We recently commissioned a study looking at the attitudes of working mothers into how they balanced work and family life - the results of which revealed the scale of a maternal 'brain drain' on the nation's companies. The study covered the opinions of more than 2000 women, and found that only one third (33%) of women returning to work after starting a family said that the time away had not affected their career progression.
One in four (26%) mothers said they had changed careers after having children, to better suit their family life while the same proportion (26%) told us they had switched jobs to one which was less professionally rewarding but was better for their family. The study found that one in eleven (9%) mums have taken a career break to focus on their family, and 6% say that they have given up work altogether as they could not juggle work and family life.
One of the reasons for carrying out the research is that we are interested in examining the ways in which businesses can help ensure that women have the best chance of achieving their career aspirations. We need to make sure that our businesses reflect our society, and so it's vital that we are not losing talented women from the workplace, simply because companies are not able to provide them with a suitable balance between family and work.
The researchers asked about what employers could do to help women catch up in their careers after taking time off to have children. 56% of working mums said companies should guarantee the opportunity of working in the same role as before they had children, but on a more flexible or part time basis. 33% would like companies to guarantee mothers the opportunity to work from home, providing that their role is not fixed to a specific location.
As well as flexibility, many working mums are looking for support which will help counter the fact that they have taken some time out of their career. 30% of working mums think that companies should put in place tailored career development plans - both during pregnancy and after they return to work - which are specifically designed to help them catch up in their career. 25% of all women, whether mothers or not, believe that working mums should be given mentoring or coaching to help them catch up in their career after returning from maternity leave.
There can be a whole range of external factors that impact people at various stages of their lives, from being a working mum, to a carer of an elderly relative or undertaking further education outside of the work environment. It's important that as managers we have those conversations with our people.
Obviously many factors come into play for a woman with both a career and a family, as each individual's circumstances will be different. However, it's clear that employers need to create supportive workplaces which offer flexibility and have robust structures in place to allow mothers to achieve their full career potential. We believe that this is something, which not only benefits the individual and their company, it will have a positive impact on our wider society.
