Work-life balance, or is it life-work balance? Or is it simply life?

James Slade-Symons

Sure, we all want more flexibility. As a 40 something Dad, I love to see my 2 terrors walk up the driveway after a long day at school and then pick up their belongings as they deposit them around the house. But in reality, how do we all become self-employed (best boss I’ve ever had by the way) without the risk of stepping out alone or having to do sales.

This is our story over the last 2 years.

Our hard-working team of business partners, an army of magnificently skilled and patient Mums, all juggling family commitments came together to provide an HR-On-Demand service. Companies wanted access to HR professionals, without the ongoing overheads or challenge of trying to keep up with the crazy salary race. Our team wanted flexibility, to work from home, and in some cases step back into the workforce after maternity leave. But not fulltime, and certainly not commuting every-day.

Whilst we provide a variety of HR services, the most consistent question has been, “Can you recruit for us? But we only want to pay for the time you spend sourcing and presenting candidates”. The fairness approach. Do work and get paid proportionally for the work we do. Yeah, seems fair enough. So, we did.

Surprisingly, even for complex roles we’re averaging between 7 hours, up to 20 hours for highly technical or specialised roles.

Cost wise, that’s about $700 to $2,000..plus GST of course.

People don’t like outsourcing, but a local team of experienced On-Demand -HR Business Partners seems to have hit a chord. The ironic part is that Mums (and Dads if this sounds like you – help me address the gender balance!) are referring other Mums to come and work with us. The one abundant resource in an otherwise talent short market. They want the life-work balance too.

We see ourselves as the bit after companies have tried to hire directly, and the option before going to recruitment agencies. We don’t need to compete with anyone, we simply want to grow our team and help others enjoy the benefits of life-work freedom, whilst helping companies flourish based on their scalable needs.

Sure, this is a subtle plug. I can’t help myself, but equally I really believe we are on to something new and simple that works for everyone.

If you’d like to work with us, drop me a line on jss@macarthurhumancapital.com