New research from Onecom, an independent UK business telecommunications provider, reveals that one in ten mothers who were employed before they had children and who carried on working after their maternity leave expired, went on to set up their own businesses.
Of those interviewed who have done this over the past 20 years, one in five (21%) set up their businesses between 2017 and 2019. Some 79% of the ‘mumpreneurs’ interviewed said they did this because they couldn’t find the flexibility they needed working for someone else.
One in four (23%) said it was due to advances in technology and telecoms making it much easier to set up their own enterprises, and one in 25 said it was because debt and loans to fund a new business is currently cheap.
Of those working mums who went back to their old jobs either full or part-time, only 55% felt their employers gave them the flexibility needed to meet their duties both at work and as mothers by, for example, allowing them to work from home more. Furthermore, 29% said that the nature of their job had altered when they went back to work through for example a new job title, the postponement of a promotion or changes to their job specification.
Parysa Hosseini-Sech, Head of Human Resources, Onecom said: “The pace of progress in telecoms and cloud computing means there are unprecedented levels of flexibility around how people work and from where. We are seeing a lot of companies now embracing this and offering more flexibility, but many women are still choosing to set up their own business after having children to get the full flexibility and balance they need.
“We feel more employers can take greater advantage of new technology to help ensure mothers returning to work after their maternity leave have the flexibility they so clearly need as working mums and to retain them in their talent pool.”
Onecom offers a range of products and services to strengthen the digital infrastructure available to enterprises. It helps businesses get better, more reliably connected, at far faster speeds.
