Parental Leave Coaching: managing career breaks and a successful return to work
This is a program of coaching to support valued team members on their journey to successfully transition from work to parental leave, and support them as they return to work. Employees feel re-energised, re-engaged and confident to re-launch their careers.
Why is this program valuable to organisations?
Organisations are increasingly needing ways to support employees who take parental leave or a longer career break, to enable a successful transition back to work.
Becoming a parent, or adding to the family, is a major life event and a time of enormous transition. We know that:
overall levels of wellbeing during the parental leave period is an important determinant of intention to return to work
lack of confidence and self-belief is often the biggest inhibitor to returning to work. There is often worry that with the passage of time, skills, knowledge or abilities have diminished and that expectations may have increased
managing ongoing caring responsibilities during transition back to work can be a very challenging juggle
maintaining a genuine feeling of connection with the organisation and their direct leader whilst on leave strongly supports a successful return to work
“By providing specific, tailored support during what can be an uncertain and stressful time for employees, organisations can reduce the attrition of talent and continue to foster a gender diverse and inclusive environment”
Our promise
We support your employees through their parenthood journey with coaching sessions before, during and after parental leave. We can also work with returners’ leaders to enhance their ability to support team members.
The coaching is a learning and development intervention that uses a collaborative, reflective, goal-focused relationship to achieve professional and personal outcomes that are valued by the employee and organisation. All coaching sessions are interactive and practical. Participants walk away with tips, tools and strategies that are easy to implement straight away. Our approaches are based on the best evidence, interventions and tools from positive psychology, neuroscience and behavioural science, and have been proven to be effective in studies.
PARENTAL LEAVE COACHING
Like any robust coaching program, the focus is to support the individual and is tailored to what they will most benefit from at that point in time. However, we often use our experience in parental leave coaching to provide a structure covering key elements known to prepare employees for success - should they wish to be guided.
Examples of themes our clients in transition find valuable:
Understanding the process of change of identity, values and circumstances that come with parenthood
Growing resilience to navigate the almost inevitable stress, uncertainty and challenge that parenthood brings
Maintaining social, physical and psychological wellbeing before, during and after parental leave
Building confidence leading up to return to work
Having productive interactions when re-engaging with managers and teams
Setting personally motivating professional goals to enable a re-energised approach
Looking towards the future - career planning and development
This coaching is suitable for all parents.
LEADER COACHING
We know that the quality of the relationship with their immediate leader is a key determinant of the propensity of employees to return to work, and in ongoing job satisfaction. Therefore people leaders have an important role to play across every stage of parental leave.
Areas to support leaders are not limited to, but could include:
• How to best support their returner at each stage - before, during and after parental leave
• Strategies to approach discussions around mutual expectations and goals
• Tips for giving feedback and having productive and effective “coaching” conversations.
Our coaching will have an ongoing positive impact, building leadership effectiveness and enhancing their capacity to support all team members.
How is this program delivered?
Sustained support is key to optimising employee retention and their ongoing performance, resilience and wellbeing. Therefore the Parental Leave Coaching: managing career breaks and a successful return to work program is best delivered over an extended period.
For Parental Leave Coaching we recommend:
A 15-30 min “meet and greet” session to get to know each other, set the scene for the coaching engagement and identify early needs
Up to 6 x 1-hour coaching sessions to be completed within 12 months of the return to work. These could be face-to-face, or conducted in a virtual meeting room. A typical structure is:
One session prior to going on leave
Two sessions whilst on leave
Three sessions (fortnightly or monthly) after the return to work
For Leader Coaching we recommend:
2 x 1-hour coaching sessions. These could be face-to-face, or conducted in a virtual meeting room. For example:
One session prior to the employee returning from leave
One session a few weeks after the employee returns to work
Another additional or alternative option is a facilitated 3-way coaching conversation with their returner and the coach to discuss mutual expectations and goals, anticipate any obstacles and set up a framework for ongoing support and communication.
However, we understand organisational requirements or constraints may necessitate the need for shortened or more tailored programs. We will work with you to develop your program.
Client Feedback
“Having the sessions with Kate made me feel more settled in going back to a working routine. She helped me prioritise my work and home commitments and maintain a good work-life balance. I feel our coaching also helped me to build a good working relationship with my colleagues. Overall the coaching conversations helped me develop ways to more confidently approach problems and achieve my desired work outcomes.”
“Debra understood the goals I had coming into coaching as I returned to work. She somehow magically addressed them all in the short space of 3 coaching sessions! Debra was very easy to talk to and listened really well. She’s given me very practical and concrete steps that I can incorporate into my personal and work life that will help me achieve my goals.”
“Debra provided a great sounding board during my adjustment to returning-to-work and the environment of a big-4 accounting firm. She immediately guided me to think about what goals I wanted to achieve in her coaching sessions, which we definitely achieved. Debra is a good listener, uses the time constructively and is an overall lovely person. Her experience and qualifications became evident throughout our time together.”
“I was feeling confused about going back to work. I didn’t think I wanted to return and thought I’d lost my passion for my chosen career. Through the coaching sessions I was able to understand how my values, strengths, passions and goals are linked, and with some guidance I could articulate them and draft up some new goals for the next chapter of my life. I was confident going back to work and not worried that I had been left behind when it came to progression and development after having my babies. I returned to work with a personal plan that gave me a sense of direction. ”
“Kate’s coaching has given me the confidence required to succeed in returning to work. Our coaching sessions gave me the opportunity to identify my values, develop clear goals and assisted me to effectively prioritise in a changing environment. Kate helped me to understand my strengths and put my plans into action - I now feel able to better manage my work-life balance with the expectations of my role.”
“The most valuable outcome for me has been feeling safe, supported and nurtured (both professionally and personally) throughout my journey of going on parental leave, becoming a mum and then returning to work. I feel really privileged my firm offers a service like this to new parents and it’s made me feel like the firm and my coach truly care about my experience and welfare. This has been extremely comforting and validating for me throughout what might otherwise have been a very daunting process. ”
