By Rochna Pant
A Year in Review: Defining Moments Of 2024
Our 2024 Year in Review highlights the most impactful milestones for employers and relaunchers in normalizing career breaks and illustrating the competitive advantage returnships provide for employers. Read on to learn what made a difference.
Milestone #1
2024 iRelaunch Virtual Employer Summit
The 2024 Employer Summit brought representatives from over 70 employers to our confidential forum focusing on the most important topics for employers contemplating, launching, or running returnship programs. Key topics included best practices for launching and sustaining returnship programs, effective approaches for hiring relaunchers, supporting program alumni, and leveraging reentry resources.
The 2025 Employer Summit will be on March 6, 2025 (virtual).
Note this is not a recruiting event. It is for employers only. All registrants will be vetted to make sure they are representing an employer considering or running a career reentry program.
MILESTONE #2
2024 Return to Work Conferences
Our two 2024 virtual conferences connected 1000+ relaunchers with 28 forward-thinking organizations recruiting for their returnship programs and job opportunities.
Aggregated data from the Conference attendees revealed that:
- 84% of our Conference audience identifies as female
- 58% of our attendees have more than 10 years of experience
- 98% have a Bachelor's degree and 58% have at least one advanced degree
The next iRelaunch Return to Work Conference will run May 6-8, 2025 (virtual).
Milestone #3
Dynamic Career Reentry Events
In 2024, iRelaunch special events showcased the best in relauncher talent and employer career reentry programs, including our third installment of the Black Relauncher Series, dedicated information sessions for Lockheed Martin’s Chapter Next and Organon’s What’s Next programs, and professional forums sharing iRelaunch expertise. These events and more gave us the opportunity to amplify diverse voices, share actionable strategies for both relaunchers and employers, and foster career reentry best practices through key initiatives.
Milestone Achieved: Over 10,000 Users of the iRelaunch Return to Work Roadmap!
The iRelaunch Return to Work Roadmap is our comprehensive, results-driven guidebook and framework for successfully navigating the return-to-work journey. With a recent full upgrade, the Roadmap is now an even more powerful resource for relaunchers. It allows each user to set their own paceand tailor the experience to match their unique goals.
We were extremely excited when the 10,000th person registered for the Roadmap; a testament to the effectiveness of this unique resource customized specifically for the relauncher.
Special shoutout to Nikki Steingold, the visionary creator and dedicated steward of the Roadmap, whose expertise and commitment have made this resource such an invaluable tool for relaunchers everywhere.
Milestone #4
STEM Reentry Task Force
The STEM Reentry Task Force bi-monthly Roundtable meetings provided member employers with valuable insights on launching and expanding returnship programs, featuring discussions with hiring managers about their successful experiences bringing relaunchers onto their teams, program managers sharing strategies for elevating programs inside the organization, and recruiters discussing aligning program roles with talent acquisition goals, among many other topics. Forty-four employers strong, the Task Force has been a major driver of the increase in employer career reentry programs.
In 2025, we will celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the STEM Reentry Task Force, co-led by SWE and iRelaunch, as we continue to welcome new employers and share expert guidance, collaboration opportunities, and best practices.
Milestone #5
iRelaunch goes to Washington
On October 8, Representative Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) introduced the Return USA Act, aimed at establishing the first-ever returnship program within the federal government. The program incorporates best practices from successful state and private sector returnship initiatives to support professionals reentering the workforce after career breaks.
iRelaunch advised on the language of the Act and is referenced in the legislation as the source of the Fortune 50 employers with career reentry programs statistic.
In 2024, we partnered with LeanIn to launch the iRelaunch X Lean In "I've Relaunched" Circles, designed for women who have successfully returned to work and are actively advancing in their careers. The program was piloted with six small groups, engaging a total of 32 participants.
Our e-Learning Tracks got a major upgrade! We unveiled two transformative e-learning courses featuring forty two updated lessons and thirty seven new videos to empower relaunchers and support career reentry stakeholders!
A huge thank you to our relaunchers, employers, and community partners! We're more committed than ever to normalizing career breaks and supporting successful returnships—benefiting both returning professionals and the employers who hire them. Everyone wins, and that's what drives our passion for this mission!
With gratitude,
Don't relaunch alone!
Join our growing relauncher communities on Facebook and LinkedIn. For more great guidance on your relaunch and updates on when return to work programs are accepting applications, events for relaunchers and more, be sure to sign up for our Return to Work Report and follow us on social media to stay informed!
