Addie Swartz has built a career based on two things she knows best – business and motherhood.

Swartz is an accomplished entrepreneur, having founded several companies and established new businesses within Disney and Reebok. She is also a mother of two and understands the difficulties of balancing a career and a family.

So she founded reacHIRE.

“Powering business and empowering women. That’s what reacHIRE is all about.”

The company helps women who have left the workforce learn how to re-enter the corporate world. Whether taking time off for motherhood or to take care of a parent, Swartz said many women find returning to work difficult.

“Those career breaks have tended to be significant barriers in getting women back into the work force. Companies are less inclined to take somebody who has been out for a few years back in right off the bat.”

To ease this transition, reacHIRE partners with major corporations such as Microsoft, Fidelity and Panera, to bridge the gap between big business and returning caregivers. They pair the graduates of their program with local companies looking for new talent – a strategy Swartz says benefits both sides.

“It’s been proven, study after study, that diversity and inclusion initiatives make for better bottom line results.”

An important part of reacHIRE’s training program is the technology workshops.

“If you’ve been out of the work force for more than a couple of years, your technological skills just need refreshing because technology keeps changing exponentially. So having that upgrade is a really important piece.”

In addition to updating their technology and social media skills, reacHIRE’s five-week, 60-hour program provides the women with professional workshops and career coaching. But most importantly, Swartz says reacHIRE seeks to build confidence.

“A career break doesn’t have to be a career breaker. And I feel like for a lot of women, when they take a step out of the career force, it’s just so difficult to get back in.”

ReacHIRE has a program for the Triangle and accepts applications online.

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