Returnee Internships Ease Women Back To the Office
GROWTH Increasingly, more companies are making a strong commitment to strengthening female participation in the workforce by introducing returnee programmes, to help returnees get up to speed on industry developments.
If you’re trying to get back into the workforce, after a break, a Returnee Internship might be just what you need. These internships are designed to help returnees get up to speed on industry developments. A returnee programme is similar to an internship programme for recruits fresh out of college. The biggest difference is that women restarters already have relevant work experience - they just need some brushing up on what’s changed since they stepped away. The starting block for this talent pool is much further ahead, than for new recruits.
A paid internship – just like you may have done back in college – has all kinds of pros that go with it. Retraining opportunities, short-term contracts, exciting and meaningful projects that challenge your intelligence and test your skills, while building on your resume and taking care of that ‘gap’ in it. You get to straddle the best of both worlds for a little while and take time to figure it out for your particular circumstances. In short, it’s the perfect stepping stone to get your groove back.
EASING BACK TO WORK WITH RETURNEE INTERNSHIPS
Restarter programs give women a chance to work with teams on live design projects, to provide a hands-on learning experience. This involves using existing resources within the company to re-train new women returnee recruits, who get to learn on the job.
As Schonali Rebello, a woman who restarted her career as a content writer via a returnee internship, is now managing the creative content team, explains: “This was the ideal opportunity for me to retrain and sharpen those slightly rusty skills, especially in today’s rapidly-advancing world where nothing has remained untouched by technology. I have been able to dust off my dreams and ambitions and can once again believe that it is possible to achieve them.”
Often, the work assigned to returnees is challenging and fulfilling, based on prior work experience. So it provides an opportunity to sharpen their skills, and ease into full-time employment. While executing a returnee role, they have insider-access to hiring managers and other people in management, which they can capitalize on during their short stint. Developing and nurturing relationships, can secure future postings within the company, if they decide to continue working for them.
Women returnees should especially seek out mentors within the company, who took time off during their own careers, and are now success stories. They need to have an unshakeable and profound faith in their newfound skills and abilities, like, time-management, organizational skills, peoplemanagement, interpersonal dynamics, patience, and thoughtful execution coupled with calculated risk-assessment. Women are an asset to any company that is rehiring and should take full advantage of any returnee programs on offer.
RETURNEE PROGRAMMES
Increasingly more companies are making a strong commitment to strengthening female participation in the workforce. As business leaders they recognize that gender-balanced companies achieve greater economic results. Some companies have tailor-made returnee-programmes to re-skill and rehire women on a sabbatical, educating them and bringing them up to speed with current industry trends. At the end of the program, these companies give candidates the opportunity to work as full-time employees:
Philips has a returnee program called “Back in the game”. BIG (Back in the game) program was launched at Philips India to facilitate women with work experience to transition back into the workforce after a career break. The Returnee Program offers live strategic projects for 4-6 months across HR, finance, marketing, sales, R&D, supply chain and procurement.
Shell Business Operations Chennai, created a program called Project Re-energize, to support women on a career break. Project Re-energize provides women the opportunity to restart their careers with mentoring, flexibility and the much needed inspiration to succeed.
Credit Suisse’s Real Returns Program offers talented senior professionals who have taken an extended career break a smooth transition back into the workforce. The candidate will have the opportunity to work on projects that match their skills and expertise, and tap into a support network of like-minded professionals. Real Return is currently offered in the U.S., the U.K., India and Switzerland.
As a part of their Real Returns Program, the candidate will be part of a team and work on an interesting assignment or project, participate in a series of training/orientation modules to help acclimatize them back into the work environment.
Neha Bagaria is founder & CEO, JobsForHer