India Inc rolls out red carpet for professionals on a career break
Companies look for professionals who can be onboarded faster and need less training
Indian companies are increasingly looking to hire employees who are returning to work after a time off due to various reasons such as maternity leave, sabbaticals, caregiving, and health issues. A variety of sectors, such as information technology( IT), pharma and finance, are hiring professionals returning from career breaks, as the companies feel that the new hires can be onboarded quickly, and are capable of assuming senior roles with minimal need for guidance, said industry insiders.
Career breaks for women can span 2-15 years, while those for men typically range from six months to three years.
“Companies traditionally viewed long maternity or caregiver breaks as gaps in resumes, and biases often led to women being denied jobs. However, in the past 5-7 years, particularly since the pandemic, people across genders have returned from health-related or caregiving breaks," said Aparna Mittal, founder, Samāna Centre for Gender, Policy and Law.
In 2022, for instance, IT firm Capgemini launched a referral programme called Captivate by Cloud and Infrastructure Services (CIS), to target professionals who had taken career breaks, irrespective of gender. “We decided not to restrict the programme only to women, but go gender-agnostic," said Radhika Ramesh, executive vice president, global delivery centre head, CIS India, Capgemini.
So far, 200 employees, out of which 20% are men, have been onboarded under the programme.
Typically, women take career breaks for personal reasons such as maternity leaves or as caregivers to dependents or close relatives. These can typically range from a couple of years, extending up to 15 years.
Capgemini said such breaks in resumes of men were shorter at 3-4 years, as many decide to return to the corporate life after working for startups or taking career breaks, for instance. “In fact, as soon as the programme went live, we got 300 referrals within the first half an hour," Ramesh said.
The move to hire professionals returning to the corporate world comes at a time when many companies are looking to go slow on hiring, but at the same time, need senior- or mid-level employees who require minimal training. Professionals with corporate experience fit the bill since they don’t need hand-holding and can get to take up operational roles across sectors.
In 2021, pharma company AstraZeneca launched a Second Career programme, and partnered with organizations looking to bring women back to the workforce. However, it came as a surprise that along with women, men who were on a career break had also submitted applications.
“The programme was aimed largely for women, but we did see resumes of male candidates who had taken a break as they needed to be caregivers, had moved for higher studies and were looking for jobs after a break due to health reasons," Amarpreet Kaur Ahuja, country head, human resources, AstraZeneca India, said. Over the last few years, India Inc. has been attempting to bring back women to the workforce. The efforts intensified since several women dropped out of the workforce during the two years of the pandemic. Gender and diversity experts, and HR heads, said they are often offered senior roles since career breaks may have happened in later stages.
