Pros and Cons of a Returnship

We’ve previously explained what a “returnship” is. In short, it’s a recruiting program focused on individuals who are returning to the workforce after some form of extended absence.

This may have been child-rearing or caregiving—two of the most common examples—but could be any number of other reasons as well. The key is that these individuals often are overlooked in the recruiting process and represent a somewhat untapped pool of potential talent for organizations to utilize.
If you’re not familiar with returnships, check out yesterday’s post, and then come back here to look through some of the pros and cons below.

Pros of Offering a Returnship Program:

• This type of program can open up a whole new group of talented individuals for the organization. It could be a way to fill harder-to-fill positions.
• These individuals already have proven workplace experience and skills and should be able to re-enter the workplace well. If these employees worked for the organization before, the transition is even easier since they already are familiar with the workplace culture.
• These individuals may be quite eager to gain training to bring their skills up to speed; it can be difficult to find work for those in this situation. This may lead to greater loyalty over time.
• The returnship period is a tryout of sorts, which minimizes the risk of having a bad hire; there’s a preset end date without fuss if it isn’t a good fit. During the returnship period, the individual’s skills can be assessed.
• It may be an opportunity to improve diversity in the organization by bringing back those who had previously left the workforce early (and thus are less likely to be represented at higher levels in the organization). This can positively impact the working culture.
• It may reduce hiring costs since the individuals already have experience and can get to full productivity quickly.
• When rehiring someone who left the organization previously, their work ethic and performance is already established.

Cons of Offering a Returnship Program:

• Employers should be careful about how this recruiting program is communicated. For example, it’s possible that this type of program may attract a disproportionate number of women, simply because women are statistically more likely to have left the workforce for caregiving or child-rearing responsibilities. But that doesn’t mean that employers should target women (at the exclusion of men) in their recruitment efforts. The recruitment should be open, just as any job would be, and not discriminate based on gender.
• There is, of course, a cost involved in running such a program. There are hiring costs and training costs and so on. Even though the returning employees have experience, they may take some time to get back up to speed because they may require additional training on technology updates that have occurred during their absence.

Has your organization considered a returnship program? Or targeted former employees in your recruiting efforts? What has been your experience?