A survey led by Leeds digital marketing agency ICS-digital reveals that a quarter of marketing professionals didn’t feel supported when returning to work after having children.
The study found that one in four (25%) marketing professionals with children “don’t have maternity or paternity processes at their place of employment sufficient to make them feel positive about having children”.
Almost a quarter of new parents in the industry (23%) didn’t feel fully supported on their return to work, with 62% of those stating that “feeling supported when returning to work is essential”, especially when searching for new roles or being eased back into their current workplace.
The survey by ICS-digital quizzed 150 marketing professionals with children, undertaking research to gather an increased understanding on wider industry trends.
Conducted to mark nine months since the formation of FlexHub by ICS, a global community of digital specialists and language professionals, the results from the study have been fed into a broader strategic plan for the business, with a focus on continuing to enhance working practices for employees at all stages of their professional lives within the company.
“We’ve noticed a shift in how businesses work since the pandemic, and really wanted to go a step further than offering just flexi-time initiatives”, said Emma Carey, head of global resourcing.
“By offering a unique program for professionals from all backgrounds and providing maximum flexibility and support, we believe that we’ve struck a nice balance with FlexHub so far, while taking on plenty of learnings and tools for improvement over the last nine months.”
In response to employee feedback and external survey results from the wider marketing industry, ICS “wanted to provide professionals who don’t have the capacity or need to work full-time with greater options.”
The scheme grants members full access to a bespoke task management portal, carefully curated resource materials, a ‘refer a friend’ scheme, and a supportive and knowledgeable in-house team.
FlexHub, which officially launched in October 2023, was developed to create opportunities for people from all walks of life, from final-year university students to new parents looking to start work again with a more flexible schedule, or recent retirees who don’t want to completely stop work.
Members of FlexHub are offered unparalleled flexibility, with the ability to choose their working hours, days and location without feeling detached from the agency as a whole.
Since its launch, FlexHub has attracted 190 new collaborators from all over the world, plus 21 local members who regularly attend the Leeds office. ICS has a dedicated resourcing team to process all applications.
Of its members, seven have successfully gained full-time positions within ICS, showcasing the company’s commitment to its internal onboarding procedures.
‘Primary’ parents are able to take up to 39 weeks’ full pay under the scheme, while ‘secondary’ parents are permitted six weeks of paid leave after the birth of a child.
Charlotte Green, Director at ICS-digital, said: “FlexHub has been a huge success since its introduction, attracting some amazing global talent and supporting our ambition to provide first-class, scalable solutions for our clients.
“The initiative has allowed us to provide more support to our experts than ever before and continue to drive our culture of collaboration, innovation and diversity. We have no plans to slow down. FlexHub will enable us to accelerate our growth, expand our service offering and continue to build upon the exceptional service our clients expect.
“The success of the first nine months of FlexHub combined with the launch of our market-leading family policies earlier this year is just one example of us continually striving to deliver a culture of excellence for our employees throughout their careers with us here at ICS.”
