Supporting returning workers
- Home
- Working Forward
- Supporting returning workers
Returners have a wealth of skills and experience that your organisation could benefit from. The Government Equalities Office (GEO) and the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) have been working with returners and employers to understand how organisations can become more successful at hiring returners.
Who are returners?
The GEO defines a returner as somebody who has been out of paid employment for at least a year due to a caring responsibility.
Women are more likely to take time out for caring and account for 89% of people who are not currently economically active because they are caring for home or family (according to recent Labour Market Statistics data).
Why launch a returner programme?
In working with returners and employers the GEO has found that:
- returner programmes are a great way to access a new talent pool, helping employers fill skills gaps
- employers see returner programmes as an opportunity to get more women into their organisation
Guidance
GEO guidance on how to run a successful returner programme will be available shortly. Sign up to the mailing list: email the returners team at GEO to hear about it first.
- join Working Forward, the Equality and Human Rights Commission's campaign to support pregnant women and new parents at work
- visit the CIPD's flexible working factsheet (opens in new window) to view the different types of flexible working practices that could benefit returners
- read the CIPD report on the business benefits of flexible working (opens in new window)
Top tips in supporting returners
A number of factors contribute to the success of returner programmes. These include:
1. Achieving buy-in from hiring managers
Make sure you gain the support of the departments and individuals who will be hiring and managing returners. It is also helpful to have a senior champion within the organisation.
2. Securing necessary funds and resources
Make sure you provide sufficient funding to support returners in their journey back to work. This could include scoping recruitment and training costs.
3. A suitable recruitment process
Make sure you tailor your recruitment process to your audience.
4. Offering suitable roles and working conditions
Make sure you can offer returners flexibility. Returners value flexible and/or part-time working and this should be offered at the point of hire, acknowledging everyone’s needs will be different.
5. Providing a meaningful role for returners during placements
Make sure returners have ‘meaty’ enough roles to fulfil during the returner programme placement period.
A HR professional's perspective on the value of returner programmes
The CIPD runs Steps Ahead Mentoring, a free mentoring programme in which HR professionals are invited to take on a mentoring role and help people, including returners, in their job search.
We asked HR professionals for their views on hiring returners, having been a mentor for someone wanting to return to work after taking time out for caring: