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Karen Mattison was shocked at the lack of quality part-time work for women, so she tackled the problem head-on. Her inspiring initiative has just won her and her partner MBEs
Karen Mattison (right) and Emma Stuart, co-founders of Women Like Us, which helps women to find skilled part-time work. Photograph: Amit Lennon/for the Guardian
In her late 30s, after studying at Oxford and working in the charity sector, Karen Mattison found herself at an impasse. She had young children and no longer wanted to work full-time – but she couldn't find a suitable part-time job. All that was available was low-skilled and low-waged. And she wasn't alone. "I kept meeting women and getting this message of frustration," she says. "They were always asking, 'Where are these elusive part-time jobs?'"
Mattison realised that the country's female talent was being wasted. There must be plenty of companies, she reasoned, that would love a skilled employee, but might be able to afford their services for only a few days – or even just one day – a week. The trick would be to target these employers and match them with women wanting part-time employment that suited their abilities. The idea was the germ of her company, Women Like Us, which she started in 2005 with co-director Emma Stewart, after securing £25,000 funding from the then department of trade and industry. This month the two women were awarded MBEs.
The company has offices in London and is a free service for women looking for part-time jobs. About 30% of what they do is traditional recruitment, with employers paying to advertise; the rest is government contract work – finding employees for local community organisations, for example.
It began almost as a word-of-mouth scheme. Mattison and Stewart had worked together at a mental health charity, and, says Mattison, "Suddenly, we both found we were in contact with lots of charities and employers who were saying to us, 'Do you know anyone who can do one day a week?'" They produced some flyers – which advertised courses on interview skills as well as the recruitment service – and distributed them in bookbags at Mattison's children's school. Women passed them on to friends and relatives, and soon they had a large takeup. Five years on, this word-of-mouth approach is still a big part of their business, and the company has a relationship with 229 schools in London, has registered more than 17,000 women and helped more than 2,000 employers recruit women into part-time positions.
Mattison is most proud of a bigger practical milestone though – convincing thousands of employers, more generally, of the business case for taking on part-timers. "I've always believed there is no point in talking to employers about how important work/life balance is . . . Instead, we talk about the business benefits. You get a £40,000 person for £20,000. You get talent and expertise that perhaps you could not afford for five days a week."
As Mattison points out, they work at both ends of the spectrum. "We're about finding all kinds of jobs for all kinds of women. At one end, that means low-entry, low-income jobs that help to raise families out of poverty. At the other end, it's highly skilled jobs for, say, lawyers and accountants."
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