The Smart, Capable Talent that many Employers Overlook- Mothers

Mothers today are often faced with a conundrum: Continue moving forward in their careers and resort to childcare, or follow the path of the estimated one-third of women with children under six years old who opt to become stay-at-home moms, according to recent Pew Research.

Women who take a hiatus from their careers are often faced with challenges when they decide to return to their field of work, as employers commonly overlook professionals with gaps in their resumes.

However, a mother returning to the workforce is much different from someone who has been out of work for an extended period of time for different reasons.

It's undoubtedly a challenge to return to the workforce after an extended absence, especially in an era where employers seek current, relevant work experience.

Many stay-at-home parents want to return to work whether they economically need to or not. Work is a big part of our personal identities, and when we find our kids needing less of us because of the great job we have done raising them, we find ourselves wanting to return to work. Stay-at-home moms often are well educated with strong work skills.

Mothers who are planning to reenter the workforce need to develop a strategy for doing so. It takes time, commitment and preparation to restart your career, especially for moms with prolonged absences of more than 12 months.

With the current "talent crunch" for experienced professionals in the U.S., employers need to look to stay-at-home parents who are ready to return to work to fill open positions.

In fact, some employers have already identified the untapped potential of stay-at-home moms. Citibank, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs have all implemented re-employment initiatives known in hiring circles as "returnships" that are geared towards mothers seeking to restart their careers.

Imagine a mom with a Ph.D. from Stanford in economics who 15 years ago worked on Wall Street, or a mother with an engineering degree from Stevens Institute of Technology, who worked in the environmental sciences field a decade ago.

The list goes on and on, but these are real people who temporarily left their fields to raise their children, and they are just a few of many professionals that my organization, The WorkPlace Group, has helped reemploy.

However, when employers hire based on "have done" rather than "can do," candidates with large gaps in their work history are skipped. It's hard to blame employers for being cautious. Making correct hiring decisions based on competencies, capabilities, and aptitudes — rather than on current, relevant work experiences — is challenging.

However, when it comes to hiring for positions that offer significant training, employers should consider well-educated, motivated moms who are good task masters and communicators.

Steven Rothberg, president and founder of CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading resource for entry level jobs, shared with me that "it is often easier for an employer to teach a hard skill like coding than a soft skill like critical thinking."

I echo Rothberg’s viewpoint. Customer service, tech support, and sales are just three additional examples of jobs that generally provide weeks of on-the-job training.

But not every position has a long training program, and few employers can do what some of the wall street giants have done by creating re-employment programs.

Even employers who are willing to put the résumé aside and focus on work samples, aptitude testing, competency-based interviews, and assessment tools like gamification, have concerns regarding a mother's readiness to return to work.

Recruiters and hiring managers often are concerned about the potential productivity and efficiency of a candidate who has spent the past several years focused on family rather than career progression.

Employers incur significant costs in hiring, training, and employing individuals, along with substantial costs when the new hire fails to meet their needs.

Over the next few years, employers will see the fight for talent strongly intensify. The number of individuals with current, relevant experience (the "supply side" of the candidate pool) will continue to fall below employers' needs (the "demand side" of the candidate pool).

Thus, we can expect a talent shortage in the near term. Fortunately, the number of candidates participating in the job market is on an uptick. Many of them are mothers who have been out of the workforce for quite some time.

"Those who have current, relevant work experience or have kept their job-related knowledge and skills current are the candidates who rise to the top," says Dan Black, Director of Recruiting at Ernst & Young.

Mothers who want to return to their previous line of professional work must maintain their job-related knowledge and skills. These efforts should start a minimum of six months before reapplying to get back into the workforce.

For example, attend professional conferences, take continuing education courses, obtain job-related certifications, use your skills to help a nonprofit, etc.

Recruiters and hiring managers should realize that many moms returning to work may desire a job that is different than what they did prior to starting a family.

Consider the civil engineer who now wants to do IT tech support, the CPA who wants to do project management, and the finance major who now wants to do customer service.

Employers should assess "can do," rather than "have done," and focus on transition knowledge and skills, learning capabilities, work motivation, and the extent with which the candidate's personal characteristics match those of your current successful employees.

Dr. Steven Lindner is the executive partner of The WorkPlace Group, a leading "think-tank" provider of recruitment services assisting companies ranging from small, fast growing businesses to multinational Fortune 500 companies.