Return Ready

New Group coaching programme for the return-to-work experience

Building on ten years of 1:1 coaching experience, we’re responding to business needs to support mothers more effectively in three key ways.

  • Design a return experience that starts before you go on mat leave, ending when you are settled back to work, clear on your long-term professional goals.

  • Offering community around the return, mothers at different points on their return journey, can share insights from a range of sectors.

  • Build in milestone conversations and training with employers to help mothers navigate the smooth and steady return period they need.

The problems

Mothers returning to work represent the highest, and most costly, point of attrition in the female leadership pipeline today.

– Women leave to find roles that better fit their careers as parents

– Recruitment costs far exceed short-term support that ensures staff retention

– Companies lose talent to competitors invested in family-friendly practices

– DEI is often seen as a tick-box exercise, contributing to dissatisfaction with organisational culture

Internal support is often inconsistent, managers are undertrained, and policies often fail to translate into practice.

– Managers may not have experienced a primary care role

– A limited understanding of the personal and professional pressures involved

– Policies are seen as progressive, but do not translate in practice

– Women often return to the same level, or lower, rather than where they could or want to be

Competing demands, unchanged expectations and changes in identity and purpose can lead to under-performance, reduced confidence and burnout.

– A lack of role models and clear career progression creates disengagement, driving exits

– Companies invest heavily in talent, then lose staff within 6–18 months of maternity leave, due to an unstructured return period that fails to meet the needs of both returning mothers and the business

– This is an expensive, avoidable business drain, financially and developmentally, through the loss of key organisational knowledge and insight

Our solutions for…

Mothers

Design and control

A full return-to-work experience. From pre-maternity leave, to a settled and structured back into work.

Professional opportunity

Short, medium and long-term goal setting – to know what they need to succeed in all areas of life.

Explore and share insights

Wisdom gathering helps innovate systems that remain stubbornly ill-designed for women who want to have a family.

Managers

Supported reintegration

Enable others to support women returning to work – and help them get back into teams effectively and consistently.

Increase satisfaction

Be creative, reliable and innovative in supporting parents – raising employee satisfaction and loyalty.

Long-term benefits

Minimal return-to-productivity time, whilst ensuring long-term well-being, avoiding burnout and over-expectation.

Organisations

Retain talent

Keep your best employees and build strong, high-quality pipelines to leadership for returning mothers.

Thriving reputation

Become a company that considers staff experiences and aspirations – ensuring DEI policy thrives.

Career progression

Be known as an attractive company to work, and for women employees to see opportunity for CPD at all points along the way.

If you would like more information or would like to join our trial group (starting June 2026), please get in touch.

How it works in practice

  • Follow a pathway of pre-recorded tasks, that returning mothers move along independently in their own time. We recognise how full women can feel with their parenting responsibilities, as well as the prospect and planning around their return – and have designed content to suit this.

  • Celebrate milestones together in weekly group sessions. Some may be specially designed to initiate communication and action with colleagues – managers or HR in particular. Others may unlock 1:1 coaching or coaching tools for progression.

  • We combine a thoughtful, human-centered approach with clear communication. Designed to start before a mother returns and includes planning to make the most of KIT days and touch points before the return.

    The transition period is mapped across a 6+ months return period, based on our experience with returning mothers. It’s not just what we do – it’s how we do it that sets us apart.

  • Mothers have access to community, conversation and support in our online weekly space. With a rolling intake of returning mothers, the community is made up of people at different points of their return. I help your employees make sense of the stage they are at – along with participants from other companies, who may be further along the same journey.

  • Check progress, hold participants accountable and create space to go deeper where needed – whilst keeping the conversation about peer learning and community support.

    Mothers have access to 1:1 coaching in addition to group milestones – and can access appropriate support at any point - via email, phone calls or voice notes.

  • Though community we regularly share insights, stories and experiences to normalise anxiety, find positive solutions, and design helpful conversations with employers. All in a confidential and non-judgemental space.

  • Opportunities for 1:1 coaching are available where needed, plus, bolt on modules that might explore career progression.

    Women in leadership, or managers are provided with the information they need to offer a consistent, reliable return experience for mothers.