Making Maternity Leave Simpler – Bloom North – The Maternity Playbook

The Candidate were delighted to recently attend the launch of the Bloom North Maternity Playbook.

The Bloom Maternity Playbook was compiled by Bloom North in order to help guide businesses through parental leave. They aimed to understand what maternity leave is like for employees, and how managing the process well can be benefit both the employee and the business.

The playbook looks at a variety of aspects of maternity leave and some of the key pieces of information are outlined below. Keep reading to find out more!

Pre- Maternity Leave

Celebrate Success

Carrying out a pre-department performance review to focus on key strengths and boost confidence before their departure and will likely make the employee feel more motivated to come back to work – amazing!

Share your Policy

Freely share info on maternity leave so that people don’t have to ask for it. This will give employees a chance to understand the process privately at an extremely personal time of their life.

Ready to Depart

Carrying out a departure meeting and check that both the employee and you are clear on what their maternity looks like. For example, do they want to know about staff social events? Do they want to know about new starts and leavers, would they like a check in throughout their leave to keep up to speed?

Bloom North’s research found that there was a direct correlation between positive pre- maternity experiences and people remaining in the businesses when they return for an average of 3 years.

During Maternity Leave

Keeping in Touch

Keep in touch days (KIT days) should be made available and encouraged. Bloom found that many second time mums did not use these often due to the lack of encouragement and their own childcare limitations, so it’s really important to let individuals know these are available.

Keep Connected

Internal communication with the employee was positively regarded, so keeping in touch with the big business news and including them through non-obligation invites to social events is a great idea!

Be Open and Support Their Return

The main reasons for individuals not returning from maternity were lack of flexibility and development opportunities. Therefore, it would be very useful to have conversations and communicate what these are, and then support these plans when they return.

Post Maternity Leave

Set the Schedule

Your employee is ready to come back to work – fantastic! Having a schedule for their return can make the settling back in process easier and more welcoming.

Check in

Having a clear handover is essential so everyone knows who is accountable for what. This ensures there is no confusion and streamlines potentially complex processes.

Don’t Overload

If there has been a change in their working pattern i.e., they have reduced their hours to 3 or 4 days per week, then make sure that the workload reflects this. Don’t try and include all of their old responsibilities in a shorter working week!

If this information has been of use and you would like the full Bloom Maternity Playbook, you can download it here!

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