In fact during my second pregnancy I was even promoted! Not many women can say that though, even in this day and age of equality.
So why worry about your staff if they get pregnant and take a chunk of time off away from your business Out of sight is out of mind right? Wrong. Yes I appreciate there is a huge recruitment pool out there with lots of people looking for work that you could just as easily bring in to replace the lady who is having the baby. But are they the right calibre of person with the right skills, because after all you have often spent a lot of time, money and effort training your employee. Also it is estimated that the cost to a business of losing a professional woman is between three and five times her annual salary. That’s not to be ignored easily now is it!? Now that is not just the advertising costs or a recruitment agency fees, it is also your time, the time training, the loss of goodwill, potential loss of customer knowledge and possible damage to internal relationships, to name only some of the obvious.
So assuming you are progressively minded and convinced by the figures and comments above how can you better support and retain your maternity employees? Through maternity coaching. It’s targeted support that is right for them before, during and after their maternity. As a consequence they feel better equipped to deal with the demands and challenges involved and it helps minimises disruption to the business and its customers. Business coaching is widely used to great effect for other, some may argue less significant, periods of transition such as promotion. Why not then for maternity?
Consider this too – maternity coaching can significantly increase the return rate of your female workforce as they feel supported and valued and have a greater clarity and ability to prioritise when returning to the workplace. So why and how does it work?
Improved performance – Having clarity of goals in the run up to maternity leaves allows the employee to remain focussed and feel of value to the business right up to their finish date. On returning to work the same preparation, planning and clarity of objectives vastly increases the rate of return to optimum performance. It is the combination of practical and emotional support that coaching provides that helps facilitate this.
Proactive planning for covering the leave – The coaching process considers the cover of leave and facilitates a hand over of workload, knowledge, responsibilities and customer relationships in a timely manner to minimise the disruption.
Optimising keeping in touch options – Keeping in touch is difficult during a maternity leave with employers often nervous with regards how much they should be in touch. By working with a coach a happy medium is easily established with the means to maximise the effect of keep in touch days for both the individual and business.
Positive image, show yourself to be an employer of choice – Working mothers are a rapidly growing demographic. Employers who show a desire to support and nurture these people will be sought after by the most talented women around.
So given all this why wouldn’t you consider maternity coaching to support your staff? If you would like more information on this topic contact us at www.threedomsolutions.co.uk or follow us on twitter @3domSolutions
