Flexible Working at Baillie Gifford

Alistair Smith, Clients Department Director at Baillie Gifford, talks to the benefits of flexible working, especially when it comes to his family.

“Flexible working at Baillie Gifford is nothing new. In fact, there are a number of people who work varying hours, for a multitude of reasons. One such individual is Alistair Smith, who changed his working pattern to suit his family’s needs, “It may sound cliché, but work-life balance played a big part in my decision to do it,” Ali says. “My wife, Louise, works a 9-day fortnight and I saw how much she got out of it. I wanted to do the same, and have a bit more time with my children.”

Before Ali decided to move away from the Monday to Friday nine to five, he put a lot of thought into whether or not he could continue to undertake his current role and implement a 9-day fortnight, “I thoroughly assessed whether I could still do my existing job, before arriving at my final decision,” says Ali. “The next step involved a discussion with my line manager, who was very supportive.”

Between the birth of their daughter, Katie (aged five), and their son, Finlay (aged two), new legislation was introduced in the UK allowing parents to split maternity leave. This prompted Ali to take three months paternity leave so Louise could go back to work after nine months. “Katie had a parent at home for the first 12 months and we were keen for Finlay to have the same experience,” Ali says.

Shared maternity leave is a relatively new initiative in the UK. However, it’s a different story in Sweden, a country with a very forward-thinking paternity policy, “Sweden introduced ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ paternity leave decades ago and have increased it over time,” Ali explains, “It’s very different in the UK and although shared paternal leave is available, there’s still an expectation that the mother will take most of the time off, and no real nudge towards a cultural shift of men sharing the leave. The difference in Sweden is that if men don’t use the leave on offer, they miss out, which makes the father more inclined to make the most of it.

“Beyond the obvious biological reasons of the first few months, there’s no real reason why men can’t share the leave,” says Ali. “There are, however, societal reasons for this – men are, unfortunately, still higher earners on average and the financial impact of taking time off is obviously a big factor. This could be remedied by more generous maternity leave and longer payment periods. Although this may seem like a challenge for businesses to implement, the benefits outweigh the obstacles. Going back to Sweden, their approach has led to much higher female participation in senior roles because women, relative to their male colleagues, don’t spend as much time away from work as in the UK. The best way to make the gender balance more equal is to tackle the inequitable maternity/paternity leave situation, and encourage men to participate in flexible working patterns. If this can become the cultural norm in the UK, we too could reap the benefits.”

Although the UK doesn’t have the same policies as Sweden, we could still benefit from making men more aware of what’s available to them, “It’s almost inevitable that if both men and women were more aware of shared parental leave, more couples would take advantage of it,” says Ali. “But there is also a cultural barrier to overcome, and the more men who take longer periods of paternity leave and embrace flexible working, the greater the chance it will become integrated in our society.”

As Ali points out, every family’s situation is different, but he wouldn’t hesitate to recommend both flexible working and shared paternal leave, “My experience has been nothing but positive in terms of what it has added to my family life, and at the same time, it hasn’t held me back in my career.””