With women increasingly making up the majority of workers in a number of sectors, it makes sense to ensure that women don’t find their careers stalled or slowed by one of the biggest changes in their lives – motherhood. Employee wellbeing company, AXA-ICAS, has created a maternity programme to help fulfil this aim in the UK for Citi, one of the world’s leading financial services companies.

Female workforce

Liz McCaw, from AXA-ICAS, says: “Many women have a well-founded anxiety that being a parent will hinder their career. Without a genuine desire to make sure mothers can return to work successfully, all the benefits in the world won’t retain them.”

Women make up 52% of Citi’s global staff, so the company has every incentive to make sure women returning from maternity leave are not disadvantaged.

Carolanne Minashi, Regional Head of Diversity for Citi’s Markets & Banking Division explains: “Many women who go on maternity leave have worked with the company for over 10 years. They have established their career and have a wealth of experience and talent we can’t afford to lose. Citi already had an excellent maternity return rate of 98% in the UK, but we recognised that the key points in maternity (working whilst pregnant, being on maternity leave and returning) are genuinely challenging times.”

AXA-ICAS, working in partnership with Managing Maternity, developed a package of support that combines coaching with access to employee assistance programmes (EAPs).

Maternity Matters

The programme - Maternity Matters - provides group coaching at three key stages (before maternity leave, during the second half of maternity leave and on return to work), followed by telephone coaching once back in work and supported by contact with advisors from AXA-ICAS’ LifeManagementTM team, part of the Citi EAP service.

Group coaching sessions deliver practical support as well as allowing women to build a good network with others at the same stage. The sessions also include time for individual action-planning, to ensure that each woman’s own personal goals are met.

Keeping in Touch

Maternity Matters makes innovative use of one ‘Keeping in Touch’ day for group coaching combined with meeting managers and teams, held mid-way through maternity leave. Discussions include how maternity leave is going, how to communicate new needs confidently and how to re-integrate back into teams. Women draw up individual action plans that they can share and discuss with their LifeManagementTM advisor. The role of the advisors is to provide very practical support around issues at work and home, including sourcing and managing childcare, understanding maternity benefits and access to further support in managing issues such as sleep and feeding.

Four weeks after the final group coaching session, each woman is offered a one-to-one telephone coaching session, to check on progress and allow her to explore further goals and aspirations as a working mother.

Monica Gibson, who works within Sales in Citi's Equities department, returned to work in January 2008, six months after having given birth to Aaron, her first child. In February, four weeks after returning to work, Monica attended one of Citi’s Managing Maternity workshops and says:

"The workshop was great - just what I needed to get myself back on track. When I was at home I felt overwhelmed by the idea of trying to reconcile work and being the mother of a newborn. The workshop allowed me to meet other people with exactly the same needs and concerns that I had about the prospect of returning to work. Should any of us need it, we can support each other or ask each other for advice. Whilst I still feel it's a daily challenge to figure out how to make it all work, I no longer feel on my own.

"It definitely takes time to get back into the swing of things and to prove you still have the ability to be your former self and that you're also able to juggle a balance of home and work life. It is, of course, exhausting, but the course helped me realise how to manage our new lifestyles."

Full support

Carolanne Minashi says of Citi’s programme: “We want to make sure that pregnant women leave for maternity feeling supported and are able to make a full contribution when they return as mums.”

Liz McCaw concludes: “If one of the world’s most successful financial services companies can create a culture in which women stay with them throughout maternity and beyond, then others surely can follow. It’s time to look beyond the obvious in talent management to get to the heart of what really matters to parents; their ability to do a great job at work and at home.”