Highly Paid Talented Executives Prove Part-Time Mode to be Equally Efficient for Enterprises

Advanced telecommunication technologies have been making it possible for enterprises across the globe to enhance their work strategies to get the most out of their workforce, and one of these strategies is hiring part-time executives for higher positions.

Part-time jobs have often been seen as a slightly derogatory work option, which doesn’t enable the talented and competent female executives to find their potential. But a new bunch of successful and decently paid part-timers are proving the term to be something else.

Timewise Jobs, a specialist recruitment firm, recently framed a part-time ‘power league,’ the top positions which have been claimed by some well-known executives. Some of them are Katie Bickerstaffe, very aptly looking after the U.K. retail business of Dixons working only four days a week; and Helen Michels, global innovation director at Diageo who offers three days every week to her job.

Similarly, the number of male executives holding high positions in organizations worldwide who prefer to work in the part-time mode has also been rising at a rapid rate. Mike Dean, head of the business process outsourcing unit at Accenture (News - Alert) for the territories of U.K., Ireland and the Nordics, is a fine example.

Working for three days every week, Dean manages 16,000 employees and uses the rest of his time to carry out various youth-related activities and enterprise projects in schools.

Duly acknowledging the potential hidden within the new practice, a number of well established enterprises have been adopting the model and emphasizing that flexible working might play a vital role in hiring and retaining extraordinary staff members.

According to Dean, key people in Accenture recognized the fact that this was the only way to compete in the labor market as the younger lot of employees doesn’t seem to be interested in working on 24/7 basis.

Still, a lot has yet to be changed in terms of mindsets and work methodologies in various sectors such as finance, which need the employees to work for long hours.

“Commitment is measured in fairly crude ways. If you are in a senior position and want to work four days, most people think you are signaling that you don’t want a career, your ambition is stunted, and you’re not prepared to be full-time on the corporate treadmill,” commented Stephen Bevan, director of the center for workforce effectiveness at the Work Foundation.

The first lawyer working part-time that was offered the designation of an equity partner at Linlaters was a woman named Nicola Rabson. Offering three-and-a-half days every week to the job, she has been observing this ‘flexible’ mode of working for the past 10 years in order to be able to dedicate more time and attention to her three kids.

“You have to be careful in the way you present yourself so people don’t think you are stepping off the career ladder,” said Rabson. “The way to demonstrate that is in how you work.”

In September 2012, Talented Alliance of Part-Time Professionals (TAPP) expressed its plans to launch a new professional development initiative in 2013 for companies to use with their part-time staff. The organization emphasized that with more than 33 million Americans working part-time in all levels and types of industries, it is crucial that they are well trained and integrated into a company’s culture. 

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