Society has been experiencing a significant shift in norms over the past 20 years.

The traditional role of the male as bread winner and female as home maker is all but forgotten in a time where the demand for lifestyle is high and the parity between wages and house prices is widening. Families are finding the only way to maintain a comfortable existence is to move to the double income model of the 21st century.

But juggling the commitments of motherhood with paid work can be a hard act to balance. A typical day for a working mum can involve school/day-care preparations, drop-offs, paid work, lunch hours spent looking for that perfect book parade costume, pick-ups, sport, home work, dinner preparation, house work, online bill paying and story time. And this is a typical day, not a busy one! 

So how do employers ensure their working mothers are productive during the time they spend at work?

The simple answer is to provide a flexible working environment and the technology to match. This may be in the form of shorter working days or a shorter working week. Being mindful that attending a school sports carnival can be a big deal to a little person and accommodate these special requests for time off so that mums still feel like they are still a part of their children's lives is important. Some jobs have the ability for mums to work from home from time to time. This can be handy when the kids are sick or so that mum can make up a couple of hours that she took off to attend a parent-teacher interview.

Blackburn Prior recognised many years ago that if they wanted to retain professional female staff who produced high quality output, they needed to turn the traditional full-time accountant role on its head. And the success of their "Women in the Workplace" model has paid dividends. 

Today over 80% of Blackburn Prior's workforce are females and of these, almost 85% are working mums (or grandmothers), most with flexible working arrangements. The female contingency includes three Chartered Accountants ("CA"), a number of soon-to-be CA's/CPA's as well as practically experienced junior accountants. The female administration staff members are just as an important in providing specialist knowledge, particularly in the areas of information technology, government agency liaison and firm-wide support.

To find out more about how you can create a family friendly workplace click here  

Written by: Jaime Bates (Blackburn Prior Manager/Working Mum)