How to hire stay-at-home parents

Gambas

I have a role that I feel would be particularly suited to a stay-at-home parent, perhaps where the last of their kids has now started school, as it could be done during school hours.

The problem is making contact with these people because often they aren't actively looking for a job at this point in time.

Any advice on how to advertise to them? Looking for someone with some experience in a particular engineering discipline (civil), so it is dependent on certain qualifications.

LinkedIn doesn't seem to be an option from what I have seen, but could be wrong. I've considered putting up notices in primary schools. Any other suggestions?

AndrewJRenko

A notice in the school is a good idea. Many schools will have unofficial WhatsApp groups for parents, so you could try to get some family and friends to share details of the opportunity on those groups. School holidays are a huge problem for working parents, so offer a solution for this up-front.

PhoenixParker

Facebook groups.
Search for ones that are both relevant and where it’s appropriate to post.
Buy and sell groups for specific locations would be a good start.

Big Bag of Chips

Don't assume that stay at home parents aren't browsing job sites, or sections in the newspaper. Especially parents whose children are gone to school. I was a stay at home parent for 10 years and often browsed jobs to see if there was anything I could do part-time, or anything available in the work from home market.

If somebody has no interest in working they won't be looking and even if you knock on their door and offer them the job they won't accept it. But if someone is thinking about how to combine working and staying at home, they'll be looking for those types of jobs (and they are rare as hens teeth!).

By the way if you advertise a job you can't really state that you only want applications from a certain group of people. Even if you specifically target stay at home parents, you might find others getting wind of the job opportunity and applying too. You'll have to accept all applications, and if you really want a stay at home parent then you'll obviously have to narrow that down yourself.

Lu Tze

If you have very specific engineer experience requirements, engineers Ireland has a job page, it may be worth enquiring how much it is to place an advert there, as hitting schools etc hit your target demographic, it would be pot luck to get an engineer, and even more so to get one with the experience you are looking for.

You are also likely excluding people who might change jobs for more flexible working hours/work from home that aren't parents.

Gambas

Thanks for the replies. Food for thought there. Must look into Facebook and the EI etc...

Big Bag of Chips wrote: »

By the way if you advertise a job you can't really state that you only want applications from a certain group of people. Even if you specifically target stay at home parents, you might find others getting wind of the job opportunity and applying too. You'll have to accept all applications, and if you really want a stay at home parent then you'll obviously have to narrow that down yourself.

Absolutely. As you say we are targeting stay-at-home parents, but that doesn't mean that it wouldn't be suitable for others who are looking for flexible work. We have targeted third level colleges too.

ldy4mxonucwsq6

Gambas wrote: »

I have a role that I feel would be particularly suited to a stay-at-home parent, perhaps where the last of their kids has now started school, as it could be done during school hours.

The problem is making contact with these people because often they aren't actively looking for a job at this point in time.

Any advice on how to advertise to them? Looking for someone with some experience in a particular engineering discipline (civil), so it is dependent on certain qualifications.

LinkedIn doesn't seem to be an option from what I have seen, but could be wrong. I've considered putting up notices in primary schools. Any other suggestions?

Put it up on LinkedIn anyway as a post rather than a job application, even if you think your target audience isn't on LinkedIn their partner/friend/relative might be active there.

There are also plenty of parenting forums such as EuMom, Rollercoaster and Mummypages that you could use.

herbalplants

Hi ,
I have sent you a private message in relation to this.

GalwayGrrrrrl

And don’t forget you mustn’t ask about children/family circumstances in any interviews.
One thing to remember is that schools are closed a lot - midterms, Easter, Christmas, 9 weeks in summer, odd days for teacher training. Be clear about whether you will be expecting the employee to work these days and, if not, whether salary will be spread over 10 or 12 months. Good on you for offering family friendly work though, very hard to find these jobs

fits

There is a Irish company that specialize in this. Forget the name but google them. Abodoo worth a look too.

Edit. Look up careers for mums on Facebook. Dublin based.