How maternity coaching can attract and retain female talent

Author: Charlotte Wolff

Targeted coaching for mothers can ensure a smooth return to work after maternity leave, and help employers attract and retain valued female employees. XpertHR examines this rising trend and looks at what is on offer to support new fathers.

Key points

  • To address the potential loss of female talent, there is an emerging trend for organisations to use coaching to offer increased support for women returning to work after maternity leave.
  • Maternity coaching - delivered in groups or one-to-one - can help women take greater responsibility for preparations before leave, keep in touch and re-build their career on their return.
  • Training line managers in the management of mothers around the time of their maternity leave can also help retain female staff and improve the return-to-work process.
  • Some employers also offer coaching and workshops as support for new fathers.

Women represent 12.5% of directors in FTSE 100 companies and 22.8% of local authority chief executives, according to the 2011 Sex and Power report (external website) from the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The issue of female representation in positions of power was highlighted in early 2011 by a government-sponsored revie (on the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills website) examining gender imbalance in the boardrooms of top UK companies. Lord Davies, who led the review, stressed that gender diversity improves business performance and recommended a radical change in the mindset of the business community in their approach to this issue.

One cause of this imbalance is the fact that many women disappear from the paid workforce after they have children. Alternatively, should they return, they often fail to maintain the same momentum in their career while balancing the responsibilities of home and work.

The evidence of our research around women returners suggests that the employees who did more preparation had a more adult-to-adult relationship with their line managers and with their employer, whereas those that did less preparation had more of a parent-child relationship, and on coming back to the workplace expected to somehow be looked after.

Liz Morris,
director of consultancy and training,
Working Families

Retaining female talent

Losing talented employees and potential female leaders can be a real problem for employers, especially when they have invested significant resources into their development. One increasingly popular way to address this problem is the provision of additional support for female employees around the time they go on maternity leave. This has the added benefit of helping to attract high-potential women who are looking for a family-friendly employer.

This type of provision can be multi-faceted and can include one-to-one coaching, group coaching and seminars. Some employers also supplement the coaching with targeted training for line managers. The aim is to increase the woman's confidence and skills and encourage proactive behaviour during the maternity transition process, enabling her to readjust quickly to work on her return with renewed focus.

Some employers offer coaching only to mothers in senior positions, while others, such as international finance group Citi (external website) (see our accompanying case study), run a programme for all women who go on maternity leave.

Although initially popular among law firms, investment banks and large accountancy firms when it first emerged in 2005, maternity coaching and associated training for managers has also become popular in the science, engineering and technology sectors. According to Jennifer Liston-Smith, head of coaching at My Family Care (external website), which delivers maternity and paternity coaching, it is starting to attract interest among employers in other industries, such as facilities management, logistics and broadcasting.

Why maternity coaching?

Two key factors that are relevant to a woman's smooth return to work after maternity leave are preparation and the quality of the relationship between the employee and her line manager, according to research undertaken by Working Families (external website), an organisation that helps employers develop a family-friendly culture.

"The evidence of our research around women returners suggests that the employees who did more preparation had a more adult-to-adult relationship with their line managers and with their employer, whereas those that did less preparation had more of a parent-child relationship, and on coming back to the workplace expected to somehow be looked after," explains Liz Morris, director of consultancy and training at Working Families.

Maternity coaching can help women prepare for their period of leave, for their return to the workplace, and for the emotional and practical challenge that motherhood entails. It can also encourage them to take more responsibility - for instance, around keeping in touch or preparing a strategic view of where they want their career to go on their return.

In addition, it can help mothers build resilience and coping strategies to deal with the attitudes and potential biases that may exist in the workplace when they start to rebuild their career, as well as the practical difficulties of balancing a career with the demands of motherhood.

People coming back from their leave can either feel that the organisation is doing them a favour by letting them come back and decide to keep their heads down, or they can get into over-proving themselves because they are trying to make up for lost time. Both of those can be unproductive.

Jennifer Liston-Smith,
head of coaching,
My Family Care

Re-entering the workplace with confidence

Liston-Smith - one of the first coaches to provide maternity coaching for employers - says that coaching can help women stay engaged with the employer while away and re-enter the workplace with confidence. "People coming back from their leave can either feel that the organisation is doing them a favour by letting them come back and decide to keep their heads down, or they can get into over-proving themselves because they are trying to make up for lost time. Both of those can be unproductive," she says.

"It's a question of finding the confidence to say: well, these are my strengths; this is what I need to showcase; these are the projects or the areas in which I can add value; and these are the key people that I want to make sure I have conversations with," she adds. "So the coaching will help them plan, and sometimes role-play, the conversations they will need to have to make sure that their voice is heard."

Training for managers

Line managers play an integral part in the smooth management of employees before, during and after maternity leave. According to Talking Talent (external website), a UK executive-coaching company specialising in maternity and paternity coaching, it can help managers get beyond the fear of litigation and help them support women through maternity in an "emotionally responsible and intelligent way".

Talking Talent's "Manager of maternity development" programme concentrates on the legal, practical and behavioural aspects of managing a woman through maternity leave. Crucially, it gives participants an insight into the anxieties and issues experienced by women during this stage, as well as the perspectives of other key stakeholders, such as the extended team, the manager and clients.

There is quite a buzz around dads and working fathers among employers. Increasingly, progressive organisations are recognising that to really make flexibility work, it needs to be there for everybody.

Liz Morris,
director of consultancy and training,
Working Families

Preparing for paternity leave

Since fathers' rights were extended in April 2011, giving them the option to take up to 26 weeks' additional paternity leave, some employers have begun to re-evaluate their family-friendly policies in relation to male employees.

Although the take-up of paternity leave is likely to be slow in the initial stages, some employers recognise that it makes sense to offer fathers who do go on paternity leave a similar type of support to that provided for mothers, helping them reintegrate on their return and plan their career progression with confidence.

"There is quite a buzz around dads and working fathers among employers," says Morris. "Increasingly, progressive organisations are recognising that to really make flexibility work, it needs to be there for everybody."

Support for fathers

Talking Talent has recently launched a range of new coaching programmes for working fathers under its "Talented Dads" brand and has seen a growth in companies wanting to run executive coaching for new fathers. "These innovative coaching programmes are helping new fathers prepare for parental leave, ensuring a smooth handover of work, with no business disruption, and making sure the transitions out of and back into the workplace are seamless," says Chris Parke, head of the coaching company.

Liston-Smith has witnessed a number of companies opting for one-off workshops for fathers and focus groups where they can discuss practical issues relating to fatherhood and work. Finance group Citi, however, runs quarterly coaching workshops for new and expectant fathers, and a specialist workshop for fathers who live separately from their children.

Shared responsibility

Speaking about the significance of shared leave for parents, Morris says: "Everybody needs to be encouraged to take paternity or maternity leave, because if you section out one particular group - mothers of young children for example - then all that does is reinforce the gender stereotypes, and it continues to block the progression of women through the organisation. As a result, the organisation suffers through lack of diversity.

"We all have caring responsibilities, whether it's for elderly loved ones, for disabled friends, or for our children," she continues. "And when we recognise that in the workplace - that we are all part of something bigger - that's when flexible working, work flexibility and high performance will be delivered."