Returners’ Programmes: a solution to motherhood penalty and skills shortage ?

This project investigates the fast development of returnship programmes in the UK, ranging from SMEs to FTSE100 firms and spreading to the law, banking, telecoms and construction sectors. It seeks to address the lack of academic research on these highly sensitive programmes designed to address critical issues for employers in a post-Brexit economic environment such as skills and staff shortages, as well as gender pay gap. The project builds on the investigators’ previous research on workplace gender equality and diversity (Guillaume, 2018; Guillaume and Pochic, 2011; Elliott and Stead, 2018. Stead and Elliott, 2019; Kirton, 2016; Kirton and Guillaume, 2017). Utilizing qualitative methods, the research seeks to examine employers’ and government’s motivations for launching returners’ programmes; evaluate the impact of these programmes on existing HR and diversity policies; investigate returners’ experiences during the recruitment process as well as the impact of returnship on their working and family lives.