Large corporate businesses such as KPMG and Morgan Stanley are now looking for women who left their careers to have a family and who are now considering re joining the workforce. These budding employees are considered ideal as their skills and knowledge are esteemend and flexible working becomes easier to provide.

Historically women who left employment to have a family had little choice when they decided to return to the workplace as flexibility of hours to tie in with nursery and school times was very difficult to deal with. Often women would work evenings in a retail role or latterly in some sort of call centre, operating in a customer care environment, as these roles were the main ones with flexibility. Opportunities were also available in the “party selling” type roles with the likes of Avon and Tupperware. Again these were attractive to returning mums as they permitted a high degree of flexibility and the option to Work From Home.

There has always been a need for extra retail cover, especially in the lead up to Christmas and this again has been an area where women returning to work after having a child have found opportunities, especially over the last 20 years as evening shopping and Sunday shopping has become the norm. But even with decent employers such as the ones named so far the flexible roles on offer until recently have not been career type ones. They have been simply a way of adding extra income to the family reserves and have offered women with a relatively static role.

With the enhancement of technology and the arrival of the Internet Business all this is now altering. We see the large businesses such as Barclays and Morgan Stanley actually making a definite effort to recruit mothers back into the workplace and not only that, but the roles on offer are at a much higher level than those vacant before.

This form of development is due in part to the coming of broadband, offering very quick download speeds to most of the country which in turn has allowed remote working to become an option. The opportunity to work from home or at a satellite office close to home instead of travel into the city is a big advantage for a lot of women with child care to consider. Local school runs can still be dealt with and the travelling distance to an office is cut out altogether meaning that the actual time spent “at work” is entirely constructive and there is more time for family life.

Another side of the changing business scene that has given opportunities for mothers to return to work in high flying jobs is the expansion of many internet businesses. These typically operate without a definite physical base and the majority of workers are able to work from home on Online Jobs using all the online technologies available and being developed.

It is therefore evident why the larger organizations are tapping into this rich seam of talent, as it offers them with the opportunity to get hold of individuals with a high skill level who need no more than some refresher training to be fully functional. It will be interesting to see if some of the SME’s start to understand this potential too and take advantage when the job vacancy numbers increase following the countries pull away from recession.

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