KEY POINTS:
When women take a break from the workforce to raise their family, it can be a daunting prospect to get a job again.
Self-confidence can be a problem when women consider workplace and technology changes in recent years, and concern about how to fit family commitments around work can be an obstacle.
Two Auckland businesswomen, both mums with young families, know where these women are coming from.
Kate Ross and Sarah Paykel have formed a new company to assist women back into the workplace, beginning with a week-long course to highlight their potential.
The first return2work programme takes place at the end of this month and Leanne White, of Waimauku, will be one of the participants.
"I had talked about going back to work and said to myself and others that I was not sure where to start or who to contact," says White, who has a 6-year-old daughter and twin 4-year-old sons.
"It is very scary to think I have to walk in and sell myself for a job," she says.
It is not just the six years of motherhood that has seen White away from the local workforce.
For the previous eight she had worked overseas, so it has been 14 years since she was employed in New Zealand.
"I have been flicking through the situations vacant to try and get an idea of what is out there, but to be honest I don't know what the jobs are, what qualifications they need and if I would be suitable for them.
"I have no idea how the whole system works now, I don't have an up-to-date CV and haven't done any recent courses," the 44-year-old says.
After seeing some publicity for return2work, White went to the website and enrolled.
"I am really excited about it. I love my kids but I feel I have got to the limit on staying at home with them.
"I am looking forward to going to the next stage and doing something for myself, getting a new interest.
"I guess on the whole I need to know what skills and qualifications I have that someone would be after, that an employer would be prepared to pay me for," she says.
"I am able to manage the house and the budget at home and I am organised, but is that enough to be employed?"
There is an objectives list on the return2work website and White ticked every box.
"It was almost exactly what I needed to take me to where I need to be."
White would like to work two or three days a week and she has previous experience as a stewardess on superyachts and in nursing.
Ross, a recruitment specialist, has run her own company, Kinetic Recruitment, for 10 years, working from home when her children were babies.
In recent years, Ross has noticed that employers are having difficulty filling roles, particularly part-time positions.
Sometimes there are set hours and days or a certain skill set is required and both these things narrow the pool of applicants.
"I found the client brief was changing and I was thinking about what I could do to find the right applicant."
Paykel read an article in a UK magazine about a similar concept. The two friends realised there were lots of women out there with potential but that many needed help with returning to the workforce.
"There are positions out there that really suit a working mother, from receptionist or administrator to support staff, finance, legal, right across the board," Ross says. "We thought, 'We can do something about it'.
"I think what happens is twofold. There are women out there in the market that are well skilled, organised and amazing people in their own right.
"They think, 'Can I do it? What has changed in the marketplace? Is the employer going to be flexible? Am I going to be able to juggle home life and work life? Do I want the same position I had two, three or four years ago, or shall I do something different?'
"You naturally lose a bit of confidence and don't know who to ask."
On the return2work programme, the participants are re-educated on what to expect in the marketplace in such things as dress, jargon and the salary ranges for different jobs.
They can upgrade their technical skills on such programs as Microsoft Word and Excel, they can rework their CV, they will get interview practice, they are taught grooming, and they undergo psychometric testing to determine what sort of work they may be suited for.
Leading on from that, the Kinetic Recruitment agency helps them apply for roles.
The course runs from 9.30am-1.30pm, with homework for the evenings.
Ross says the aim is for the women to feel that they are 90 per cent ready to take the next step towards employment and the last 10 per cent involves meeting with the recruitment agency.
The course can be run anywhere there is demand, so if 16 people want it in other places around the country, return2work will go there.
"I think there is nothing better than sitting around a table talking about all the problems you think there are and turning it around," Ross says.
"As two working mothers, we have thought through all the things we faced and thought about all the things the participants need to consider when they go back to work, so hopefully there are no surprises."
The return2work motto is: reviving careers with confidence.
"We will make it possible for people to relaunch an existing career or establish a new one," says Paykel.
Paykel has three children, 3-year-old twins and a 5-year-old, and she has continued to run her own public relations company, SP and CO Communications.
She knows Ross through friends and they are on the parent liaison committee at their day care centre.
"Several of my girlfriends had stellar careers, but five years out they were saying, 'I don't know what to do to take the first step to get back into the workforce'. They are unaware of work cultures and worried about technology, so I thought, 'What could we put together to assist women?'," Paykel says.
Many people have the skill set, but need a refresher to help them.
"It is all about giving people the tools they need to present themselves to the employer or the recruiting company.
"I think confidence comes from these skills; if you acquire the skills the confidence will come.
"You almost can't believe that people who have had great careers are afraid to get out there again, but there is no bridging, no intermediary, which is what we are trying to do, to provide those first steps."
At the same time, Paykel hopes participants will build a network of people in the same situation and establish a buddy system.
Alongside the formation of return2work, Kate Ross is involved in establishing another tool for job seekers next month with the launch of a website dedicated to part-time job vacancies.
Called theoutfit.co.nz, it kicks off on October 15 and aims to match part-time job seekers with employers, says account director Lisa Prohuber, who has been part of the development team.
There are around 486,000 part-time workers in New Zealand, yet it is still difficult for some employers to find part-time workers as they are looking for a particular skill set, she says.
"Employers know there are lots of skilled people out there who are not working; they may have had children or be semi-retired.
"Employers are looking to capture those people and it is just about attracting them and showing them that it is worth going back into a part-time work environment," Prohuber says.
Advertisers on the nationwide website represent the whole spectrum of employers, from information technology to retailers to food outlets.
Prohuber's team has been working with groups of mothers and students to evaluate what it is they are looking for in terms of part-time work.
The feedback they have received from mothers is that they need a website where they feel confident the positions advertised are with employers who are looking for someone like them.
"Someone who will take into account such issues as flexibility over school holidays," Prohuber says.
From the students' perspective, Prohuber says the research showed that many young people are interested in finding a part-time job that could give them an insight into the career they are studying towards.
* For more information see: www.returnwork.co.nz, www.theoutfit.co.nz
