change. Track success: Monitoring and Evaluating policies and practices Gain a clear understanding of the state of implementation of policies in your organisation; assess and review existing programs and practices at regular intervals to identify where improvements or changes need to be made Regular audits of retention rates; regular surveys and consultations with staff who intend to use/have recently used parental leave or have returned to work; actively track career progression post-parental leave; regular implementation of relevant feedback into policies and practices Enable informed and open decisions: Providing the information Use a guide/toolkit; make the information accessible Hardcopy guides/toolkits/brochures for soon-to-be/recent parents and line managers; make information available for download from intranet and internet; allocation of staff positions responsible for ensuring information accessibility of information Empower managers: Providing support for management Ensure that all managers are aware and informed of policies; support managers with coaching and resources; ensure that the organisation’s structures encourage managers to support pregnant women and working parents Formal training and coaching for all managers; checklists for managers to assist in implementation of a formal frameworks and procedures; monitor and reward managers, eg performance criteria and repercussions for managers who discriminate; conduct surveys to assist in performance feedback Empower individuals: Providing support for employees Offer internal and/or external coaching and/or training; create internal networks of support; establish a robust return to work support Education and training; workshops; mentoring, coaching and buddy systems; establish online networks as a conduit for advice and guidance; establish support
infrastructure; provide and unconscious bias education groups and programs Facilitate return to work: Establishing flexible work arrangements Design flexible jobs and flexible careers; promote flexible work and embed flexibility into the organisation’s culture Establish a ‘results focused’ culture; Increased schedule control for employees; create jobshare registers; IT equipment purchases to enable remote work
Table 2: Implementing policies and managing the process comprehensively and efficiently Phase 1 2 3 4 5 Starting off right Preparing for leave Staying connected Reintegration Career acceleration Standard expectation Pregnant employees should be able to continue working ‘business as usual’, while having specific needs accommodated Leave and return should be clearly planned, appropriately setting expectations for both employees and managers Parents should feel connected to the organisation during leave and the encouragement to return should be clear Parents should be able to pick up where they left off, while being able to balance work and family commitments Career planning and development opportunities made available – placing returning parents on same successful career trajectory as all other employees Mechanism to support Manager and employee checklists to facilitate a positive and productive conversation about working during pregnancy; work health and safety checklist Manager and employee checklists; discuss ‘staying in touch’ expectations; plan expected return dates; ensure a quick turn around on paper work and consistent follow up Formal catch-up dates that are not cancelled; access to laptop and mobile; inclusion in development reviews; business update newsletters Highlight flexible return options and establish a formal process for requesting and granting flexible work requests; support managers to manage flexible workers; return to work workshops and seminars; early childhood education and care services services; accommodate specific needs around breastfeeding/ expressing milk Career planning; sustainable flexible program; removal of any unconscious or systemic bias Mindsets that need challenging ‘She’s got babybrain’ ‘Oh, you’re pregnant! You must be stepping back from your career for a while’ ‘She won’t want to be bothered with what’s happening in the business during leave’ ‘Have you had a good holiday?’ ‘She won’t want that opportunity, and I don’t want to load more work on her when she already has a family to balance’