Released On 10 November 2016
For Employers: Introducing Cityworks & Cityflex
The Cityparents group is growing! To complement our award-winning Cityparents networks, we’re excited to be launching two more new initiatives in early 2017 aimed at supporting City employers and professionals alike.
Our quarterly Cityparents Policy Works Forum for HR and D&I professionals has been running successfully for 2 years now as a benefit of corporate membership of Cityparents. From the end of this year we are excited to be expanding the forum into a more substantial, standalone offering for City employers called Cityworks which will have its own membership base.
Our Cityworks forum will be a professional network enabling HR and Diversity & Inclusion specialists in City firms to connect with one another and share best practice in supportive workplace policies both within and beyond their own industries. Cityworks will have its own stream of events including the quarterly meetings which will continue in the same format. This will be supplemented by quarterly conference calls, events with external guest speakers and a ‘Networks Exchange’ where members can share approaches to managing successful employee networks. These events will provide HR and Diversity & Inclusion specialists with opportunities to strengthen their own professional development and widen their professional circles.
It’s not just about networking and events though. Membership of Cityworks will offer access to our unique City-wide survey data and benchmarks, including our new ‘City Index’ which measures experiences of work/life balance across City industries and the degree to which employees feel supported by their employers in progressing their career whilst maintaining a fulfilling home life.
Cityworks will also offer access to a ‘databank’ of HR and Diversity & Inclusion policies shared by participating organisations across the City, giving professionals an opportunity to research current and innovative practices as input to their own policy proposals.
Finally, employers who join Cityworks will be able to arrange for a Cityworks presentation to be delivered to their own HR and Diversity & Inclusion colleagues on a range of topics including managing employee networks, setting up internal mentoring schemes, supporting employees going on/returning from parental leave and more.
Cityworks will be launching at the start of 2017 and will offer two tiers of membership, Basic and Premium. For more details about membership benefits and pricing, please contact Helen at Cityparents.
Meet Cityflex, our new jobs site for City professionals and employers that will be launching in the first quarter of 2017.
We’re at the dawn of a flexible working revolution. #HireMeMyWay. #WorkThatWorks. #HappyToTalkFlexibleWorking. The movement is growing.
Yet in spite of the increasing adoption of flexible working policies among City employers, at Cityparents we hear too often members reporting a ‘say/do’ gap between formal policies and day-to-day practices, and that a sustainable work/life ‘balance’ is still beyond their reach. The reality of a hard-working, progressive City career doesn’t always align with the personal commitments and priorities of individuals.
Working parents in particular, who consciously prioritise family life through choice or necessity, are sometimes forced to suspend their careers, leaving behind their professional skills and goals and perpetuating a loss of talent that UK plc cannot afford. Stay-at-home mothers and fathers who wish to fit in part-time professional work alongside their parenting responsibilities are faced with inflexible schedules and expensive childcare or the prospect of turning their backs on a hard-earned City career.
We believe strongly that work and family life shouldn't be an 'either/or' choice. We believe people with professional backgrounds and skills who want to integrate work into their home lives should be able to do so.
Cityflex will enable those with ‘City’ backgrounds and professional skills and experience to find flexible roles that suit and will provide ‘City’ businesses with a fantastic talent pool of potential resource. Our experienced candidates offer the right skills and qualifications for City businesses, with careers across law, banking/finance, management consultancy, human resources, accountancy and professional services.
Cityflex will enable recruiters to reach our fast-growing audience of Cityparents - our network of 10,000 working parents in City professions - and places candidates in front of big-name City businesses. In advertising professional roles that offer flexibility across the City and Canary Wharf, Cityflex is uniquely placed to attract skilled and experienced individuals at mid-senior career levels, and career returners.
We know that advertised jobs don't always state the flexibility that workers really need, so our unique community will place a spotlight on the professionals seeking work and their time and talent, as well as available roles. As well as searching our jobs board, individuals will be able to create an online profile detailing their skills and availability to work, and businesses will be able to browse online profiles to find a highly-skilled, flexible and cost-effective workforce – and an under-utilised talent pool.
Cityflex will be competitively priced offering excellent value relative to other flexible working recruitment sites. It’ll be free for candidates to browse jobs and create an online profile sharing their skills and time, and great value for employers and recruiters to post jobs and buy candidate credits.
We’ll keep you posted as we get closer to the launch date for Cityflex. In the meantime, if you’d like to find out more, please contact Louisa at Cityparents.