Randstad
Mumsnet uncovers the real barriers women face at work, helping Randstad equip employers with insight that helps drive meaningful impact
“Partnering with Mumsnet gave us access to incredibly rich, unfiltered insights drawn from millions of candid conversations among mums. Their ability to mine deep, authentic data — and pair it with the trust their brand commands — created a unique opportunity to uncover the real barriers women face at work and help employers take practical steps toward meaningful change. The team were driven, supportive and adaptive to feedback. We hope to work with them again in the future.” Randstad (2025)
Objective
Randstad is a Global HR services provider, which works with clients in multiple sectors across the UK and Ireland. They observed that despite best efforts, a number of their clients were struggling to recruit and retain women, particularly mums. This was particularly pronounced across certain industries.
To better understand this pattern, Randstad UK recognised they needed target insights into the often unseen barriers mums face in the workplace — and explore positive, practical ways employers can address them. That’s why they partnered with Mumsnet, the UK’s leading platform for women’s voices, to dig deeper into the issue.
The study was grounded in the candid, unprompted conversations women have on Mumsnet about their experiences in the working world. Specifically, Mumsnet explored mums’ experiences with, and perceptions of:
Parental leave
Returning to work after parental leave
Day-to-day life at work as a mum
Approach
We took a two-pronged approach to this research study:
Qualitative analysis of mums’ organic conversations to understand their experiences taking parental leave from work, returning to work, and day-to-day life in the workplace
Using our AI-powered tool, MumsGPT, we conducted exploratory data mining of ~100K relevant Mumsnet conversations from December 2019 to December 2024. This analysis of mums’ unfiltered and honest discussions allowed us to gain deeper insight into both mums’ experiences in the workplace and their thoughts and feelings surrounding these.
Quantitative analysis of survey results to measure and validate qualitative insights and hypotheses
Building on the qualitative findings, we designed a survey informed by the key themes uncovered through the data mining. Conducted between January and February 2025, the survey reached 1,000 respondents, enabling us to quantify and validate key qualitative findings and hypotheses.
Opportunity
Use Mumsnet’s rich, unfiltered parenting conversations and survey data to uncover real parental concerns and confusion around eye health. Partnering with the Optical Suppliers Association, we combined qualitative and quantitative analysis to shape educational campaigns, support lobbying efforts, and build greater trust and awareness among UK parents.
Key Insights
Through this research, we unearthed the below key insights:
Only 10% of mums feel positively about returning to work, with the majority instead grappling with anxiety, sadness and guilt. A major driver of their anxiety centres around not knowing what awaits them at work.
Flexibility is essential to mums, yet rarely offered to the extent required: Mums achieve the best work-life balance when working up to 31 hours per week remotely, with the freedom to structure those hours themselves. As it stands, only a few are currently granted this level of flexibility.
Additionally, there’s a perception among mums that their need for flexibility is limiting their career progression, with them citing not being able to pursue promotions that involve long hours, or in-person presence. This isn't passively accepted - 75% of mums feel frustrated over being held back in their careers due to motherhood.
Overall, inclusion remains the exception, not the rule: 84% of mums report experiencing gender- or motherhood-related discrimination at work. Common examples include being spoken over in meetings, having to work harder than male colleagues to be noticed, and being subjected to derogatory comments on motherhood impacting the quality of their work.
Applications
Randstad UK has published a report detailing the research findings, making it available to their clients and other UK organisations to help them understand the barriers women, particularly mums, face, and to support them in building more inclusive workplaces. By addressing these barriers, these organisations will be better able to promote greater equality, as well as unlock the proven business benefits of having a more diverse workforce.
