Returnee internships are important

Taking a break from work can be as liberating as it is daunting, depending on your reasons or situation, and getting back can have its own set of challenges. According to reports, around 65-70% of women who quit never return to work at all. Women struggle to get back to their career and in return, the work force loses a pool of highly skilled talent. Skills of professional women could be better utilized in a fast developing economy like India if they are provided with better opportunities and mentorship. In the last few years we have seen organizations introspect this scenario and examine the loss due to the exit of capable women from work spaces.

Driven by the belief that achieving gender equality is one of the first steps in creating an inclusive workplace culture, the inclusion of more women into the workforce to leadership roles has become a priority. Many organizations have been working towards helping women join as well as re-join the workforce after a break. To enable this, initiatives like returnee internships are a big leap towards strengthening the existing workforce ecosystem and accelerating the integration of women back into the workforce. These programs are a progressive step for employers and a powerful restart strategy for women that enables them to reintegrate back in the corporate environment, enabling the work environment to be more conducive. A returnee program is often considered as a formal pathway to employment for professionals returning to the workforce after a period of unemployment.

CHALLENGES ASSOCI- ATED WITH GETTING BACK TO WORK

There have been several challenges associated with getting back to work after a career break. Several women who have taken a hiatus and want to return to the workforce, face barriers to re-entry. Comparison with the career trajectory of peers who have not taken a career break can be particularly disengaging. Other roadblocks could include level/ position that the women join back at, influence of the roles and parity in remuneration. This has been stated as a reason as to why many women returnees do not like to return to their previous organizations.

Reskilling ensures smooth transition to full-time employment after a career break.

Reskilling and a steep learning curve is key with a large percentage of women seeing it as a necessity for their career restart and progression. With this in mind, more companies are making a strong commitment to strengthening female participation in the workforce through formal learning programs to make this happen, functional and leadership included. This growing job-seeking population drives the demand for industryrelevant training as there is a skill gap that needs to be bridged before getting back into the workforce.

They have tailor-made returnee-programmes to up-skill and rehire women on a sabbatical, educating them to match them with current industry trends. Companies provide systematic access to suitable candidates and help to ensure good integration and boost productivity and in turn retention. Other interesting initiatives focus on the inclusion of women in live strategic projects for a period of say 4-6 months across different business and enabling functions. With mentoring from company leaders in these live projects, returnee women have a great opportunity to sharpen their skill sets. Creating a comfortable, yet challenge environment to drive these live projects can be a crucial enabler for women scaling up and get into full time roles.

In addition to these measures, HR leaders in progressive organizations are giving more flexibility to women and gradually adopting the culture of ‘work from home’ and flexible working hours. Internships provide flexible working options for women and new mothers. They can either opt for work from home or part-time in-office internships enabling them to manage both - their career and household responsibilities.

There are many success stories where with structured and scalable returnee programs, companies can engage with larger numbers of women returning after career breaks and offer them challenging and fulfilling work opportunities, often ones that they are already familiar with. This will go a long way in welcoming the much needed talent pool, back to the work force.

reskilling ensures a smooth Transition To FULLTIME employment after a Career Break