Workforce Management Featured Article
reacHIRE Helps Stay-at-Home Moms Transition Back into the Workforce
When it comes to workforce management, most human resources execs are coming around to the fact that a more diverse workforce that includes women at all levels is a pillar of strength for today’s modern enterprise. But so often, the pool of qualified women is constricted by the years that many spend underemployed or out of the workforce entirely in order to do what is arguably the greatest job of all: Raise their children.
Looking to address the issue of older moms getting back in the game, reacHIRE was established.
A Boston-based organization that helps women transition back to the workforce, reachHIRE's career re-entry program offers women a range of career coaching and assessment services, along with opportunities for skills development and training. It also matches participants with paid project assignments at local companies.
There’s also a focus on helping each other: Class sizes run between 15 and 20 women, where the stated goal is to help them “learn from each other and serve as a support network even after graduation.”
The program is selective: Participants must apply for the limited number of spaces, and there’s a tuition cost of about $2,000 per student.
To find out how well the program is working, Raleigh-Durham, N.C.’s WRAL TV station interviewed Pamela DeLoatch, who is part of the first Research Triangle Park, N.C. graduating class. She’s been a stay-at-home mom for 21 years, raising four children, and said that the program has addressed her No. 1 concern: That despite a spending a stint freelancing, she worried she no longer had the skills needed to get a full-time job in her field. Ironically, that was HR.
“In the last year, with my youngest child getting ready for college, I began wondering two things: How can I contribute to college tuition for three kids next year, and, even more importantly, as this current phase of Mommy-hood comes to an end, what’s my next step?” she explained. “As my child began preparing for her adventure, what would be mine?”
With sessions that focus on project management, presentations and data analytics, participants are better able to recognize their strengths and envision themselves contributing to organizations, she said—an effect helped along by tours of area corporations that served as reacHIRE training partners.
“I learned that the lessons, maturity and perspective I’ve gained as a mom are imminently transferable to a work environment, and that organizations want and need those talents,” she said. “For me, the key is recognizing them, articulating how I can use those to benefit an organization and (through reacHIRE) identifying those organizations that most appreciate what returning moms can offer.”
Edited by Kyle Piscioniere
