Supporting working parents to combine career and family
Supporting working parents to successfully combine career and family
How Do You Do It were engaged to provide group coaching to one of the Big 4 Banks to help their overarching program to support, retain and progress the working parents. The group coaching consisted of a comprehensive five-part program supporting working mothers and fathers over a 5 month time period both for parents after their return from parental leave and parents who had been back for some time with older children.
Addressing the key challenges working parents face, the program was designed to help working parents to:
- Develop strategies and skills for combining career and family responsibilities, helping increase satisfaction and effectiveness in both.
- Open up about the challenges of being a working parent and share ideas to address those challenges with others in a similar situation.
- Build confidence and competence in ‘making it all work’ along with being more tactical in managing career and family choices.
- Gain practical and relevant strategies and tools for combining work and family to apply immediately after the sessions
- Gain a relevant and relevant support network within the function, which could be accessed during the program and beyond
Results
Most useful outcomes of the program
When asked directly about the most valuable outcomes of the programs working mothers and fathers were consistent in their views about the top two outcomes from attending the course but differed slightly in their third and fourth choices:
| Outcome rank | Working mothers’ programme | Working fathers’ programme |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A network of other mothers and fathers | |
| 2 | Practical and relevant strategies for combining work and parental responsibilities | |
| 3 | Increased confidence in achieving success at home and work | Increased sense of personal resilience |
| 4 | =Increased clarity in achieving success at home and work = Increased sense of personal resilience | =Increased clarity in achieving success at home and work |
Impact on employee attitudes towards their employer
Participants’ attitudes on twenty metrics were measured at the start of the program and at the end to look in detail at the impact it had on their feelings about how they could successfully manage many aspects of their work, home life and ongoing career. Specific questions also looked at the impact the program had on the participant feelings towards their employer in relation to RETENTION, PROGRESSION, ENABLEMENT, ENGAGEMENT AND PROGRESSION.
Participant testimonials
“I loved the course. My wife and I have been attending a pre-natal course for the past 8 weeks and I told them that I have been attending this course at my organisation. They were shocked that my organisation provided this for parents. Their support of working parents lands really well in the eyes of the community.” WORKING FATHER
“This course is fantastic because it is about you and how you engage with your employer – a truly engaged employee and a truly engaged employer is a recipe for success. Everyone benefits from this.” WORKING MOTHER
Download the full case study here to see the full impact of the support GPT offers their working parents.
More case studies – See how we have supported other clients with their working parents’ programmes.