Maternity coaching and employee retention

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Overview

Today, more than ever, companies are looking at new ways of improving employee retention levels. One area where companies lose female staff is when they take maternity leave. So how do companies ensure they support and retain women through this career crunch point?

For many women, pregnancy and maternity represent a pivotal point in their careers – it is often at this time that many choose to take career breaks, or not to return to work at all. And where companies have worked hard to develop their talent pipeline, this can prove a difficult and frustrating time for all concerned.

My executive coaching focuses on the area of employee engagement – working with the company and their employees in the periods before, during and after their maternity leave. And, over the last year, I’ve seen a real increase in demand for both one-to-one as well as group-based maternity coaching delivered via webinars. All too often a woman’s career growth is stunted by crunch points such as maternity and an inability to create the right work/life balance afterwards. Coaching is a proven method of helping women and companies improve their retention of female staff.

Being coached through the maternity transition is proving valuable for lots of organisations. The principal focus of the coaching is to ease the transition in and out of the workplace. It focuses both on practical issues such as how to ensure a successful work handover; communicate pregnancy to colleagues, clients and suppliers; ensure a seamless return to work and then achieve a good work life balance through to more emotional issues concerning a women’s identity as a working mother.

One of my clients (a magic circle law firm) has evidenced that where no coaching was offered in 2008, just 25% of female staff returned to work following maternity and remained in their position after one year. The same client offered maternity coaching in 2010, and retention levels after one year at work increased to 62.5%.

Case study: Ernst & Young

Since February 2011, I have been delivering maternity coaching at Ernst and Young, a global provider in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. More than 500 employees - both women taking maternity and their line managers - have been coached. The majority of staff have attended webinars, and senior managers, directors and partners receive one-to-one coaching sessions.

The webinars and group sessions are for everyone below senior manager level, and their managers, which means that all women who have maternity leave are offered some form of coaching. It’s also a more cost effective tool, where large numbers are involved.

Liz Bingham, partner sponsor of the programme at Ernst & Young, said: ‘Gender diversity isn’t just an issue in the boardroom. It’s vital that organisations create talent pipelines to ensure that high-potential women are being developed at every level through their careers. Initiatives like our new maternity scheme are designed to remove any perceived or real blockages in the pipeline. We want to ensure that all our people, at every stage of their personal and professional lives are supported and are able to make informed choices about their career development’.

Case study: Citi

I also ran maternity coaching programmes for Citi. The company is an advocate of coaching as an important tool in terms of people development and employee retention. In addition to maternity coaching, it also provides one-to-one executive coaching for senior women in the maternity transition and workshops for first time fathers.  The programmes have had a positive impact on Citi’s retention rates. The company reported that its retention of women who have undertaken maternity rose from 84% to 97%. Financially, this has led to cost savings because the company has not had to recruit replacement employees.

Conclusion

I’d urge companies to then go on and set up women’s networks – helping employees to engage with others who are in a similar position. These groups enable women to share their experiences, ideas and any concerns they may have relating to maternity and their future careers.

I also think it’s vital for companies to consider the role of the line manager, and to make sure they are included in the maternity coaching programmes – after all, the change which is brought about by the leave will also have an impact upon them and their teams.

If we are going to work towards the targets set by Lord Davies relating to women in the boardroom, then businesses need to do more to promote their female talent. Once such talent is identified it then needs to be nurtured with appropriate training and coaching provided for women throughout their careers (which includes maternity). This will work towards ensuring staff stay on track and reach their potential, and that companies don’t lose their top performing female talent.

Maternity coaching demonstrates – to employees – the value an organisation places upon them. I think it is only a matter of time before it is becomes the norm in UK businesses.