FINDING A JOB EVEN WHEN YOU OFF-RAMP OR DOWNSHIFT YOUR CAREER

Finding a great job - with just the right hours, salary, benefits, location, and company culture and job description - can be a challenge.

FWhen a mom is looking for all that, especially if she's taken some time off to stay home with her children, it can be even more difficult.

"Mothers have traditionally had a tough time finding jobs with flexibility," said Andrea St. Jean, a career coach from Portsmouth, N.H. "But the world is opening up to us. Going back to work is more possible than ever for women who've been out of the marketplace."

According to the Center for Work-Life Policy, a non-profit organization working to develop policies that improve worklife balance, more than 35 percent of professional women "off-ramp" - leave their jobs to stay home and care for their children.

An additional 30 percent "downshift" their jobs - taking part-time hours or working flex-time schedules, sometimes at a level below their original position.

Although more than 90 percent of offrampers eventually decide to return to work, less than 75 percent successfully find a position. Only 40 percent return to full time jobs.

Allison O'Kelly wants to be part of the movement to change those statistics. As founder and CEO of Mom Corps, a staffing firm that matches employers with professionals, who have opted out of the traditional workplace, she believes it's the employers who are losing out by not taking advantage of the available pool of professional, experienced, knowledgeable women.

"We've got more and more companies receptive to it, but we have a long way to go," she said.

While O'Kelly hopes progress in the area will continue, she said there is a "huge mismatch" between the number of people looking for flexible work and the number of companies offering those types of jobs.

About 25,000 people have applied for work through Mom Corps, but O'Kelly said actual placements number are in the hundreds.

Some employers are becoming more receptive when they realize what the advantages can be. Hiring part-time and contract workers reduces the costs of benefits, and St. Jean believes employees who log 40 hours in four days tend to work hard. However, critics have pointed out that employers are sometimes interested in hiring women after a career break because of the opportunity to hire them at much lower rates and fewer, if any, benefits than a more traditional candidate.

Jane Seibel, founder and CEO of Employmoms, a staffing agency that matches mothers with companies offering flexible schedules, believes that recruiters who are working with women returning to the workforce have a responsibility to keep their pay rates competitive.

"A big piece of it is advocating for the rate," she said. "But companies are not all saying yes to flexibility. We work with the candidates and applicants first, then the companies."

A 2-Way Street

Melissa Sharples, branch manager for the Boston office of Aquent, the world's largest marketing staffing agency, said it's important for candidates to have a good sense of how they want work to fit into their lives. She suggests they figure out how much time they want to spend at work, with their kids, and on their own - before they launch their job search.

When Sharples is filling positions, she looks for candidates who have their personal and family schedules arranged for their return to work, including having child care in place.

"For us, we need to get somebody who's ready to come back to work," she said. "When someone comes in and says they're ready to work and they can work on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 10 to 3 - there are jobs out there for those people. But that's hard. Flexibility for the employer is important, too."

But she also wants to see women treated fairly in the workplace. When Sharples encountered an expectant mother whose company offered a flexible schedule - she could work one day a week at home, but lose her salary for that day - she advised her simply: "If you know your worth, stand up for it."

Staying on the job, even in a lesser capacity can help preserve a woman's long-term earning potential. The Center for Work- Life Policy has found women face a rapidly escalating financial penalty for taking time off. With a career break of 2.2 years - the average in the U.S. - women lose 18 percent of their earning power. For those who leave work for three or more years, the figure rises to 37 percent.

And in O'Kelly's experience, the longer a woman is out of the workforce, the harder it is to work around the resume gap when talking with potential employers.

"If you're out two or three years, typically it doesn't make that much difference," O'Kelly said. "If it's three to seven years, it makes a little more difference. After seven years, we place those people, but it's really hard."

Yet, O'Kelly doesn't recommend that women try to hide the fact that they have taken a career break.

"I would recommend being honest about the time off," she said. Many women become active in their local communities when they stop working, and O'Kelly said their may be benefit to including that service on their resumes.

Off The Ramp … & On Again

Cutting back hours, working remotely, or taking time off can be difficult subjects for women to broach with their employers.

Amanda Nascimento took advantage of a simple question during her annual performance review to start the conversation. When her boss asked how she was doing, Nascimento, mother of a then- 9-month-old baby, answered honestly.

"I said I was really, really stressed and I hoped we could work out something to reduce my hours," Nascimento said. Her boss agreed to a 32-hour weekly schedule. "She was very receptive. She had to get approval, but at that point I think they were glad I wasn't quitting. That would have put them in a tough spot."

For Nascimento, a genetic counselor from Northboro, the negotiation process was easy. Her services are in demand, and her company was open to the four-day week.

After her second child turned one, however, Nascimento quit her job entirely for a year-and-a-half. When her employer called a year ago looking for help, she was more than happy to accommodate the 7- to 8-hour week Nascimento proposed.

Negotiating, as Nascimento did, for flexibility in a current position can be a good place to start, Seibel said.

"Advocate for what you want," she said. "Give them some options, give them solutions. Start from there. A very exciting piece of this is lot of small and mid-size companies get it. Sometimes with a larger company there's a little less flexibility."

Jennifer Fraone, assistant director of the Boston College Center for Work & Family, believes that larger demographic trends will encourage employers to consider offering more flexible work options. Not only is the labor force aging, but its younger members - Generation Y - tend to make more decisions based on the integration of life and work.

"There is hope out there for all of us," said Fraone, who is a mother of two. "A lot of forward progress in flexible work has to do with older and younger workers, not just mothers."

She suggested women who want flexibility at work should look at three factors as they select an employer:

• An organization's leadership and culture must be supportive of and responsive to employees' work-life needs.

• Human resources must create policies and systems to encourage new ways of working and managing careers.

• Individual employees need to be responsible for their own career management.

"Once those work together, we have the ideal utopia," Fraone said. "But even companies that have an established policy on the books - if the manager is not supportive, the policy doesn't get implemented. It is unfortunate. We're trying to help them change the culture."

Marguerite Paolino is an award-winning freelance writer from Massachusetts.

Detours & OnRamps Conference

The first Boston conference of this organization was so well received the conference is coming back again on Nov. 4 at Bentley College in Waltham.

The organization's one-day format provides great educational sessions and networking opportunities.

Moms, this conference is for you if:

• you are considering going back to work full-time, part time, or flex time after having kids

• you never left work, but want to make your career work for YOU and your family

• you have a great idea for your own business

• you want to meet with and develop a network of bright, motivated women who all are smart, talented, and want to put their skills to work inside AND outside the home

Registration information will be posted at www.onrampsforum.com around Labor Day for the Nov 4th conference.