How to Overcome Your Employment Gap

Concerned about getting back in the workforce after a gap in your employment? You should be when you consider the bad experiences some employers have had when they take a chance on people with a gap in their employment history. Additionally, the job market appears to have qualified candidates for most positions. How will your resume, with a one, five, or ten year employment gap, stack up against those of people who have been racking up career achievements and accomplishments for the same ten years?

Stay-at-home moms and dads who raise their children, rather than their expertise and visibility in a workplace, are the largest group to sport these resume gaps. Even a couple of years out of the workforce can devastate your career if you’re not careful. In worse case scenarios, you can become unemployable in your field. Even in best case scenarios, you will undoubtedly take a salary cut and find yourself reporting to someone who would formerly have reported to you.

This is not to say that returning to work is hopeless. There are plenty of people who have walked back into an executive job, developed their dream job or created a career change following chosen unemployment. It’s just that it’s harder for you with an employment gap. These tips will help you stay ready for employment while you raise the kids or take a few years for a non-work activity. It’s much better to spend that time preparing to be employable than to hit the job market cold after years at home. You'll be better prepared if you heed these tips.

Tips for Staying Employable During an Employment Gap

• Work With Your Current Employer: Your current employer, assuming you are still working, may value you and your experience. Talk with your employer to identify potential part-time or consulting work or periodic assignments you can do during the years you plan to work less than full time. If you work in marketing, for example, perhaps you can do freelance work on brochures, the website or press releases. If you work in Human Resources, you may contract to update the employee handbook annually or teach a class periodically. This is the easiest way to stay grounded in the workplace during an extended leave. Make your best pitch before you leave your job. Don't hesitate to call, however, even if you have been off work for a period of time.
• Build and Keep Your Network Before You Need It: It is easier to maintain current professional contacts than to build a new group a few years down the road. Professional contacts become dispersed to new positions; mentors retire; valued coworkers move on to new jobs. It is up to you to maintain relationships, sometimes for years, with people who will remember your talents when you decide to return to full-time employment. It is also imperative that you relate to friends and associates in your off-work life as an educated professional who has chosen to take time away from her career to raise a family. Talk about more than the children; make sure your friends know what you do professionally as well.
• Stay Active in Professional Associations: Most career fields have professional associations that sponsor meetings, conferences, committees, training sessions and more for members. Stay active in your local association by attending meetings, writing for the newsletter, acting as a good will ambassador and attending national conferences. Volunteer for the activities that most closely match your career field and interests. Choose activities in which you’ll interact with many members to expand your network at the same time.
• Volunteer in Community, School and Civic Organizations: Challenging volunteer work can help to fill the gaps in your resume whether you return to your original career or create a career change in the future. Do invest thinking time in determining what kinds of volunteer work will be the most strategic for your longer term goals. Serving as president of the school board is likely worth more, when you return to work, than sewing costumes for the school play. Do both if you have the time and energy – they fulfill different aspects of your spirit. Do think about how the volunteer work will appear on the resume and stress contributing in volunteerism related to your future employment.
• Keep Your Resume File Updated: Keep track of new skills and activities you have developed and experienced during your time away from the workforce. Keep the resume file filled with notes about your volunteer work and other contributions. When you want to return to work, you’ll be happy you kept good records of the time you were unemployed.
• Create a Small Business and Work Even a Few Hours a Week: Think creatively. A mom I know just left the workforce to spend time with her eleven-year-old daughter. She is launching an Internet home baked doggie treat business. Active for years in Greyhound associations, she has identified her initial customer base and plans to expand from there. Write for newspapers, magazines and businesses; write and edit an About site; develop marketing materials for organizations; sell your professional expertise as a consultant; make candles or other crafts; design and maintain gardens; operate a daycare center or a home-based school; design and build websites; paint, wallpaper and decorate homes and businesses; cater special events; and provide virtual office assistant services over the web. Check Scott Allen’s Entrepreneur’s site for even more ideas.
• Keep Your Skills Current: Can you imagine a computer programmer finding a new position after five years outside of the workforce? Neither can I. Not unless she can demonstrate current skills. Fields such as banking, employment law, securities and financial planning change quickly. Attend school, take graduate seminars, participate in online learning and read to stay current in your field. Your local college may have classes you can audit if you can't pay tuition. No, a quick refresher class won’t help you out in most fields when you decide to return to work or change careers. Keeping abreast of your field every year is the best way to stay employable at something you’d like to do.
• Use the Time at Home to Change Careers: Maybe it’s time to try something new. A time away from work is perfect for pursuing career options and learning more about yourself and your interests. You may want to Create the Life You Want With a Mid-Career Crisis. If you decide to change careers, you can invest the time to earn a needed degree. Or, you can spend your volunteer or home-based business time on skills needed for the new career.
• Consider Part-time Work: Work part-time in your field, your career change field or just to keep your work record fresh. The money may also come in handy for the family or to fund your future goals.
• Consider Job Sharing: Many people have chosen to leave the workforce for periods of time. According to the Wall Street Journal, the percentage of mothers with a child under one-year-old who are working, dropped to 55 percent in 2002 from 59 percent in 1998. This reverses a thirty year trend according to the Census Bureau. Employers may have to consider creative ways to keep valued people working or to fill hard-to-fill positions. Job sharing, either half days, or splitting the week can work for both the employees and the employer if lines of communication remain open. And, the shared work may work best for all concerned when two talented people invest their energy in the same job.

With a consistent investment in yourslf and retaining your job and career relevance, you can overcome an employment gap. Choose to be prepared for the day when the hiring manager asks, "What have you been doing for the past ten years." You can respond, "A lot. I'd like to tell you about that time."

HRM Systems Diagnostic Checklists

The following check-lists present some questions which may prove helpful for you to think about when planning your development programs for human resources (your people) in your organization.

Use them to provoke thought and to stimulate discussion. Consult with others in your organization. They will help you to identify the critical human resource issues facing your organization.

The aim is to begin to explore how a considered and planned approach to people management can improve business performance, to the benefit of all.

Use this checklist in conjunction with our team building diagnostic instrument. It will, via your team members responses identify critical issues they perceive as important. These issues may be at odds with your own perceptions and analysis and therefore any such discrepancy will need to be addressed.

Warning Indicators

Your organization is more than likely in trouble if any of the following holds true:

• chronic industrial relations problems
• no means of resolving employee grievances
• increasing / erratic employee turnover
• increasing number of customer complaints
• no pride in the organization
• inter-group conflicts
• no career paths for ambitious talented employees
• dissatisfaction with pay and conditions
• unclear job roles
• no clear performance measures
• quality is unimportant
• bad product service / delivery records
• poor recruitment standards / practices
• no management development programs
• no induction training for new employees
• critical skill shortages
• inter-departmental conflict
• you do not know if any of the above are applicable
• you ignore any of the above

Culture, organization, people, systems (COPS), checklist

Culture

• Do your staff identify with the organization and 'the success of the organization' as being of direct benefit to themselves?
• Do your staff see themselves as having common interests with their work colleagues and group? Is there a strong team spirit?
• Is work allocated on the basis of individual expertise rather than position in the organization?
• Are there sufficient skills / power bases in the organization?
• Are there appropriate leadership skills within the organization?
• Are your staff encouraged to say what they think about the organization?
• Does your organization encourage innovation and creativity amongst staff?
• Do your staff feel a sense of personal responsibility for their work?
• Is quality emphasized in all aspects of the organization?

Organization

• Does the structure of your organization encourage effective performance?
• Is the organization structure flexible in the face of changing demands?
• Is the structure too complex? If so in what areas?
• Do your staff have clear roles and responsibilities?
• Does your organization structure tend to push problems up rather than resolve them at the point where they occur?
• Do your procedures and management practices facilitate the accomplishment of tasks?
• Do you constantly seek to challenge your organization structure?

People

• Do your staff have the necessary skills and knowledge to perform their jobs in the most effective manner?
• Do your staff understand their jobs and how they contribute to overall business performance i.e. have clear goals and objectives?
• Do your staff have a customer service orientation?
• Are people with potential spotted and developed for the future?
• Are your staff encouraged to perform well through the giving of recognition, feedback, etc.?
• Do your people know what their expected performance standards are?

Systems

• Do your organization's systems (e.g. employee selection and recruitment, promotion, planning, management, information and control) encourage effective performance among your staff?
• Are these systems consistent across the organization?
• Are there clear rewards for effective performance within your work group?
• Does the organization review its systems frequently and ensure they mutually support each other?

You may now wish to consider and write down:

• What are the three critical people issues facing your business?
• What plans /actions can you take to address these issues?

Steps in Developing HRM Strategy

Step 1: Get the 'big picture'

Understand your business strategy.

• Highlight the key driving forces of your business. What are they? e.g. technology, distribution, competition, the markets.
• What are the implications of the driving forces for the people side of your business?
• What is the fundamental people contribution to bottom line business performance?

Step 2: Develop a Mission Statement or Statement of Intent

That relates to the people side of the business.

Do not be put off by negative reactions to the words or references to idealistic statements - it is the actual process of thinking through the issues in a formal and explicit manner that is important.

• What do your people contribute?

Step 3: Conduct a SWOT analysis of the organization

Focus on the internal strengths and weaknesses of the people side of the business.

• Consider the current skill and capability issues.

Vigorously research the external business and market environment. High light the opportunities and threats relating to the people side of the business.

• What impact will/ might they have on business performance?
• Consider skill shortages?
• The impact of new technology on staffing levels?

From this analysis you then need to review the capability of your personnel department. Complete a SWOT analysis of the department - consider in detail the department's current areas of operation, the service levels and competences of your personnel staff.

Step 4: Conduct a detailed human resources analysis

Concentrate on the organization's COPS (culture, organization, people, HR systems)

• Consider: Where you are now? Where do you want to be?
• What gaps exists between the reality of where you are now and where you want to be?

Exhaust your analysis of the four dimensions.

Step 5: Determine critical people issues

Go back to the business strategy and examine it against your SWOT and COPS Analysis

• Identify the critical people issues namely those people issues that you must address. Those which have a key impact on the delivery of your business strategy.
• Prioritize the critical people issues. What will happen if you fail to address them?

Remember you are trying to identify where you should be focusing your efforts and resources.

Step 6: Develop consequences and solutions

For each critical issue highlight the options for managerial action generate, elaborate and create - don't go for the obvious. This is an important step as frequently people jump for the known rather than challenge existing assumptions about the way things have been done in the past. Think about the consequences of taking various courses of action.

Consider the mix of HR systems needed to address the issues. Do you need to improve communications, training or pay?

What are the implications for the business and the personnel function?

Once you have worked through the process it should then be possible to translate the action plan into broad objectives. These will need to be broken down into the specialist HR Systems areas of:

• employee training and development
• management development
• organization development
• performance appraisal
• employee reward
• employee selection and recruitment
• manpower planning
• communication

Develop your action plan around the critical issues. Set targets and dates for the accomplishment of the key objectives.

Step 7: Implementation and evaluation of the action plans

The ultimate purpose of developing a human resource strategy is to ensure that the objectives set are mutually supportive so that the reward and payment systems are integrated with employee training and career development plans.

There is very little value or benefit in training people only to then frustrate them through a failure to provide ample career and development opportunities.

Developing a HRM Strategy

Faced with rapid change organizations need to develop a more focused and coherent approach to managing people. In just the same way a business requires a marketing or information technology strategy it also requires a human resource or people strategy.

In developing such a strategy two critical questions must be addressed.

• What kinds of people do you need to manage and run your business to meet your strategic business objectives?
• What people programs and initiatives must be designed and implemented to attract, develop and retain staff to compete effectively?

In order to answer these questions four key dimensions of an organization must be addressed. These are:

• Culture: the beliefs, values, norms and management style of the organization
• Organization: the structure, job roles and reporting lines of the organization
• People: the skill levels, staff potential and management capability
• Human resources systems: the people focused mechanisms which deliver the strategy - employee selection, communications, training, rewards, career development, etc.

Frequently in managing the people element of their business senior managers will only focus on one or two dimensions and neglect to deal with the others. Typically, companies reorganize their structures to free managers from bureaucracy and drive for more entrepreneurial flair but then fail to adjust their training or reward systems.

When the desired entrepreneurial behavior does not emerge managers frequently look confused at the apparent failure of the changes to deliver results. The fact is that seldom can you focus on only one area. What is required is a strategic perspective aimed at identifying the relationship between all four dimensions.

If you require an organization which really values quality and service you not only have to retrain staff, you must also review the organization, reward, appraisal and communications systems.

The pay and reward system is a classic problem in this area. Frequently organizations have payment systems which are designed around the volume of output produced. If you then seek to develop a company which emphasizes the product's quality you must change the pay systems. Otherwise you have a contradiction between what the chief executive is saying about quality and what your payment system is encouraging staff to do.

There are seven steps to developing a human resource strategy and the active involvement of senior line managers should be sought throughout the approach.

Employee Education, Training & Development

In general, education is 'mind preparation' and is carried out remote from the actual work area, training is the systematic development of the attitude, knowledge, skill pattern required by a person to perform a given task or job adequately and development is 'the growth of the individual in terms of ability, understanding and awareness'.

Within an organization all three are necessary in order to:

• Develop workers to undertake higher-grade tasks;
• Provide the conventional training of new and young workers (e.g. as apprentices, clerks, etc.);
• Raise efficiency and standards of performance;
• Meet legislative requirements (e.g. health and safety);
• Inform people (induction training, pre-retirement courses, etc.);

From time to time meet special needs arising from technical, legislative, and knowledge need changes. Meeting these needs is achieved via the 'training loop'. (Schematic available in PDF version.)

The diagnosis of other than conventional needs is complex and often depends upon the intuition or personal experience of managers and needs revealed by deficiencies. Sources of inspiration include:

• Common sense - it is often obvious that new machines, work systems, task requirements and changes in job content will require workers to be prepared;
• Shortcomings revealed by statistics of output per head, performance indices, unit costs, etc. and behavioral failures revealed by absentee figures, lateness, sickness etc. records;
• Recommendations of government and industry training organizations;
• Inspiration and innovations of individual managers and supervisors;
• Forecasts and predictions about staffing needs;
• Inspirations prompted by the technical press, training journals, reports of the experience of others;
• The suggestions made by specialist (e.g. education and training officers, safety engineers, work-study staff and management services personnel).

Designing training is far more than devising courses; it can include activities such as:

• Learning from observation of trained workers;
• Receiving coaching from seniors;
• Discovery as the result of working party, project team membership or attendance at meetings;
• Job swaps within and without the organization;
• Undertaking planned reading, or follow from the use of self–teaching texts and video tapes;
• Learning via involvement in research, report writing and visiting other works or organizations.

So far as group training is concerned in addition to formal courses there are:

• Lectures and talks by senior or specialist managers;
• Discussion group (conference and meeting) activities;
• Briefing by senior staffs;
• Role-playing exercises and simulation of actual conditions;
• Video and computer teaching activities;
• Case studies (and discussion) tests, quizzes, panel 'games', group forums, observation exercises and inspection and reporting techniques.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of training is done to ensure that it is cost effective, to identify needs to modify or extend what is being provided, to reveal new needs and redefine priorities and most of all to ensure that the objectives of the training are being met.

The latter may not be easy to ascertain where results cannot be measured mathematically. In the case of attitude and behavioral changes sought, leadership abilities, drive and ambition fostered, etc., achievement is a matter of the judgment of senior staffs. Exact validation might be impossible but unless on the whole the judgments are favorable the cooperation of managers in identifying needs, releasing personnel and assisting in training ventures will cease.

In making their judgments senior managers will question whether the efforts expended have produced:

• More effective, efficient, flexible employees;
• Faster results in making newcomers knowledgeable and effective than would follow from experience;
• More effective or efficient use of machinery, equipment and work procedures;
• Fewer requirements to implement redundancy (by retraining);
• Fewer accidents both personal and to property;
• Improvements in the qualifications of staff and their ability to take on tougher roles;
• Better employee loyalty to the organization with more willingness to innovate and accept change.