Raising a family is professional. You can now add a career break to your LinkedIn Profile,’ the business networking site LinkedIn announced its ‘career break’ feature with this tweet recently. To get a better understanding of career breaks, the platform surveyed 23,000 workers and hiring managers. The results revealed that more than 60 per cent of employees have taken a career break at some point, and more than one-third of women would like to take a career break in future. The study also revealed that hiring managers are more likely to reject candidates whose profiles have unexplained career gaps. With this latest offering, LinkedIn aims to normalise career breaks and encourage employers and organisations to understand and accept the underlying reasons such as caregiving, parenting, stress and burnout.
Working mothers need an equal chance to succeed, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic creating unnecessary stress and burden on women to juggle between work and family life, online and offline classes of children and changing work cultures. A recent survey conducted by the online career portal JobsForHer involving 8,000 working mothers highlights what working mothers are expecting from employers in the current scenario. 51 per cent of working mothers said they felt like quitting their jobs because of additional household responsibilities. With flexible work hours and a remote work schedule, mothers want employers to pay attention to their needs and challenges.
With schools reopening in most parts of the country and organisations moving back to the ‘work from office’ model, working mothers according to the survey are looking for family-friendly benefits at their workplace. 38.6 per cent of working mothers consider flexible work schedules the top priority, while 32.3 per cent prefer remote work options. Also, 17 per cent said they expect child-care assistance at the workplace, and 12.1 per cent voted for mental health support to achieve a better work-life balance and advance their careers. "The JobsForHer survey was conducted to understand the needs and expectations of working mothers so that companies can create a culture where working mothers have an equal chance to succeed. Flexible work schedules and remote work options are no longer a bonus but expected features of the workplace so that working parents, not just mothers, can manage their multiple responsibilities and bring their best to work," said Neha Bagaria, founder and CEO of JobsForHer, commenting on the survey findings.