A Not-So-Secret Recruitment Strategy That Works: Returnships
The news reports there is a shortage of qualified workers to meet employer needs. But that's only partly right. That’s because there’s a cohort of talented jobseekers who don’t qualify for unemployment, aren’t included in labor reports and whose resumes hiring managers routinely reject claiming that they have a lack of recent experience. Who, exactly, are they missing out on?
The millions of women who stepped out of the workplace, mid-career, to raise their babies or to support a loved one and now want to come back to work. “They’re (typically) well educated, high caliber, experienced, enthusiastic and loyal. They have the energy and enthusiasm that many jobseekers don’t,” said Carol Fishman Cohen co-author of "Back on the Career Track: A Guide for Stay-at-Home Moms Who Want to Return to Work" and co-founder and CEO of iRelaunch.
“The only thing employers have to hold against them is that they took time away from their careers to support a loved one,” said Christine Winston, interim executive director at Path Forward.
Returnships as Recruitment Strategy
Employers and hiring managers who open their minds, interview and bring in these women in — even as mid-career interns at first — end up retaining them longer than other employees. Job-hopping and quiet quitting aren’t descriptors of this population. "People who have taken a career break have the rare opportunity to reflect on what they want to do and where their interests lie from an experienced adult’s perspective. They do not apply to jobs on a whim,” said Fishman Cohen. And they’re far less likely to become entrenched in career tracks they don’t want to be in.
Not only that, but women who return to the workplace have well-developed collaboration and communication skills; after all, it is difficult to raise families and to participate in communities without them. “These are not abilities that most have to learn and develop,” said Winston.
Though a few companies have sponsored returnships programs for over a decade (Goldman Sachs and Sara Lee since 2008), the programs have only recently begun to mature from being perceived as an employer’s effort to be a “good corporate citizen” to becoming a part of a company’s overall recruitment strategy. This is true for at least two reasons. First, it’s now proven that returnees make great hires, and second, returnships provide a kind of diversity that other recruitment programs do not. After all, women who have stepped out of the workforce to care for loved ones are important consumers.
Speaking about HPE’s returnship experience, which was facilitated through Path Forward, John Marlia, DCE customer engagement platform track leader at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, testified, “I found that I could rely on the fact that we had brought in high-level talent, which allowed me to shift away from thinking of the returnship as a temporary, internship-like engagement, and towards an onboarding type engagement,” he said in a customer testimonial.
Grubhub has found its 16-week returnship program, which launched in 2021, fruitful. “Conversion (from returnship to employee) is our largest success metric. To date, we’ve had 15 individuals go through the program, and 14 have converted to full-time roles within the company,” said Kelley Berlin, Grubhub’s chief human resources officer.
The 93% success rate that Grubhub enjoys is even higher than the already high average of 80% at other companies. That success rate is one of the reasons that returners now often start out as direct hires (with salaries and benefits) while still getting access to all of the advantages of fixed-term returners, who are paid hourly and have no guarantee of employment.
Related Article: How Employers Can Convince Women a Return to Work Is Worthwhile
Learning Opportunities
How Returnships Work
While there is no fixed format for returnship programs, there are some commonalities such as customized onboarding and orientation sessions, professional development opportunities, technical training, exposure to senior leadership, mentorship and occasions to network and participate in support groups.
Returnees can be brought in either for predetermined periods of time (similar to internships) and paid hourly (with no employee benefits) or, as is increasingly the case, as direct hires with full pay and benefits as well the advantages that returnships programs typically offer.
Related Article: Quitting Is Contagious
A Great Opportunity for HR Leaders
HR leaders whose companies don’t yet have returnship programs, take note of this rare opportunity in front of you. “The chance to onboard a brand new talent pool does not come often,” said Fishman Cohen. She pointed out that returnship programs are generally highly visible, enjoy executive sponsorship, provide leadership development opportunities for those running the programs and carry the potential to change lives.
Given the success rates of these programs, HR leaders whose employers already have them in place now have the opportunity to grow them. Up until now these programs have typically onboarded cohorts of five to 20 returnees once or twice each year. (Some companies, we should note, bring returnees in on a rolling basis.)
Amazon stands out among returnship providers. In 2021 the company challenged itself to onboard 30 participants in the US across Operations Finance, Consumer Payments, Amazon Pay and Search teams. With the success of that program, in 2022 Amazon pledged to hire 1,000 returners over the next three years with plans to expand the program to additional teams and geographies.
About the Author
Virginia Backaitis is seasoned journalist who has covered the workplace since 2008 and technology since 2002. She has written for publications such as The New York Post, Seeking Alpha, The Herald Sun, CMSWire, NewsBreak, RealClear Markets, RealClear Education, Digitizing Polaris, and Reworked among others.
Connect with Virginia Backaitis:
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