Return to work planning for your financial wellbeing

Our guest blogger, Ian Simons from the Chartered Insurance Institute, highlights some financial aspects to consider when returning to work.

Planning your return to work is a great opportunity to take stock of your current financial situation and plan for your future. The tips below, taken from the Insuring Women’s Futures Financial Wellbeing Guide, show how you can actively engage in your own financial life journey and also raise awareness of the financial Perils and Pitfalls facing women.

Engaging in your own financial life journey

As you return or search for work you should consider the below:
1. When researching potential employers take time to compare financial packages, pensions and perks

2. Research the gender pay gap - reporting legislation requires employers with 250 or more employees to publish statutory calculations annually

3. Understand employers' opportunities for flexible workers – openly disclosing policies is a good sign

4. Find out from potential employers what are the career prospects for returners and those with family commitments and are there carer policies?

5. When you start a new job, check out your employer’s pension arrangements, free employer contributions and tax deductions, and fully consider joining the pension scheme. If there are options on how much to contribute, you might be surprised how much bigger your pension pot could be if you paid in at a higher rate, together with the added ‘free employer and tax relief money’

6. If you want to work part-time, in multiple jobs or temporarily, think carefully about how you can maximise your workplace pensions (including any existing policies you may have) and any eligibility criteria
that might preclude you. Reflect on whether you might be inadvertently missing out on valuable contributions

We encourage you to read the full Financial Wellbeing Guide, in particular the re-entering the workforce section, to review your personal situation in more detail.

Arming yourself with knowledge

Once you have assessed your specific situation there are many places you can go for more information including:

• Insuring Women’s Futures website: The resource page contains research, videos and links to useful websites and tools
• ACAS website: You can find out more here on equal pay and gender pay gap reporting
• Your employer: Once you are back at work, many workplaces run sessions for returners or have helplines
• Your existing pension provider: Find out the position of your existing pension schemes and understand your options for reinvestment and transferral
• An independent financial adviser: If you need further financial advice, you can search for a qualified, local financial adviser on Findanadviser

Empowering others

This November, Insuring Women’s Futures are running a campaign called Talk 2 10K. They are challenging as many people as possible to talk to at least 10 other people about women’s financial wellbeing. To get involved all you need to do is:

• Read the toolkit and watch the webinar
• Organise your conversations (these can be anything from a chat with a friend to a formal session with colleagues)
• Spend a few minutes on 21 November sharing an anecdote, photo or video from your conversations on social media – make sure to use the following in your posts - #MakeEachMomentCount #InsuringFutures #WomensFinancialWellbeing and @CII
  

Ian Simons is Marketing Director at the Chartered Insurance Institute. 

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Returning to work? Don't let Imposter Syndrome hold you back

Do you sometimes feel that you don't deserve your success or that your achievements are flukes that can be put down to just good luck? Do you feel that it's only a matter of time until you are 'found out'?

If you do then you're certainly not alone. These feelings are so common they have a name - Imposter Syndrome.

Imposter Syndrome was first identified by psychologists in 1978. There are three defining features: a belief that others have an inflated view of your abilities, a fear that your true abilities will be found out, and a tendency to attribute your success to luck or extreme effort. There have been many studies into Imposter Syndrome since then, including one in 2011 that found that 70% of people will experience the phenomenon at some point in their lives. And it's not just a 'women's issue' -  research now suggests that men are just as likely as women to experience impostorism. 

Imposter Syndrome is most common when we're moving out of our comfort zone and facing periods of change or uncertainty ... such as returning to work after a long career break.

If Imposter Syndrome strikes, here are our tips to help you tackle it:

1. Remember these feelings are normal. Imposter Syndrome can affect anyone, even people who seem to be the most confident and capable. Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg has been quoted as saying: "There are still days when I wake up feeling like a fraud, not sure I should be where I am." And even Albert Einstein considered himself an "involuntary swindler." 

2. Avoid putting your successes down to luck. Write down all your career and personal achievements to date, and think about the role that your abilities and hard work played. It will become clear to you that your successes were largely due to your hard work and abilities – not 'just luck'. Read this blog for advice. 

3. Reconnect with your professional self. If you're doubting yourself because it's been a while since you were in the workplace, remember that you are the same professional person you always were, you are just out of practice. Aim to reframe your time outside the workplace as a positive not a negative. 

4. Ask friends and family for feedback on your strengths and skills. Listening to what others say about what you do well will help you challenge your negative thoughts. Remember - you're often your own harshest critic.

5. Keep a feedback log. Once you're back in a new role, keep a log of all the positive feedback you receive - via formal feedback sessions, thank you emails or verbal compliments. If Imposter Syndrome does hit, look at this log to remind yourself that you are a competent and experienced professional who deserves to be where you are.


Sign up to our free network for more advice, support and job opportunities. You’ll find much more help and advice on our website.