Large corporate organizations such as KPMG and Morgan Stanley are now seeking out women who left their careers to have a family and who are now considering re joining the workforce. These potential employees are considered ideal as their skills and knowledge are appreciated and flexible working becomes easier to deliver.

Historically women who left their job to have children had little choice when they decided to return to employment as flexibility of hours to tie in with nursery and school times was very tricky to provide. Often women would work evenings in a retail situation or lately in some kind of call centre, operating in a customer care environment, as these positions were the main ones with flexibility. Opportunities were also obtainable in the “party selling” type roles with the likes of Avon and Tupperware. Again these were attractive to returning mothers as they allowed a high degree of flexibility and the capability to Work From Home.

There has always been a call for extra retail cover, particularly in the lead up to Christmas and this again has been an area where women returning to work after having a child have found opportunities, particularly over the last 20 years as evening shopping and Sunday shopping has become the custom. But even with decent employers such as the ones named so far the flexible positions on offer until recently have not been career type ones. They have been just a way of adding further income to the family bank account and have provided women with a fairly static role.

With the development of technology and the arrival of the Internet Business all this is now shifting. We see the large firms such as Barclays and Morgan Stanley actually making a definite effort to recruit mothers back into the workplace and not only that, but the positions on offer are at a much higher level than those offered before.

This kind of development is due in part to the arrival of broadband, providing very quick download speeds to most of the country which in turn has allowed remote working to become an option. The opportunity to work from home or at a satellite office close to home instead of travel into the city is a big plus for a lot of women with child care to deal with. Local school runs can still be dealt with and the travelling time to an office is cut out altogether meaning that the real time spent “at work” is entirely constructive and there is more time for family life.

Another facet of the changing business picture that has given opportunities for mothers to return to work in high flying jobs is the growth of many internet businesses. These normally operate without a definite physical base and the majority of staff are able to work from home on Online Jobs using all the online technologies available and being developed.

It is therefore evident why the larger organizations are tapping into this rich seam of talent, as it provides them with the opportunity to get hold of individuals with a high skill level who require no more than some refresher training to be fully functional. It will be interesting to see if some of the SME’s start to appreciate this potential too and take advantage when the job vacancy numbers swell following the countries pull away from recession.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 26th, 2009 at 12:18 pm and is filed under Business and Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.