A few weeks ago I was on a call with a candidate who is a brilliant operations coordinator. Ten years of experience in logistics, knows the industry backwards, well-regarded by everyone she has ever worked with. She had been out of the workforce for two years after her second child and was ready to come back.

Halfway through the conversation she paused and said, quite quietly, that she just was not sure roles like the one she used to do were available to someone in her situation anymore. School pickup at three. A husband who works shift work. A toddler who still has bad nights.

I told her what I am going to tell you. Roles like that exist. They are more common than you think. And the businesses offering them are not doing it out of charity. They are doing it because they have worked out that someone like her, working four days with a clear remit and a bit of trust, is worth more to them than someone less experienced working five.

What flexibility looks like in our industries

At TRS we recruit in manufacturing, logistics, supply chain, freight, transport, packaging, and construction. These are not industries that get talked about much when flexibility comes up. The assumption is that flexibility belongs in office jobs, knowledge work, professional services. The rest of us just turn up.

That assumption is so out of date! I have placed candidates in roles where they finish at 2.30pm every day so they can do school pickup. I have placed people in compressed weeks where they work four longer days and have Fridays off. I have placed candidates returning from parental leave into roles that started part-time and grew back to full-time as their kids got older. I have placed people who needed to work from home two days a week because their partner travels for work.

None of these were unicorn roles at unicorn companies. They were real roles at real businesses who had decided that the person they wanted was worth being a bit creative about how the role was structured.

What candidates tell me they want

I speak to a lot of people who are circumnavigating exactly this. Parents returning from leave. People who have been out of the workforce for a period and are coming back carefully. People who are caring for someone and need some predictability in their days.

What I hear is not that they want to work less. They want to work well. They want a role they can commit to fully, without it coming apart every time something happens at home. They want an employer who understands that being a parent or a carer does not make them less capable. It usually makes them more organised, more focused, and more grateful for an employer who treats them like an adult.

What the businesses doing this well have in common

In my experience, the employers who get this right are not doing anything complicated. They have just thought carefully about which parts of the role are genuinely non-negotiable and which parts have more flex than they initially assumed.

They communicate clearly in the job ad about what flexibility looks like. They do not make candidates guess or ask awkward questions in interviews. They treat the arrangement as a normal part of the role design, not a special favour.

And they measure the right things. Output, not hours. Results, not presence.

Designing Flexible Roles That Work: A Practical Guide for Employers

If you are a candidate reading this

The roles exist. Not every role, not every employer, but more than you think. Be direct about what you need in an interview. A good employer will not be put off by it. And if they are, that tells you something useful.

I work with businesses who are genuinely open to flexible arrangements for the right person. If you are looking for your next role and want to have an honest conversation about what is possible, I would be glad to help.