While second-career programs across companies have focused on women seeking a chance to return to work, many companies are designing the programs to make them neutral-giving both men and women an equal opportunity to restart their careers.
Women often take career breaks due to marriage and motherhood. As a result, second career programs for women have been an essential component for assessment in the Best Companies for Women in India (BCWI), an annual gender analytics exercise by Avtar and US-based Seramount (Formerly Working Mother Media), launched in 2016. The BCWI has noted an increase in the number of companies adding second career programs to its diversity, equity, and inclusion module. Within five years of its launch, the percentage of companies running the program has gone up to 71 percent in the top 100 BCWI and the same stands at 90 percent for the top 10 BCWI.
Men take a break too
However, companies have also acknowledged men go on a hiatus for personal commitments. Considering such breaks, corporates have come up with second career programs that are gender agnostic to accommodate both groups. Last year, IT major Cognizant launched a career returnship program for techies who want to restart their careers. The program has been tailored to provide training, upskilling, mentorship, etc. in a 12-week paid experience for talented technology professionals looking at returning to their careers after a break. The program, which was rolled out across the offices globally, looked at the cohort based on their professional excellence, communication skills, technical aptitude, people skills, etc.
Neutral programs
The Banking Financial Services Industry (BFSI) has now paved the way for similar career return programs. UBS and Deutsche Bank have come up with a module that will also factor in men who have taken breaks for various reasons. Mastercard’s ‘Relaunch Your Career’, a global return to work program, extends the opportunity to both groups. The criteria are neutral and open to anyone who has taken a break of two years and more and has worked in a mid-level management role.
In the agriculture and farming equipment space, John Deere has redesigned its program REAP (Rekindle your career, Engage back with the workplace, Apply your skills and talents, Perform and prove your mettle), which was initially for women, to make it a neutral returnship program.
However, the number of companies offering the second career program for women is higher, indicating that more women continue to drop out of the workforce for many reasons-mostly stemming from domestic pressures and responsibilities.
