9-2-3 Jobs

9-2-3 Jobs: our story

We are a recruitment agency that specialises in placing high quality professionals into jobs with flexible hours. We’re one of the few agencies dealing ONLY in flexible roles: that might mean working from home, compressed hours, job sharing or part-time working.
Helen Wright, 9-2-3 Founder, spent a decade working as a journalist for the BBC and ITV, and 18 months running her own media training company. Helen then stopped working to have a family. But when the time came to return to the workplace, she found being tied to the school run was prohibitive, as was the cost of hiring a nanny to look after her three children.
Chatting to other mums in the playground, Helen realised she was not alone. There were accountants, solicitors, architects, GPs, marketing execs, PR professionals... the list goes on. None were working. Here was a bunch of talented women all keen to work – and not necessarily in their chosen speciality. They just wanted fulfilling jobs that fitted in around school hours. And here an idea was born! Since 2015, 9-2-3 Jobs has grown steadily, and last year, we expanded into Greater Manchester.

Why work flexibly?

The world of work is changing. The ability to work flexibly around other life commitments – perhaps you’re juggling childcare, other caring responsibilities, studying, or you simply want to achieve a better balance in your life – is no longer just a ‘nice to have’. Studies show that flexible working arrangements are increasingly a basic requirement for many professionals in their job search - parents, carers, millennials and everyone in between.
Not every job will require a 37-hour week. Managers and HR departments can therefore start to think creatively when developing roles and recruiting staff. This opens up a whole new pool of talent and encourages a shift towards productivity over presenteeism.

What we do

We aren’t just another ‘spray and pray’ recruitment agency. For us, flexible working is a revolution that we’re very proud to be part of. We’re passionate about helping well qualified and motivated professionals contribute in the workplace again, and we love connecting businesses with brilliant talent.
We have confidence in the way we work and are proud to do things a little differently:
Our organically-grown database means we have access to hard to reach talent. Many of our candidates aren’t registered elsewhere, and some aren’t active on LinkedIn.
Our candidates trust us because we really listen to them, and only put them forward for roles they want and suit their needs.
Flexible working practices can be embedded into any business. We’ve worked with a range of organisations in industries as diverse as charity, tech, law, arts, hospitality, investment, manufacturing, and engineering.
9-2-3 are experienced working with start-ups and Oxford University spin-outs who are always impressed by the quality of our candidates. All our candidates are seeking a degree of flexible working - and all are very experienced in their field. Our experience of working with this sort of company is always very positive as they tend to be dynamic in their thinking and often work in an agile way anyway - they're about productivity over presenteeism.

Examples of candidates and roles we've placed with small growing companies include:

Tina: 20 years in Finance, including 12 years at Price Waterhouse Coopers, with a Double First from Cambridge, and an MPhil from Oxford University. We placed her in a brilliant Chief Financial Officer (CFO) role, working 4 days a week.

Helen: 15 years in HR (including 9 at Accenture) plus significant senior level HR experience. We placed her in an HR/Culture Change role with a dynamic company offering full-time hours, with flexible start/finish times and home working.

Catherine: more than 15 years’ experience in Finance including Senior Commercial roles, and an MSc from Oxford University. We placed her in a 3.5 day a week role as Chief Operating Officer (COO).

Imogen: 15 year career history with skills in HR, finance and compliance; an MA in Spanish and Politics and exceptional language skills (speaking French, Spanish and Arabic). We placed her in a 4 day a week role as Office Manager.

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