As a mother of two small boys, I know only too well the challenges of balancing a demanding full time role with family life, there’s no way to dress it up – it’s can be hard, really hard.  Long hours, missing out on bedtime and the stress of balancing home and a demanding job is difficult, but why should we have to choose – work or family? Why can’t we have both?  After all, our DNA didn’t change when we gave birth and our knowledge and experience is still intact (in fact certain skills such as prioritisation and negotiation definitely improve after becoming a mum!)

This is why we created Mums@Work, the first dedicated company in the region making flexible and part-time working a reality. Unlike many other places in the world we are yet to fully venture into flexible working in this region, which seems crazy given the vast skills and experience mothers can provide to businesses.

Whilst I would love to take all the credit for the foresight and creation of the Mums@Work, this has to be given to David Mackenzie, founder of Mums@Work aka ‘Our Dad’, over the past 11 years David has built Mackenzie Jones to be one of the region’s largest recruitment companies in the GCC.

We always knew the demand for flexible working existed so we weren’t surprised to learn from our research with YouGov, that 77% of mothers in the UAE would choose to go back to work after having children, if they were able to do so on a flexible or part-time basis. Think about that for a minute… what a huge waste of super talented women who are keen to return to the workplace and who would bring so many benefits to business – all they need is a little flexibility in the ways of working- a  no brainer I would say and since launch we have found so many companies agree!

In the first two months   we have been inundated with CV’s which showcase amazing experience and very talented mums looking for roles – to date we have over 6,000 CV’s and have seen over 21,000 people join our social media channels. Clients have been equally as receptive to the idea of flexible working, with hundreds of meetings already taken place and over 40 roles posted on our social media channels – from large multinationals, to local companies and SME’s and Start-ups.

It doesn’t stop there, the jobs are just a part of what we are creating, our website www.mumsatwork.ae delivers an end-to-end career hub where we are working with Industry experts to provide advice to support you through the process of re-joining the workplace. From CV writing to skills enhancement, to building your social media channels and top interview tips… we have it all!  Also, from September we will launch our workshops and events which will further provide expert guidance to landing your dream role.

Do spread the word to all those mums out there looking for that holy grail of work and family balance!