candidate.  The latter scenario is a very different narrative to the former.  As a candidate, recruitment consultants are quite happy to phone you at the last minute to attend an interview at short notice, but then they completely ignore you, do not return your calls, not even meet with you prior to sending you for interviews with one of their clients...My question is: What is this behaviour all about?  At a very basic level, 'acknowledgement' is something that is at the core of our very own identity as human beings (i.e.: who we are).  These walls of silence are not only disrespectful but a serious professional concern that should also worry future employers.  Do they want to be represented by these people?  Do these consultants forget that at a certain point in their lives the shoe may move to the other foot?  If so, I wonder how would they feel about being treated like they treat job applicants? 

I would wholeheartedly appreciate to hear from colleagues that have experienced similar situations (seeking for part-time work in HR in London, dealing with non-responsive recruitment consultants) that have successfully emerged from them.  Also, does anybody know if recruitment consultants are regulated in any way?  If they aren't, they should be!  

Thank you in advance.

Yours sincerely,

Paula

  • Hi Paula,

    Whilst I cannot comment on your first paragraph, I was a recruitment consultant before moving to HR.

    To answer the question "What is this behaviour all about?" it is a very simple answer. Money. The client pays the bills. Candidates do not. If targets are not met in terms of calls made, client meetings or arranged interviews many recruitment firms will cut a consultant's bonus. It is a sales job at the end of the day and if there is a choice between making a phone call that might make them meet target or a call to someone who sent in a CV that was going to get an interview, which do you think they will do?

    And quite frankly about the shoe being on the other foot... they don't have time to care. I would get a written warning if I didn't average 80 business development calls a day, 5 client visits a week etc. I was fresh from university and wanted to get money.

    There are many others who write at length about recruitment more eloquently than I can. Additionally, a number of writers (look up Liz Ryan in particular) give advice about working with agencies.

    As regards regulation, there is the REC. It is voluntary and whilst you can contact them, they can only take action against members.
  • in reply to Cat Jones
    Dear Catherine,

    I really appreciate your frank response and insight.
    Kindest regards

    Paula
  • in reply to Paula
    Hi Paula

    As you say - the irony of HR being the people who should be promoting flexible working and the difficulty of finding it in HR1 There is a growing number of agencies focusing specifically on reduced hours/flexible working (you can find the long list on my twitter profile here: twitter.com/.../lists).

    Some of the key players are Oakleaf Partnership who specialise in HR roles and have set up a dedicated part-time desk which is very dynamic but still struggling to build up sufficient part-time roles (reflection on the market not on them); Availexe which is a newcomer to the party but seems enthusiastic; Capability Jane - one of the earliest pioneers but now operating very much as a job board which can get frustrating and 2to3 days aiming at returning mothers and SMEs but you could get lucky!

    Best wishes, Anna
  • Catherine's insight mirrors my experience - this is a sales job not a HR job for most (and you only have to look up on linkedIn the backgrounds of most people who work in this sector - its not HR that's for sure.) They are heavily pressurised, target driven and largely placement is (at the Adviser/HRBP level) a commodity product. HR and Finance have driven down the margins we are prepared to pay for these recruitment services and therefore its all about placing the maximum number of candidates as easily as possible. If we (HR) are paying 8-12% for a placement then the candidates cant expect a dedicated targeted service.

    In some ways candidates such as yourself do not "fit" any easily describable "Box" and therefore its harder for the agency to see how they can easily place you. You are heavily qualified, and getting more so, you have both big blue chip experience and also niche, but you are looking for anything from a HR Adviser to HRBP role...Therefore rather than spend time working with you over weeks / months to find the "right" job they move on to find the next easily placeable candidate.

    I have often wondered in a quieter moment if there was an alternative market where by instead of the employers paying the fee that the candidate did. Employing a professional "job search" person to help them secure a role. But I think the cost would be too huge for most people as the level of personal service needed would mean Consultants could only work with very few candidates.

    In terms of Part Time - I have found HR to be very open to PT work - BUT (and its a big but) most of the HR part time jobs go to internal people as there is such a demand given the demographic of HR people. So relatively few HR jobs go external. I know a relatively large (compared to say finance) number of HR people who work flexibly, part time, compressed hours etc - but again these are al largely internal - they started as full time.

    As for regulation - I am not sure this would add any value at all? What would you regulate them on? It is we (HR/Finance) who have set the parameters they work in and we who are "happy" with the service they provide. As Catherine started with - we are the customer not the candidate (bluntly) and we either get the service we ant or w use someone else.
  • in reply to Anna
    Dear Anna,

    Thank you very much for your reply, very much appreciated. Your response, Keith's (below), and my own recent experience signal that there is - clearly - a very limited *external* market for part-time HR roles in London. Perhaps naively I thought that being flexible to opportunities ranging from HR advisor to HRBP would make my search for a part-time position a little bit easier, but I was wrong.

    I am extremely grateful to everybody who has taken the time to respond and share their insights/experience.

    Yours very sincerely,

    Paula
  • in reply to Keith
    Dear Keith,

    Thank you very much for your insight, and for taking the time to respond to me. Very much appreciated.

    Kindest regards

    Paula
  • Hi Paula

    While I don't work in London I share your frustrations in looking for part time HR work - especially through agencies.

    I had a recent experience where I called the previous contact I had at a very large, and very well known agency to say I'd like to have a chat with the person doing HR recruitment in my part of the world as I was thinking about moving on.

    He told me they were on holiday but they would call me back - which the guy did, but it was 6 weeks later! He then basically told me I had no chance in getting part time HR work since "companies just don't offer that", but he would be delighted to come and see me in my capacity as HR Manager where I am to see what services they could offer the company, and to meet the management team.

    He went on and on about visiting my company and meeting the key players, which was always going to be a non starter as one of the reasons I'm here is to save the "key players" having to field agency calls all the time!

    By the end of the conversation, I had decided that not only would I not bother submitting my CV, I would never use that agency again voluntarily.

    It's just my experience, but I've actually noticed more part time HR jobs being advertised direct by the employer rather than agencies, so job boards and LinkedIn might be worth a try.

    I went part time in my old job after maternity leave, but I was extremely lucky to find another part time HR job locally when I was being made redundant a few years later.

    I hope that things work out for you.

    Ishbel
  • in reply to Ishbel
    Thank you Ishbel for your response and comments. One of the reasons why I was so hopeful to find a part-time HR role was because I saw several ads advertised in the public domain. However, on closer examination, these positions tended to recruit applicants for organisations based outside of the London or Greater London area (i.e.: Bristol, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Letchworth Garden City, etc.).

    As Keith (above) highlighted earlier, there are very few part-time opportunities available in London itself open to external candidates, particularly if one is not able to offer at least 4 working days per week. This is something that, at the moment, I am unable to do.

    Yes, I would agree that (where possible) it would be ideal to change from full-time to part-time working mode with a current employer. This, however, may be easier to negotiate in larger organisations. Niche/SMEs however (particularly, but not limited to, financial services) where the HR manager works on a stand-alone basis, tend to require that the individual works 4-5 days per week.

    I will keep persevering. It may be that as 'heavily qualified' and 'experienced' as I am as an HR professional I may need to do an admin/secretarial role somewhere (and, as much as I am passionate about it, forget about HR) at least until I finish my PhD. The problem is that for these roles... there is a strong possibility that, unless I deal with the hiring manager directly, recruiters and HR may consider me 'uber' qualified rendering me 'unemployable'. They tend to forget that people may apply for 'lesser' opportunities as a 'trade-off' for work flexibility.

    Alternatively, you may see me soon walking around Bank, St Paul's, or Covent Garden during the rush hour with a placard looking for work. Sad state of affairs, I always believed in the power of the combination of having education, work experience, and skill transferability. The latter is something that, in my experience and that of many candidates that I had interviewed myself as HR manager in the recent past and subsequently hired, appears to be rarely identified by recruiters and other HR managers. It would seem that they tend to go for the 'box ticking' approach, which I suppose is the one that delivers the targets that they need to reach (not criticising others, just trying to explain some of the challenges and also the frustrations).

    Thank you again for taking the time to respond to my post, and share your experience and thoughts. I very much appreciate you taking the time to do this.

    Kind regards

    Paula
  • in reply to Paula
    Hi Paula

    It's really frustrating, as there must be so much talent out there in HR and other fields that isn't being used because people just can't find the work patterns that suit them in the areas where their skills lie.

    Hopefully in the not too distant future with more jobs becoming automated and technological advances meaning that working from home is a much more viable option for many people this will change, but I think it's a mindset thing as much as anything in many organisations at the moment.

    I'm not nearly as busy as I'd like to be in my current job which is frustrating, but I really can't fault the company at all on the flexibility they have shown me while I've been here.

    My normal work pattern is 10 - 2 every day so I can take the kids to school and pick them up again, and I also get every second Friday off as we work a 9-day fortnight - for no less money, and no compressed hours! Everyone loves it, and it really helps with work/life balance.

    Good luck with your endeavours.

    Ishbel
  • in reply to Ishbel
    Hello Ishbel,

    Many thanks for your message. Indeed it is frustrating, particularly for those who are really passionate about making the workplace a better place for everybody, and are equipped and prepared to do that.

    It is with sadness that I regularly hear from employers that they are unable to fill the experienced/highly skilled vacancies that they have because apparently they are unable to find the "talent" they so badly require. That begs the question: Why is this really happening? and Who are they asking to search for that talent?

    There are plenty of candidates available in the market armed with robust hands-on experience and qualifications coupled with 'transferable' skills that can't get a foot in the door (to put it quite bluntly) because they don't quite 'tick all the boxes', or their 'experience does not exactly match' the required. There is some food for thought....

    On a different and more positive note, I am really thrilled that you have found a good employer that has offered you (and others in the organisation) the flexibility required. Absolutely brilliant news!

    Thank you again for your thoughts and for sharing. I really appreciate it.

    Yours very sincerely,

    Paula