LinkedIn targets carers as career returnees

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Pictured left, is Shamala Hinrichsen, Sharon McCooey, LinkedIn, and Ruth Kearney, Trinity College Dublin. (Image: Naoise Culhane)

1 February 2018

 

A new programme from LinkedIn, called Returnin, is designed to help people back into the workforce after taking a career break to look after children or care for family members.

Based at its EMEA HQ in Dublin, the programme will create 10 new jobs as it offers returning professionals training, an extended onboarding period, and the provision of ongoing mentoring to ensure they make a seamless transition back into the workforce.

LinkedIn said it will also provides additional supports such as its PerkUp! employee benefit programme, which consists of an allowance that can be spent on items like babysitters or help at home to make work life balance during the transition easier.

According to LinkedIn, the programme will be of particular interest to women, who are the most highly-educated section of the Irish workforce. Citing Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures, LinkedIn said that more than 55% of women aged between 25-35 have a third-level qualification compared with just over 40% men. Despite this, there are around 52,000 women seeking either full-time or part-time employment and it is thought that more have simply stopped looking for work. The data also shows that there are just over 195,000 carers in Ireland, with 117,000 women carers comprising over 60% of the total.

“We are launching Returnin in Ireland for three reasons,” said Sharon McCooey, Head of LinkedIn in Ireland. “First, we need skilled workers – we see that many of them have fallen out of the labour market due to family commitments and we think that we can help them reconnect with their careers. Second, we want to build a team as diverse as the market we serve – and that includes a diversity of ages and family experience, we think Returnin will help us appeal to older workers and parents. Third, we see this an obstacle to economic opportunity – and our driving force as a company is to overcome such barriers – we hear from parents and carers that returning to work can be daunting and complicated, with Returnin we can offer more specific help”.

“LinkedIn was my first job after two years off to look after my children, the company was hugely supportive of me at that time, and I am excited to be able to extend the same opportunity to others who need that same chance,” said McCooey.

https://lnkd.in/returnin

 

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