Working hasn’t worked well lately for many U.S. mothers.

About 3.5 million mothers living with school-age youngsters lost their jobs, took leave or left the labor market when Covid-19 hit last year, Census Bureau data show. Now, increased Covid-19 cases are causing some schools in hundreds of districts to bring back virtual learning—and burden mothers again.

“Many...

Working hasn’t worked well lately for many U.S. mothers.

About 3.5 million mothers living with school-age youngsters lost their jobs, took leave or left the labor market when Covid-19 hit last year, Census Bureau data show. Now, increased Covid-19 cases are causing some schools in hundreds of districts to bring back virtual learning—and burden mothers again.

“Many women will delay their plans to re-enter the workforce even further,’’ says Amanda Augustine, a career coach and spokeswoman for TopResume, a resume-writing service. In a spring 2021 survey, TopResume found that 69% of 362 women employed pre-pandemic but currently caring full time for children under 18 plan to stay home for now.

Facing a brain drain and labor shortages, some companies are responding not just by hiring more women with children. They’re going to unusual lengths to assist mothers’ re-entry into the workforce, address their desire for flexibility and offer them more child-care support.

If employers change work cultures and practices to attract mothers and other people forced to give up work and assume caregiver roles during the pandemic, that “could be a real game-changer,’’ says Brigid Schulte, director of Better Life Lab, a work/family research group at the New America think tank. These potential future workers, she says, represent talent and experience “that companies can’t afford to toss aside.”

About 40% of employers beefed up child-care assistance during the pandemic—mostly through remote work and flexible schedules, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation researchers found.

Still, only 1% of employers provide direct support such as backup child care or on-site facilities, according to the foundation’s August 2020 report. But half of parents surveyed said they view direct support as important to decisions about fully resuming work.

Here’s a closer look at several innovative strategies that could make work more workable for mothers:

Returnships

Amazon.com Inc. recently made the biggest-ever commitment by a single employer to the long-nascent idea of “returnships.” These are paid tryouts that often attract stay-at-home mothers and result in permanent spots.

In a June news release, the online retail giant says it will choose 1,000 professionals for its U.S. returnship program “over the coming years.” Participants must have been jobless or underemployed for at least a year, and work 16 weeks remotely in roles such as financial analyst and software-development engineer.

Fifty-four of Amazon’s 61 present returnees are women. “This is a great way to create a recruitment pipeline for mothers,’’ says Alex Mooney, the company’s senior diversity talent acquisition program manager.

Ms. Alexander doing accounting work from home for Amazon. She lost her previous job last year and hopes the returnship will lead to a permanent position.

Photo: Da'Shaunae Marisa for Wall Street Journal

Arnetta Alexander is one of those women. A senior financial manager who was unemployed when she learned about Amazon’s extensive returnships, she says she told herself, “OMG, I have to try this.’’

The eight-year veteran of energy company DCP Midstream LP lost her job in April 2020 as the pandemic spread. While out of work, Ms. Alexander was overseeing her eighth-grader’s remote education when she began a job search in January 2021. For months, she got nowhere.

“I was willing to take anything,” she says. The 47-year-old manager, who holds two master’s degrees, became one of Amazon’s returners on July 19, working in accounting from her Riverside, Calif., home. An assigned Amazon mentor suggested ways to ease new-job jitters and make things work with a supervisor three time zones away on the East Coast.

“My returnship has been a real positive experience,’’ Ms. Alexander says. She hopes she’ll win a permanent professional position at Amazon when her temporary stint ends in November.

Lori Taylor spent more than six years raising two daughters before her 2015 returnship at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

“My returnship was such a good fit that I got up to speed and provided value to my team quickly once I joined Goldman full time,’’ Ms. Taylor says. She subsequently became the Wall Street firm’s first returnee promoted to managing director.

Eager to attract mothers and others displaced by Covid-19, Goldman changed its program’s qualification policy to require a career break of just one year—half of what was required before. Five other businesses made identical moves during the pandemic, says Carol Fishman Cohen, chief executive of iRelaunch, a career re-entry consulting firm.

She expects 80 Fortune 500 companies will offer returnships by 2026—up from 32 today and 12 in 2016.

Path Forward, a nonprofit that creates returnship programs for employers, has helped about 90 companies since 2016. Four out of five returnees have landed full-time jobs, says Tami Forman, the nonprofit’s executive director.

Advancement assistance for remote staffers

Experts warn that employed mothers who work from home risk decreased access to company leaders and opportunities. This could pose a significant problem, since nearly 52% of 781 surveyed mothers said they preferred to keep working completely from home after the pandemic ends, according to a summer 2021 poll by FlexJobs, an online job service. That was up from 47% in 2020.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP wants to make sure its remote workers don’t become second-class corporate citizens. The professional-services giant will monitor promotions, raises and bonuses for remote and office-based staff, said Tim Ryan, U.S. chairman and senior partner, during a spring 2021 interview.

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“If we see any group that is lagging,’’ he said, “it is going to cause us to question: ‘Why should where you work define your success? It should be performance based.’’’ A PwC spokeswoman said results from their tracking aren’t available yet.

In a study released in August, PwC urged employers embracing hybrid arrangements to reduce “the risk of remote work inequity.” Bosses should give remote individuals tools like virtual-reality headsets and encourage participation during digital sessions with in-office associates, the study recommended.

Targeted recruitment

Certain businesses have demonstrated their commitment to mothers by extending recruiting to women who are expecting.

Workhuman, an employee-engagement platform with 734 staffers, has brought aboard at least seven pregnant applicants since 2019. Three of those women started work just before they gave birth—including Amy Rice, currently Workhuman’s senior director of corporate communications.

She recently hired a senior manager who started work during her ninth month of pregnancy. The newcomer told Ms. Rice that disclosing her condition had cost her opportunities elsewhere. She returned from her 12-week maternity leave Sept. 7.

“I want to continue to pay it forward” by picking qualified expectant applicants, Ms. Rice says. “Rather than worry about the stage of their pregnancy, more employers should hire women for who they are and who they can be.’’

Similarly, Stephanie Synclair inaugurated a drive to employ single mothers like herself soon after she launched La Rue 1680, a luxury-tea startup, last fall.

The fifth single mother she recruited starts Oct. 1 as a product developer, working full time from home. (The startup’s two other employees are men.)

“I hire moms because I am a mom,’’ says Ms. Synclair, who is raising a teenage son. “We understand what each other is going through.’’

Expanded child-care help

Margaret Keane, then chief executive of Synchrony Financial, took creative steps during the pandemic’s initial months to alleviate child-care crises among the majority-female workforce at the consumer-financial-services provider. Those with young families needed assistance handling “an enormous amount of uncertainty, stress and nervousness,’’ Ms. Keane says.

As countless child-care facilities closed, she increased backup child-care benefits to 60 days annually from 10. She also broadened Synchrony’s definition of covered caregivers to include neighbors, friends and relatives.

For the summer of 2021, Ms. Keane and colleagues quickly devised a virtual day camp where 3,700 offspring of employees attended sessions on subjects ranging from crafts to sign language. Synchrony offered after-school tutoring this past school year and various virtual activities for children this summer. (In April, the CEO switched to executive chair.)

A fresh headache looms, however. About 85% of Synchrony’s U.S. employees want to keep working from home part time once offices reopen, says Carol Juel, chief technology and operating officer. Many will only require occasional child care.

Yet child-care facilities sometimes demand full-time commitments. So, facility operators and Synchrony are exploring actions that best meet its workers’ needs, Ms. Juel adds.

Wellthy, an online provider of care advice for families, may have a remedy. This spring, dozens of businesses asked Wellthy about possibly assisting their hybrid staffers in finding a shared nanny or child-care slot, such as by matching parents with co-workers in the same predicament.

Despite delayed office reopenings, Wellthy recently launched a shared-care pilot for a major financial-services company to prepare that business for a potential hybrid return-to-work arrangement on a larger scale in coming months, says CEO Lindsay Jurist-Rosner. “The shared-care approach,” she says, “ultimately will prove a really smart solution for businesses with hybrid workplaces.’’

Ms. Lublin, former career columnist at The Wall Street Journal, is the author of the recent book “Power Moms: How Executive Mothers Navigate Work and Life.” She can be reached at joann.lublin@wsj.com. Chip Cutter, a Journal reporter in New York, contributed to this article.