Why career break penalties miss what returners bring

Founder and psychologist Julianne Miles, MBE, tells SiliconRepublic.com why career breaks are valuable.

Taking a break from a full-time career is daunting, especially when gaps in a CV are seen as undesirable and employers are concerned about returners not being able to keep up. But breaks aren’t avoidable – and as the saying goes – life happens.

Julianne Miles, MBE, worked for more than a decade in corporate strategy and marketing before taking a four year break to look after her young children. But coming back to work was confusing, she said, “[and] I had a lengthy period where I was stuck”.

Eventually though, she found her way back by retraining as a chartered psychologist and decided to help those in a similar boat.

“I developed a bit of a pro bono sideline”, she explained. Miles had set up a small career psychology practice from her home and was supporting friends within the local community who had taken their own career breaks and were struggling to find jobs.

“[By] running these kitchen table workshops I realised that there was a broader societal problem that needed tackling”, Miles said – a “huge disconnect” between an experienced talent pool who had developed strong skills over their breaks and employers who were looking for diversity but were neglecting this group.

Missing piece of the puzzle

Miles co-founded the social impact organisation Career Returners in 2014. The organisation supports a growing community of returners, and partners with employers worldwide to create a route back to a fulfilling career. The consultancy also offers return to work employability programmes and returner guidance for governments.

In the 11 years since launching, Career Returners has offered support to more than 10,000 people and has partnered with more than 200 employers. The organisation boasts “directly” supporting more than 4,000 back into professional roles following their career breaks.

Over the course of our chat, Miles reiterated her mission – to remove the “career break penalty” and make these breaks a “valued part of a lifetime career”. But research shows that the struggle is far from over.

Career Returners’ annual study explores the challenges professionals face while attempting to return to the workplace. According to the latest numbers, 94pc of survey respondents said they are finding it hard to return to a professional role after a break, while 46pc see recruiter bias against a gap in their CV as the “greatest barrier”.

And while 75pc of the respondents want to return to work on a full time basis, 89pc feel that being on a break has had a negative impact on their confidence.

Employers seem to be missing a piece of the puzzle here. 93pc of the respondents in the study said that the skills they gained during their break would increase the value that they bring to the workplace, while 78pc said they upskilled themselves in preparation for returning to work.

This untapped potential within the experienced returners is what Miles is addressing through her work.

Community of returners

Career Returners’ core focus is on financial services and technology, “but we provide support to anybody who’s had a professional background”, Miles said.

The organisation runs an online community for professionals, giving them access to advice, support, and “very importantly” – according to Miles – “connection”.

“Because it can be very isolating when you’re on a career break. We really want everybody to feel that they found their tribe,” she said. Users can access the community for free or through a ‘pay if you can’ model.

On average, professionals generally take a break in their 40s, Miles told me. The general length of their break is about four to six years, although some have taken a break for as long as three decades or so, she said. “You’re never too old and it’s never too late.”

However, recruiter bias sets in once someone has taken a break for around 12 months or more. Though, this can be even lower for those in the tech sector, Miles said. “…that is one of those sectors where you could have been six months out and people are starting to say that you’re ‘too out of date’.”

Career Returners’ resources helps returning professionals address the psychological and practical challenges of getting back to work.

“So it could be anything from rebuilding your confidence, getting clear on your return to work story – to how to write a return to work CV, how to use AI in your job applications [and] how to prepare yourself for interview,” Miles said.

The organisation initially started off by introducing the concept of a ‘returnship’ – a paid and professional placement which Miles described as a “higher level internship” – in the UK and Ireland. But now they’ve gone global.

The consultancy has partnered with the UK and Scottish governments to run career coaching and job skills programmes for a variety of groups of returners, including parents, carers and professionals in financial need.

In Ireland, it has a “big, long standing” programme with Deloitte, “who have brought in people from all sorts of backgrounds in, including tech”, Miles said. And recently, they piloted a programme with the Irish civil service to bring a large number of returners through a returnship.

The incoming returners have support throughout the transition period from Career Returners’ coaching, as well as from a mentor. “There’s a high likelihood of a permanent role at the end of the placement,” she said.

Moreover, the organisation also partners with employers to create ‘supported hiring programmes’, which bring returners directly into permanent roles.

Fresh perspective

“The key thing”, Miles said, is recognising that returners are a “fantastic talent pool for employers”.

“Returners bring something different and complementary when they’re coming into a team. They are bring a fresh perspective…fresh ideas.” This is what Miles “consistently” hears from employers, she told me.

She explained that returners are coming in with a different, more evolved view of the world, and “a huge degree enthusiasm, of motivation”. Some employers called it the “secret sauce” that returners bring, Miles added.

Returners also bring more transferable soft skills they they’ve built up and improved during their break, including in areas such as communication, empathy, resilience or perspective.

“So they find that they are better at their jobs. They’re really coming back stronger than ever than they were before.”

Employers’ perspective towards career breaks are also slowly changing, Miles said. Some long-time employer-partners have shifted their view from “look[ing] past the career break” to realising that a break is an asset.

And while perspectives are slowly changing, new technology is posing as both a facilitator and a hinderance.

According to Miles, AI levels the playing field between existing employees to returning ones to a certain degree.

“If you are starting a new job, you are very likely to have a steep learning curve anyway, and for a returner, you don’t need to fill in the gap of what you missed…you just need to understand the current gap.”

While the downside has largely to do with recruitment bias. Automated recruitment systems are “entrenching biases against people who don’t have recent experience”, she said.

AI tends to screen out people without recent experience, and this is going to make the challenge of returning to employment even worse for returners.

Regardless, Miles tells people not to be afraid of taking a break. Employers want people who “think differently…bring new ideas in…That’s what returners can do”.

“[You] don’t really have to apologise or defend [a break]…”.

Miles was honoured with an MBE in 2019 for her role in changing the landscape of returners in the UK. Six years later, her work is still attempting to support thousands more to get back to the workplace.

She told me that her new book, ‘Return Journey: How to get back to work and thrive after a career break’ was a long time in the making and encompasses all the advice she has learnt over the years. The book launched just last week.

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