I am a ‘new’ starter.
It struck me as my colleague finished the design for the new starter pack how much time and effort goes into ‘welcoming’ and on-boarding new starters into a business.
From desk set-up to technology run through, from the office tour to the obligatory welcome lunch, this process was pretty serious stuff. Just look at the amount of effort that goes into Graze’s new starter pack, this is their ‘Day One’ desk for one of their new starters #grazegoals.
This got me thinking about the importance of on-boarding returning maternity leavers. Yes they’ve always been employed and aren’t “new’ but when I returned back to work after 10 months out, a lot had changed, and I mean a lot. It was almost like returning to a new business. This, coupled with the fear of returning to work, was surely a recipe for disaster.
Adapting to work life.
Starting a new job can be a super daunting experience even for the most confident of personalities. But going back to work after having a baby is equally as daunting, if not petrifying. It’s an experience full of emotion, whether it’s worry about leaving your little one or whether it’s excitement about regaining your ‘old self’.
Aside from the practical challenges; how will I get ready in the morning, will my baby settle into childcare OK, how will this work logistically; my biggest concern was about the work itself. Will I have forgotten how to do my job? I think this fear is primarily derived from a new found lack of confidence, one that is quite often experienced by new mums.
Anyways, after 10 months out of the working world I returned to my old job. But it wasn’t just me that had changed, the business had changed and now I faced a new challenge; how to adapt to new ways of working while re-adjusting myself back into work life.
On-boarding for maternity returners.
How great would it be if employers invested the same amount of effort into on-boarding maternity leavers as they do new starters. I’m not just talking about Keep In Touch days, rather a process that introduced you back to working life and back to the business.
I’m not naive, I know that it takes a lot of time and effort, not to mention money, for a business to make a new hire and on-board them. But investing in the on-boarding of an employee returning from maternity leave is super important to both the employee and employer for two key reasons:
- employee happiness; because returning to work can be a tough and emotional experience.
- business efficiency; because it will help employees get back up to speed, fast.
I don’t know the fact and figures for those maternity leavers returning back into their old jobs or the churn/ retentions rates for them, not to mention the intangible, unmeasurable things such as the level of emotional stress on returnees or pressure exerted on businesses to accommodate the returnees. However, for me, the following two areas could be the start of a solid framework for a maternity returnee on-boarding process that would benefit both the employer and employee:
Technology & tools.
I’ve spoken before about how tech plays huge part in my productivity but the speed at which new technologies shape the work place can leave you behind in the blink of an eye (let alone 10 months out of a business). While you may try and keep up to speed with new ‘stuff’ while you’re on maternity leave nothing will prepare you for the velocity at which technology can change ways of working. In my business, technology and velocity are key to our existence so this is super important to me. I do recognise that this point may not be relevant to everyone, some business are still very archaic when it comes to technology and tools but having a solid run through of new tech and tools is so important in getting people back up to speed and removing levels of dependencies on others within a business.
New faces & team structures.
The working environment is fluid; people move on, teams change but meeting new team members and adapting to new structures can be difficult. New faces won’t know who you are and if you don’t get the obligatory new starter ‘office tour’ even getting to meet and greet new faces can be difficult and daunting when you return to work. I suppose this could lead to feelings of isolation and unhappiness which can work to detract returnees away from the job at hand and hinder them getting back in the working groove.
Anyways, I must say I’m lucky when it comes to this subject, we have an entire internal wiki dedicated to our people, which contains useful work info as well as personal stuff. We also have a Know Your Company email which tells you fun things about people you work with (a great icebreaker) and also an in/out board so you can easily put a face to a name.
Final thoughts.
As a maternity leave returnee to what extent should we be ‘welcomed’ back into the business as a ‘new starter’? Should we be able to pick up where we left off, seamlessly integrate back into our work spaces like we have never been away? Whatever the answer, it’s super difficult to get back into work after having a baby regardless of the welcome back process, I’m 6 months back into my work journey and have just finally settled back in.
I’m really interested in helping other parents solve problems and improve experiences through innovation and use of digital products. If you find this kind of thing useful, why not say hi.
