Engaging with career returners enables recruiters to tap into a pool of skilled, motivated candidates who bring unique perspectives and valuable life experiences. By supporting individuals re-entering the workforce, recruiters can enhance workforce diversity, and offer clients highly adaptable, resilient talent ready to make an impact.
In a competitive labour market, ensuring talented individuals are not overlooked is crucial for workers, recruiters, and employers alike. Engaging with career returners offers recruiters a valuable opportunity to access a skilled and often untapped pool of candidates.
Not only are career returners experienced and likely to stay for longer than six months, but they bring skills developed before and during their career break. It also highlights to your clients the additional expertise and value you bring, by your willingness to reach outside the box to support them.
Our new guidance in partnership with Career Returners equips recruiters like you, with the practical tools you need to engage with career returners
Our four-part mini guidance series will allow you to understand the value, the importance and the technique you need to showcase value to your clients and support career returners back into the labour market.
A ‘returner’ from a recruitment perspective, is a candidate with previous professional experience who has either been out of the workforce or underemployed for at least a year.
More specifically:
An experienced professional
Who has taken an extended career break of over one year
Breaks are mainly for childcare (~65%) or caring for other family members (~10%), but could also be for health, relocation, travel or other reasons
Of any gender (the majority are women as the largest group is parents and carers)
Many are economically inactive during their break (no paid work), others have been underemployed - working small-scale around other commitments (including freelance or project work or a home business) or working in a lower-skilled role outside of their professional field.
The diversity and high calibre of the returner talent pool can be illustrated through the membership of the Career Returners Community, a free-of-charge support network with nearly 10,000 members in Q4 2024:
The diversity and high calibre of the returner talent pool can be illustrated through the membership of the Career Returners Community, a free-of-charge support network with nearly 10,000 members in Q4 2024:
Highly qualified: ~60% with professional or postgraduate qualifications; ~90% with an undergraduate degree
Highly experienced: ~80% with 5+ years of professional experience; ~50% with 10+ years of professional experience
Ethnically diverse: ~50% from a minority ethnic background
Age diverse: aged from late 20s to early 60s, average early to mid 40s
“I've applied for thousands of jobs and barely got interviews, despite my Oxford .Degree and 10 years in competitive London ad agencies.” (quote from a returner in Career Returners Indicator 2024)
Career Returners is a purpose-led organisation that enables professionals to return to work after an extended career break. They have partnered with 200+ employers to create supported routes back to professional roles for 3,000+ returners. With a community of 10,000 returning professionals, they provide support, connection and access to return-to-work opportunities.
Career Returners’ mission is to remove the “Career Break Penalty”, dismantling the personal and structural barriers facing returning professionals.
They pioneered the introduction of “returnships”* into the UK, and developed the concepts of “supported hiring”* of returners into permanent roles and of Career Returners Coaching.
Together let’s #EndTheCareerBreakPenalty
