Maternity and Paternity: The Management Guide
Course duration: 45 minutes.
Who’s behind the course?
This Skill Boosters course has been created by Inclusive Learning, in partnership with My Family Care. It has been developed by Maternity Coaching Expert, Jennifer Liston-Smith supported by Organisational Development Consultant Sarah Boulton and includes additional expert interviews on a range of related topics.
Maternity and Paternity: The Manager’s Guide uses drama, simulation, step-by-step guides and a wide range of expert input to support best practice. It takes you through the process of working with an employee from the moment she informs you of her pregnancy, to the point where she returns to work, and beyond. Addresses motherhood and fatherhood at work, it places these in the context of managing your whole team, building on your existing people skills to do so.
The resource introduces the ‘A frame’. The A frame helps you to structure conversations with your employee successfully and has been developed especially for this course by leading expert, Jennifer Liston-Smith. Further expert input from within well known public and private sector organisations adds sound advice and insights on people management, legal, diversity and change management aspects of supporting new parents in your team.
Why do I need a special guide to Maternity and Paternity?
When an employee becomes a parent it is a huge change in their life. The process starts from the moment you are informed of the pregnancy and continues beyond your employee’s return. The investment you make in effective communication and planning will have an impact far beyond their return date. How you handle the process as a manager influences the employee’s well-being and their commitment to returning, as well as how the wider team and organisation are affected. This resource provides information and guidance on managing parents-to-be and new parents in the workplace.
Learning Objectives
The aim of this resource is to help you successfully manage maternity and paternity transitions in your team at work. By completing this programme, you will:
- Understand the business, legal and societal factors that increasingly demand best practice, at all levels, when managing maternity/paternity
- Develop your awareness of the issues surrounding maternity and paternity
- Gain the confidence to manage maternity and paternity transitions effectively.
- Be able to apply a simple and effective framework to underpin and support planning, communication and negotiations.
Outcomes
Completion of this course will help individual managers, and the organisations in which they work, develop better strategic handling of maternity/paternity. In turn, this supports retention and attraction of the best possible talent pool and the effective management of working parents as part of a team.
Successfully managing new parents at work will, over time, increase the flexibility of your workforce to respond to the trends and needs of today’s business and working environment.
Course structure
The e-learning course is structured into six modules and can be dipped into ‘just in time’ for specific conversations or completed in one sitting for awareness raising.
1. Introduction
2. Why maternity and new parents matter
3. Managing maternity
4. Managing paternity
5. What if…? Difficult situations
6. Assessment quiz
Each module contains a series of short units each covering a specific topic and backed up by guidance notes.
Meet the expert
Jennifer Liston-Smith is Head of Coaching with My Family Care. One of the UK pioneers of maternity coaching, she co-founded an innovative maternity management consultancy in 2005, working alongside employers to implement strategic support for parents at work in settings such as global law firms, banks, accountancy firms and other sectors.
In 2010, Jennifer joined leading family-friendly services provider My Family Care to oversee coaching programmes as well as coach development.
With a background including 20 years’ experience in coaching and consulting with major client organisations, an Oxford Law degree, Masters in Psychology, and Post Graduate Certificate in Coaching Supervision, Jennifer combines a commitment to best practice with her keen understanding of the needs of managers and of working parents. She is a sought-after conference speaker and writer on the topic of supporting and retaining new parents at work, coaching and maternal leadership; she is also the busy, appreciative mother of two boys.
