The majority of working mothers are finding it difficult to find the flexibility they need when searching for jobs.

These are the findings of a survey by WorkingMums.co.uk, a jobsite for women searching for flexible job opportunities, which quizzed over 600 mothers and found that a staggering 90 per cent say they have encountered problems finding a job that offered the flexibility that they need, and 83 per cent reported difficulties finding flexible work that utilised their skills.

The survey also found that the majority of women questioned put flexibility as their top priority when searching for jobs. The survey authors have therefore warned that employers are missing out on a large talent pool by failing to offer flexible working to mothers.

Gillian Nissim, founder of WorkingMums.co.uk, said: “The major hurdles that working mums face are around achieving some kind of work/life balance together with the costs and logistics of childcare. Offering flexibility goes a long way to helping address these issues – whether that’s in the form of reduced or compressed hours, and/or through enabling homeworking some or all of the time.”

Further findings showed that over half felt employers were unsympathetic to mothers and 86 per cent believed flexible positions paid less.

Alex Cheatle, manager director of lifestyle management company Ten UK, says he has built his business around flexible workers, many of whom are working mothers who work from home. He commented: “For us, time management is critical as is the ability to multi-task. Mums are great at managing time as they are used to keeping unmovable deadlines and to doing many things at once.”

Nissim added: “For employers, the benefits of offering flexiblity can be huge – and it can be a very cost-effective way of attracting and retaining high calibre and experienced employees who are loyal, focused and productive.”