Large corporate firms such as KPMG and Morgan Stanley are now looking for women who left their careers to have a family and who are now considering re joining the workforce. These potential employees are considered perfect as their skills and knowledge are appreciated and flexible working becomes easier to provide.

Historically women who left employment to have a family had little choice when they decided to return to employment as flexibility of hours to fit in with nursery and school times was very hard to deal with. Often women would work evenings in a retail environment or lately in some sort of call centre, operating in a customer care environment, as these jobs were the main ones with flexibility. Opportunities were also available in the “party selling” type roles with the likes of Avon and Tupperware. Again these were attractive to returning mothers as they provided a high degree of flexibility and the capacity to work from home.

There has always been a requirement for extra retail cover, especially in the lead up to Christmas and this again has been an place where women returning to work after having children have found opportunities, especially over the last 20 years as evening shopping and Sunday shopping has become the rule. But even with good employers such as the ones named so far the flexible positions on offer until recently have not been career type ones. They have been merely a way of adding further income to the family reserves and have offered women with a moderately static role.

With the development of technology and the advent of the internet business all this is now shifting. We see the large firms such as Barclays and Morgan Stanley actually making a definite effort to recruit mothers back into the workplace and not only that, but the positions on offer are at a much higher level than those vacant before.

This form of development is due in part to the advent of broadband, offering very quick download speeds to the majority of the country which in turn has allowed remote working to become a possibility. The opportunity to work from home or at a satellite office near to home rather than travel into the city is a big bonus for a lot of women with child care to consider. Local school runs can still be dealt with and the travelling time to an office is cut out altogether meaning that the daily time spent “at work” is entirely constructive and there is more time for family life.

Another side of the changing business picture that has given opportunities for mothers to return to work in high flying jobs is the growth of many internet businesses. These generally operate without a definite physical base and the majority of staff are able to work from home on online jobs using all the online technologies available and being developed.

It is therefore obvious why the larger organizations are tapping into this rich seam of ability, as it offers them with the opportunity to get hold of individuals with a high skill level who require no more than some refresher training to be fully functional. It will be interesting to see if some of the SME’s start to understand this potential too and take advantage when the job vacancy numbers rise following the countries pull away from recession.