On-Ramping Comes of Age
People who read this also read:
Melissa is well aware of how lucky she was to have found Encore, Lehman Brothers’ signature On-Ramping program.
After an impressive ten-year career in equity research, Melissa Eisenstat off-ramped in 2004 to devote herself to a project close to her heart: playing the cello full time. “I made it the centerpiece of my life. For two years I did the total immersion thing. It gave me an enormous sense of accomplishment.”
When Melissa was ready to go back to work she found it tough going. Prospective employers were suspicious. “They kept questioning whether I could ‘cut it’ after a two year break. The field had changed so much.”
So she signed up for Encore. The Encore recruiting team worked with her, scoping out her experience and skills, attempting to make a match with opportunities at the firm. In August she accepted a job as Vice President of Product Management. Her new job is less well paid than her last, but as Melissa put it “That’s fine with me. I know I need to prove myself again. Encore has given me that chance.”
In January 2008, On-Ramping has come of age. The three lead companies in this space -- Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and UBS -- are fine-tuning their programs and rolling them out internationally (London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore.) Lehman's Encore welcomes talented women who have off-ramped and are looking for a road back into the financial sector, offering a range of flexible career opportunities. Goldman Sachs' New Directions provides reskilling and a "new compass" for returning women. UBS's Career Comeback, in partnership with leading universities in each region, is offered free of charge and provides classroom modules and UBS employees as peer coaches. These programs now have established reputations and a loyal following.
Other sectors and other players are getting in on the action. In early 2008 Johnson & Johnson and GE are planning to roll out pilot programs.
Looking forward we can expect these programs to grow and spread. The fact is, employers are newly aware of the scale of the losses. In the financial sector, 37% of highly qualified women take an off-ramp. In science and engineering-based companies the figure is even higher. In these sectors, fully 53% of highly credentialed females voluntarily quit their jobs for a period of time: sometimes to play the cello, more often to care for a child or an elder relative.
The good news is that after a short break the vast majority want back in. Two to three years down the road more than 90% of these off-ramped women want to get back on the career highway. They love their work and need the income.
Pioneers in this field -- Anne Erni of Lehman Brothers, Mona Lau at UBS, and Edie Hunt at Goldman -- have some words of advice for those engaged in developing the next round of on ramping programs: Develop a business case. Make sure it's rigorous enough to withstand market downturns. This is the only way to maintain progress.
Have you spent time on-ramping or off-ramping? Please share your experiences.
Read all of Sylvia Ann Hewlett's "Winning the Talent War" posts.
Sign up for the Harvard Business Publishing Weekly Hotlist, a new weekly email roundup featuring the top highlights from HarvardBusiness.org.
- Comments (2)
- Join the Discussion
- Email/Share
Sylvia Ann Hewlett is an economist and the founding president of the Center for Work-Life Policy where she directs the “Hidden Brain Drain”—a task force of 46 global companies and organizations committed to fully realize female and multicultural talent. She also heads up the Gender and Policy Program at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University.
Comments
Madam,
The initiative as outlined is laudable since it recognizes the value of human capital and adopts a pro-active approach to help
those who have taken a break to return to the mainstream.
In the absence of adequate data, the costs of such initiatives are not known. If the ultimate objective is to reduce attrition, provide opportunities for talented professionals to return to productive work after a break, or just move towards the elusive concept of work-life balance, an alternative model could be considered.
Instead of allowing (or asking) those who wish to pursue a passion for some time to stay away from work altogether, one could think of enabling such professionals to work for a few hours a day, or a certain number of hours (with flexi-timings) in a week, or to work on specific projects that may not consume all their time. This approach would enable professionals to pursue their interests while not being completely cut off from their work. Even after two or three years, they would be ready to return to work without too much of a loss of time, and without the need for extensive re-training. Being holistic in its perspective, the approach is likely to reduce attrition and also reduce overall costs in the long-term, even while it provides a sense of fulfilment to individuals.
Warm regards
- Posted by B V Krishnamurthy
January 12, 2008 2:38 AM
Sylvia,
When I saw your blog I immediately welcomed the opportunity to participate in the discussion. I just finished writing a book about Women, leadership and success and in the process of gathering research information I referenced to several of your work in the topic of work and life balance.
Diversity on the workplace and leadership career opportunities for women is a top topic on my agenda and for our company. Women at Wachovia gather through numerous Women groups and initiatives including a Women Employee Resource group. We also offer mentoring tracks that are designed to address the need of emerging women leaders in the workplace. I remembered doing an interview last year a woman who was a very strong candidate, but did not interview as well as we all expected. In retrospect I think we did not pay enough attention to provided her with guidance on how to approach the next leadership opportunity.
We just refreshed our 2008 mentoring curriculum and my top request to the team was to design a track to prepare women for the next leadership role.
I could have benefited from an On-ramping program many years ago when I transitioned from academy to Corporate America. At the time, these programs were not available and the word diversity did not exist in the lexicon of corporate executives.
Today, as an Executive woman from a minority group it is my responsibility to mentor and provide a role model to other women in the company and in the community.
Ilieva
- Posted by Ilieva I. Ageenko
February 17, 2008 9:05 PM