A survey by LinkedIn found 70% of working women in India have quit or considered quitting their jobs because they weren’t offered the right flexible policies after the Covid pandemic. Research also found that poor employer sentiment towards flexible working and career breaks is holding women back from asking for greater flexibility and re-entering the workforce.
Overcoming Career Gaps: Ruba's Journey at HARMAN
HARMAN culture celebrates diversity and inclusion because differences lead to innovation. That is why HARMAN introduced ReInventHers, a program specifically designed to bring women back to the workforce, who took a break in their careers to cater to other priorities.
Ruba joined HARMAN through the ReinventHers initiative after being on a career break to raise her family and struggled to find an opportunity to reenter the workforce.
She started her career in 2009 as Quality Assurance Engineer with expertise in manual testing, functional testing, webservices/ API testing and automation, and database testing. After building her career for 9 years, she left the workforce to build and take care of her family for 5 years. Despite her professional accomplishments, when she decided she was ready to reenter the workforce, finding career opportunities proved to be more challenging than she anticipated.
“I felt discouraged at times when I was not getting the right opportunity matching my prerequisites during my job search,” Ruba shared. “Reentering the workforce is not always a straightforward endeavor since career gaps can be a difficult hurdle to overcome.”
As a woman in tech with a career gap, Ruba had to overcome multiple challenges before finding the right opportunity.
“Harman has given a me a role suiting my experience and skills along with remote work facility which provided me the complete comfort which I was looking for restarting my career. I am now able to commit to my work and house responsibilities & managing both equally.”
FLEXIBILITY MATTERS
According to the survey, 83% of working women have realized that they want to work more flexibly in the aftermath of the pandemic. As many as 72% are rejecting job roles that do not allow them to work flexibly.
“ReinventHers is the best program with flexible work options for women candidates to give a thought about rejoining an organization after the career break,” Ruba shared. “The program provided smoother transition, flexibility, and women-friendly work culture focusing inclusive women empowerment.”
Even so, returning to work after a career break is not without its challenges.
“Transitioning back to work after parental leave is hard for women. We are returning to work as a different person with new concerns and priorities.”
Ruba was thankful to find an environment that understands these challenges and views them as positive. ReinventHers supports returning women with a variety of resources to make the transition as smooth as possible, including formal onboarding, specially designed guidance, a support network, and mentoring.
These additional support resources really helped Ruba settle into her new role – and life chapter as a working mother.
"I have taken the right decision to join HARMAN where return to work for women is structured with clear onboarding and transition plans, easy work-life balance, greater opportunities, inclusive environment and (a focus on) enhancing our career growth,” she said.
Does this sound like a culture where you can thrive? Check out open positions with HARMAN today.
