Back to work after maternity leave
As a mother of three, and someone with high professional ambitions, the topic “back to work” is very close to my heart, especially in connection with Next Generation Leadership. I’ve always taken the view that gender is irrelevant if someone wants to pursue a career. In fact, endless discussions about diversity have bored me.
Room for improvement
Today, I see the whole topic in a more nuanced light. There are indeed plenty of companies that still have a lot of room for improvement in this area. When it comes to new mothers and fathers reentering the work place and safeguarding their further career development, we still have a lot of work ahead of us.
Next generations must manage gender mix
According to the Schilling Report 2019, the gender mix in management remains a generational project. Although the proportion of women in executive management has reached 9% for the first time, only half of the 100 largest employers in Switzerland have a woman on the executive board.
Challenge of getting more women in management
For companies to transform successfully and sustainably, they need new, diverse leaders and leadership teams – people who can break away from traditional ways of thinking and leading. This includes having more women on the executive floor. It should no longer be exceptional for a woman to be CEO or a member of the executive board. But it often still is the need for action is real.
According to the Schilling Report 2019, it is up to the companies, the business community and society to establish conditions under which the many well-trained, experienced and competent young mothers do not feel that they have to abandon their careers to plan a family. The same applies to fathers of young children who no longer want to dedicate themselves solely to their careers.
New mother, new take on career
In recent years, I’ve often observed how even the most talented and successful women experience uncertainty about their future career development when returning to work after maternity leave. While others have shown that it is possible to reconcile career and family, the subject of careers suddenly appears in a whole new light if you are a new mother yourself.
Perceptions and preconceptions
What will my colleagues think of me when I pack up at 17:00 on the dot because I have to collect my child from daycare? What happens if I no longer want to work 100%, but only 60%, 75% or 80%? Can I retain my leadership role or should I proactively offer to relinquish it to give others development opportunities? And wouldn’t it be best for me just to accept that I’m not making such rapid progress on the career ladder now – after all, I wanted a family?
Career needs clear communication
Although these thoughts are quite real, superiors and organizations cannot read your mind. So it’s important to clearly communicate your needs as a mother (or father) and tell your supervisor how you envisage working life in the future. Again, it is up to the leaders and the company to make decisions on an individual’s career development based on general assumptions about new parents. After all, let’s not forget that many new mothers return to work even hungrier than ever after maternity leave and are extremely motivated to develop further. If they then work for an employer who encourages and challenges them in a part-time role, the right course is set for more women at management level. By investing in a woman while her children are small, companies also stand to benefit from her skillset – and loyalty – in years to come.
Takeaways for everyone
Incidentally, clearly expressing personal career needs is something everyone should do. Flexible forms of work and the part-time contracts for highly demanding and meaningful work are exactly what the next generation – currently entering the world of work – will seek. And these needs are here to stay. In a future where the employer’s market as we know it will increasingly shift to an employee’s market, companies will have to look even more closely at how they meet these needs.
