Nick Bradshaw, Regus' New Zealand country manager, says: "The non-participation of women in the economy is costing as much as 27 per cent per capita GDP in some countries, and companies with more women on the board are more profitable."
Survey respondents reported that flexible hours, working closer to home, part-time roles, and the option to video-conference instead of travelling to meetings, are among the best ways to get mums back to work.
Other findings of the survey show that 63 per cent of mums would like to work remotely, and 41 per cent want to return to work before their baby is 3 months old.
Despite talk of attracting more mums back to work, a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows that progress toward levelling the playing field for women has stalled across the board.
The IMF report Women, Work, and the Economy says that around the world, the number of women in the workforce remains far below that of men; with only about half of working-age women having a job.
Working mum of two Anne Craig is an anaesthetist at the Greenlane Surgical Unit in Auckland. Although her firm offered her one year's paid parental leave, she returned to work six months early, choosing to work two days a week.
When her boys turned 1 she began working three days a week. An au pair looked after her children. "It's a child care option more mums should consider," says Anne.
She is among the 40 per cent of Kiwi mums who either returned to work, or looked for a job, before their baby's first birthday.
Tina Barnett has seven children. She has six children from two partners both of whom have died and she adopted a child that is now living with her brother. She has four dependent children.
Tina started working at Auckland's Sky City casino in 2005, and is currently a table games supervisor working a 40-hour week on the noon to 8pm shift although she'd rather work the 4am to noon shift to be at home with her children in the afternoon and early evening.
"Back in 2005 I had a desperate need to get a job at the time I had three children aged under 5 at home and a 5-year-old who had just started school," she says.
"When you're a mum in need of a job to provide for your children you hope to spend more time with your children. But as the pressures grow, you have less and less time to spend with them."
A representative of the Unite Union, Tina says: "Companies expect staff to be flexible, and 'flexible' means working the hours that they expect you to work you have to fit in with what they want."
