Today she’s taking new superpowers back to the office! Restored motivation. Refreshed life values. A desire to build a career and be more effective so she could go home earlier. A professional HR manager, you can use this new mom’s enthusiasm to help her prove she’s not fitting into the statistics of post-maternity leave career slow-down.
Her return might be a right moment for the changes. Ask if she’s still inspired by what she’s doing? Is she eager to strive for more in professional achievements? Is she ready to change working routines and give her career a push?
If the answer is yes, do the following.
Encourage to speak about career ambitions
Ask the lady to be open about her objectives. Let her know she can come to you or her boss and state plans for the career growth. Ask if she can attend any corporate training from the company or take on extra responsibilities to demonstrate her administration qualities.
As she feels confident about moving further, go to managers and share her determination. Always keep aligned and make sure that you report to the right person. By acknowledging the decision-makers about your employee’s enthusiasm to deliver superior results, you increase her odds to be the top-of-mind candidate when the chance occurs.
Build out-of-the-office presence
IBM recommends their women executives speak at industry conferences. Encourage your employee to build up public speaking skills and reinforce her niche knowledge with experts opinions from relevant organizations. Working on these skills will help to develop her advantages.
A volunteer engagement outside of work is another way to demonstrate her readiness for the advancement. Share the list of nonprofit organizations your employee might be interested in and operate her community-based initiative that will signal about her readiness for the leadership role. Can this be a local moms club? Why not?
Establish her online expertise
For those restrained to attend conferences and events, consider upscaling expertise through online platforms. Academic writing will help a new mom structure and organize her skills, while blogging is perfect for growing professional circle. Here are some helpful sites with good communities and friendly mechanics to share with your employee:
- LinkedIn – a professional network with specialized groups.
- Triberr – top digital influencers posts.
- Dribbble – a go-to marketplace for designers.
- Bid4papers – an academic writing platform.
- Medium – a writing network featuring a variety of subjects.
A developed personal brand will represent her as a pro with high network value, opening up a much broader range of senior and top-level positions.
Encourage to get the right education
As this recent poll showed, many working women often cut that annoying corner to get endorsed for promotion today. But the good news is that the educational field stopped being a “boy’s club” for a while now. There are more women getting the MBAs and higher education than men. Moreover, with the online educational options available, your employee can find a solution fitting any life plan.
It will kill two birds with one stone: she will get a degree and update her knowledge. Experience enhanced with the most recent data will definitely score extra points when your employee decides to approach for a next level.
Provide with mentorship and help with networking
Insufficient women representation in C-suites results in the lack of role figures for their striving junior colleagues. The more valuable relationship would it be when they establish it. Find a mentor for the post-maternity leave employee in your company, its branches, or on the regional level. If that is still not an option, help her with networking.
Encourage to attend the professional events and conferences so she could build meaningful connections with the women that motivate her. Explain that she can’t be passive about this: mentors are not nice-to-haves but golden tickets to a career advancement. A research in 2005 proved that mentoring works better for the career growth for women than for men. So make sure she helps other women. It will go a long way, and your employee, in turn, can become a mentor or a role model for someone.
Takeaway
The first step in pushing your employees’ career after maternity leave is acknowledging the challenge. The second is defining their true goals. Once they are ready to go back to the office, you’ll be there to help.