Our latest report with Vodafone UK, Lost Connections: Supporting Returners into the workplace in 2021 and beyond, explores the challenges faced by those returning to work after a career break of one year or more.

Our polling for the report shows that nearly half of all women (42%) who take over a year out from work say they suffer from a loss in confidence. The report examines how employers need to go further to support the millions of people returning to work as Covid restrictions are lifted.

The findings will have implications for the millions of furloughed workers and those returning to the workplace after over a year of remote working. The report includes polling from Survation of over 1,000 people who had returned to work after an absence of a year or more. Key findings include:

• Over a third (37%) of those returning to the workplace after a year or more away experience a loss of confidence in their own ability. This loss of confidence is almost twice as prevalent for women as for men, with 42% of women lacking confidence in their own ability compared to 24% of men.

• Just under a third (31%) of women returners said they found it hard to reacclimatise to working life following such a long break, compared to 25% of men.

• 71% of returners said they felt cut off from the world of work during their time away from it, with younger workers aged 18-24 particularly impacted (74%, compared to 65% of those aged 45-64).

Read the report here