Are you feeling the love from your employer?

Are You Feeling The Love From Your Employer?
Poll reveals how you feel about your employers and the support you receive while you're on maternity leave.

Last month's mini poll asked parents how they felt their employer measured up when it came to staying in touch over a parental leave.

This year the Paid Parental Leave scheme has come into place for eligible parent and employees are better catered for in terms of parental leave than ever before. However, being able to officially take paid time off when you have a baby, is just the beginning of your relationship with your employer in terms of your working parent status.

So you've told the office and set your parental leave date (and probably return date); you've had the leaving do/baby shower and drinks (non alcoholic) and waved goodbye temporarily to work…what next? Usually it's 6-12 months of silence from your employer and then a return to an office you barely recognise, confusion, insecurity and often a sense of being undervalued.

Does that sound familiar? According to our poll, while around three quarters of people said their employers were generally fine when they gave them the news about their pregnancy (though 14 per cent were indifferent) and sorted out their maternity leave (where appropriate), it seems to be about there that the support ends.

Almost a third said they didn't hear a peep from their employer from the day they left to the day they went back to work; a third said they heard from them every now and then and 17 per cent were in contact regularly.

Just under a half said they had almost nothing apart from the necessary conversations regarding return dates; just a fifth had a "A fair amount of help and assistance to make sure I was kept in the loop and given a smooth re-entry".

While just over ten per cent said they were helped emotionally by their employer to keep them feeling involved and valued and a fifth said they were helped practically with child care search, flexibility of days/hours and working from home, almost two thirds had no assistance at all.

Just under a half said they felt positive about returning to work whereas 52 per cent did not; and 37 per cent said they did not feel valued as an employee when they went back to work, with almost 60 per cent saying their employer could have easily taken steps to make them feel more valued and positive about returning to work.

Steps included (in order of importance):

Regular contact to make me feel included and valued
Financial support with child care costs etc
More information about the return to work process
Flexibility in terms of days or hours worked when I returned or option to work from home occasionally
Help with structuring my time when going back to work
Help with the child care search
Emotional support and links to other mums in the company

Careforkids.com.au Stay in Touch program aims to give employers the tools to be able to keep connected with their employees on maternity leave so that both employer and employee feel connected.
Regularly contacting employees via the CareforKids.com.au Stay in Touch program is a simple and innovative way to bridge the gap between work and family life and means parents feel valued, even when they are out of the office… A truly smart way to Stay in Touch!

If you think your company could benefit from CareforKids.com.au innovative program, Contact CareforKids.com.au for a demonstration.