Women Returners Conference highlights the value of the returner talent pool
Event also evidences the success of returner programmes in tackling wider recruitment bias against candidates with a CV Gap
Last week over 300 professional women received return-to-work support and connected with leading employers at the Women Returners Back to Your Future Conference. This annual virtual 2-day event is for women with a professional background who have taken a career break for childcare or other reasons, and who want to return to work using their professional skills and experience. This year’s Conference was sponsored by FDM Group, J.P. Morgan, Lloyds Banking Group, Moody’s and Workday, who joined to talk about their returner programmes and met for informal conversations with attendees.
The Value of Returners to Employers
Speaking at the Conference, Talent Acquisition leaders from J.P. Morgan, Moody’s, Edinburgh Napier University and Workday celebrated the value that career returners bring to their organisation, before giving advice to participants on how to succeed in a returner programme application.
Esme Heaps, Senior Director of Talent Acquisition at Workday said when businesses bring in experienced returners and get it right it’s a “magic combination”.
Claire Hodson, Talent Development Manager and ReEntry Program Lead at J.P. Morgan said: "It’s a source of really great talent for us. The break brings fresh ideas and a new perspective." J.P. Morgan’s ReEntry Program has grown year-on-year over the last decade and now runs in over 20 cities globally.
Alexander Trusty, Global Diversity Sourcing Specialist from Moody’s, manages their RE-IGNITE Return to Work programme. He said: “Returners bring great skills and experience … This is a powerful programme for us”. Moody’s has seen such a positive impact that they have expanded around the USA and into Canada and India.
High Calibre of Returners
The Conference attendees demonstrated the wealth of experience and skills that women returners can bring to an employer. The high-calibre attendees were from a wide range of sectors from financial services to tech/telecoms, science and engineering, legal and marketing and had an impressive level of education, experience and qualifications.
• 75% of attendees had 10 or more years of work experience before their break
• 70% had either postgraduate degrees or professional qualifications.
Their profiles also showed the ethnic and age diversity of the returner community, with 35% from minority ethnic backgrounds and an age range from late 20s to mid 60s.
Recruitment Challenges for Returners
The Returner Panel, 4 women who had returned to work after career breaks of 4 to 17 years, was ably hosted by Times Radio’s Jane Garvey. Their stories illustrated the challenges still faced by candidates with a CV gap trying to find a job through mainstream recruitment channels. They also gave strong evidence of how a Returner Programme can overcome these barriers and support talented women back into suitable-level roles.
Antona Davy had worked in Professional Services for 16 years as a Risk Manager., but after a 6-year career break to raise her 2 children, she found it impossible to find a job in her old field. She worked for 2 years in her local petrol station, until a friend told her about the Deloitte Ireland Return to Work Programme, which enabled her to get her career back on track.
Rabiya Rizwan, a qualified and experienced tech professional, applied unsuccessfully for more than 100 jobs after a 4-year career break due to relocation and ill health. Finally, she secured a role as a QA Engineer at The Very Group via their first returner programme in 2022.
Julianne Miles, CEO and Co-Founder of Women Returners said: “Widespread bias against candidates without recent experience too often means they are overlooked in recruitment. The good news is that more and more employers are realising that returners bring an impressive range of skills and experience from before and during their career break, together with a high degree of motivation, willingness to learn and a fresh perspective. Momentum for returner programmes continues to build into new sectors and new regions.”
Returners build their Return-to-Work Community
For the first time this year, Women Returners Conference attendees also have the option to attend follow-on in-person networking events in London, Leeds and Edinburgh over the next 2 weeks. These events will enable them both to continue to build their peer support community and to meet recruiting employers in-person.
Returners left the virtual Conference feeling inspired about their return-to-work journey. Feedback included:
“The two days have really transformed by perceptions of how employers view career breaks and I am excited by the myriad of opportunities”
“I was feeling very anxious about returning to work but now am feeling very positive about the way forward”