Gloria Samayoa at SapientNitro's Miami office has been sifting through résumés as the New York-based digital marketing agency expands its new career return program to her office. The 12-week paid program for advertising professionals, which piloted in New York and Toronto, has spread to Chicago, Atlanta and London. It has led to full-time positions in some of those cities for people — particularly stay-at-home mothers — who had taken time off work and wanted to return.
In Miami, Samayoa has been surprised by the résumés she has received: An equal number of men and women are applying for the office's return-to-work program. "There are all kinds of reasons why the men took a pause from their careers," she said. "It's just as difficult for them to come back in where they left off." Samayoa expects to launch with one or two returners by early next year: "We want to find that right person so the experience is successful. Our long-term plan is for them to get hired."
Even as the economy rebounded, people have continued to take breaks from the workforce for a variety of reasons, whether to start a family, care for a sick or elderly family member, travel or tackle an illness of their own. Unless they keep their skills up, re-entering the workforce with a résumé gap can be a challenge, particularly as technology has changed the modern workplace.
Now, return-to-work programs are popping up in various industries providing midcareer internships for caregivers who have been out of the workforce for a few years or more. With most programs, mentoring support is provided to the returner. The concept of a "returnship" was pioneered by Goldman Sachs in 2008 and it trademarked the term. It has been replicated by financial firms such as Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and JPMorgan and tech companies such as IBM and PayPal.
There are about 160 active re-entry programs globally across industries, and more U.S. companies have committed to rolling out programs by year-end, according to a list compiled by iRelaunch, a company that works with employers and returning professionals.
These individuals, typically in their 40s, have something unique to offer the employer who understands their value, said Carol Fishman Cohen, the chief executive and co-founder of iRelaunch. They bring more workplace experience and usually have moved past the stage of needing future career breaks, unlike their younger counterparts. Cohen said iRelaunch is the largest supplier of candidates to Wall Street re-entry programs and has drawn more than 15,000 people to its return-to-work conferences and workshops all over the country — about 7 percent of them men.
Donald Chesnut, executive creative director at SapientNitro in New York, says even with compelling credentials, a résumé gap is difficult to overlook in a job candidate: "While we value their experience, if they had applied for these mid-level jobs they would not have made it in."
Chesnut says the return-to-work program at his firm offers one-on-one mentorship to help returners who have a gap in skills and experience to transition more smoothly. Sapient's interest grew from conversation about the lack of female creative directors in the industry: "This is a way for us to bring diversity to our firm at the higher levels, and understand the value these people bring, even while they are learning on the job."
