You’re likely to have heard of imposter syndrome. Given that a study found it affects 70% of people at some point, you may well have experienced it yourself. It’s common when you’re facing a change that moves you out of your comfort zone and it’s no wonder it often comes up when returning to work after a period of absence, but what can you do about it?

Guest blogger Matt Oliver from Law Career Plus shares some ways to get past it and move forward.

Disappointingly, new research has shown that less than 2% of eligible couples used the Shared Parental Leave (SPL) scheme last year, with its uptake falling 17% over the past 12 months.

I know, right! How can a token government scheme with no commitment or meaning behind it fail, I hear you ask! Well, after a good 30 seconds of pondering this is what I've come up with.

Why would companies talking about flexibility and a family-first approach be unfortunate? Surely, hearing these sorts of comments from our clients should have me grinning from ear-to-ear and giving thanks to the powers that be. Well, sadly, they don't. And here's why.

Now, as the person asking, you might want to know what the job market is like at the moment, how returners are currently perceived or if the kind of flexibility you are looking for is becoming more or less available. But there are also the often-unasked questions to think about.

There are a lot of companies out there who are suddenly thinking about their remote working policies and it wouldn’t surprise me if there is a rush on laptop computers at the moment, but working remotely is a bit like running 10km.

With only a week to go until the polling stations open, it’s easy to think this election is a case of ‘Brexit, Brexit, Brexit’, but delve deeply into the manifestos and you’ll find there are many promises designed to help us, the working parents.

So for 9 months, life has been about little else except keeping your little person alive. But now your head is starting to get around going back to work and you realise that you no longer want to work 5 days a week. Don’t worry, here are our top tips on how to ask for flexible work.

We often speak to people who are worried about returning to work after a life-threatening illness or a life-changing injury, who are not sure what to expect and whether they will even be able to find a job that will suit them. To help answer a few questions we spoke to Katherine, who GPS Return recently helped go back to work.

Your first week at work is about to start and you are now trying to deal with a mix of emotions, but after a few years out of the workplace how are you going to cope? Don’t worry, you will settle in to the role quicker than you think and here are some quick tips to help you through the first few weeks.

As a Corporate and Executive Coach specialising in coaching lawyers, I note with interest how clients’ words and tone on occasion betray an under- confidence . I encourage them to look at habits and behaviours formed over time and examine whether these help or hinder their own levels of personal confidence. Afterall, confidence breeds confidence.

We often speak to Mums and Dads who are worried about returning to work, who are not sure what to expect and whether they will even be able to find a job that will suit them. To help answer a few questions we spoke to Emma, one of the first Mums who GPS Return helped go back to work.

If any industry has a slightly old-fashioned image it is the legal industry, yet a number of legal firms have embraced flexible working to help attract high calibre individuals and differentiate themselves from the market. Cognitive Law is one of these great businesses so we reached out to them to see if rolling out flexible work was a worthwhile endeavour.

We recently caught up with Tracey Barnes – a Mum who left the financial services industry when she became a Mum. Now her children are older, she has returned to her original industry. We wanted to get a better idea of why she made the decisions she did in the hope that she will inspire others.

During maternity leave, having experienced the “negative impact” on career progression and seeing other examples, like Cary Gracie, caused me to reflect on my own experiences starting a business, identifying my own value and most importantly, ensuring I get it. Here are my tips to ensure you get it too.

So you’ve not been working whilst your children were small….but now they’re a little bit older, you feel that it’s time to return to work. We have candidates coming to us regularly who know that it’s time to return to work... but what?

Let’s not pretend, making the decision to return to work is a tough one. You are taking a step into the unknown and there are so many different things to think about and to take into consideration, let alone the niggling self-doubt about whether you have made the right decision for you and your family.

Life as a working parent could mean being stuck in a cycle of guilt, lateness, exhaustion and always feeling like you’re living life on the back foot. Or with a bit of thought, intention and planning, you could feel more in control, organised and positive.

Confidence is a delicate thing, it can be hard to build and easy to break. So how do you build your confidence and self-belief so that you can, with confidence, turn down the job you know isn’t right for you and impress at interview for that dream job? Here are our top tips!

Ever had a recruiter you’ve never spoken to before call you and say “We’ve never spoken before but I have the perfect opportunity for you!” Initially, you might think ‘Great!’ but before you get too excited think about this. How does the recruiter know it’s the perfect opportunity for YOU?

Many people think that references are pointless claiming that they are a waste of time, don’t add any value and are bias as people only give referees who will provide positive references. However, references taken from the right people in the right way can help you avoid hiring the wrong people, so how do you go about doing it the right way?

You’ve been through the stress and strain that is hiring a new employee for the team, even more so if it is a replacement and you are now excited because you have found the right person for your team and an offer is made. But the offer is rejected and you have go back to square one. How can you avoid this happening again?

An issue candidates come to me with again and again is the fact that they feel their job applications are automatically being put on the REJECT pile because they haven't worked in a while, but can volunteering help bridge this gap?

How much are your fees? It’s a question I am often asked, and rightly so, but the right question should be “what is the cost of recruitment?” A recruiter’s fees are often the only tangible cost in a recruitment process, but it is usually only a small fraction of the overall cost to a business that companies are not necessarily aware of.