THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH
Today marks the OFFICIAL LAUNCH DAY of Careers After Babies! How exciting!
Earlier this year I published a report that went viral. It told the story that we all knew to be true but had swept under the carpet for years. It revealed that 98% of women want to come back to work after maternity leave - but only 13% say it’s viable. Of the 24% that tried to go back full time, 79% ended up leaving because they couldn’t maintain their full-time job alongside having a baby. It told how our career progression was also found to be impacted disproportionately by maternity leave, as there was a 32% reduction in managerial roles after women have children and a 44% increase in admin roles, with many women stating that it’s easier to find flexible work at a junior level.
Since publishing the report I’ve had hundreds of people get in touch. With their input, I started building a framework to help organisations look at what they need to do differently. I identified seven areas that parents need organisations to think about considering not just policy, but process and practice.
And then I built an accreditation. And this is it. The official launch of the Careers After Babies accreditation and the Careers After Babies Certification for small businesses. Our transformative accreditation marks the beginning of a movement to create a world-class cohort of employers.
Over the last few months, I have worked closely with a handful of organisations to test my thinking and make sure the framework applies in different contexts. We’ll continue to do this with the support of the Accreditation Board, made up of my launch partners - Paramount, IMA-Home, Correla, Search Laboratory, Greenwich Students Union, Leesman, Effective HRM, Argdowan Hospice and others to follow - and industry specialists that I truly admire (and often fan girl!) - Lizzie Martin, Han-Son Lee, Rachel Vecht and Shivani Uberoi.
And now we’re ready to launch it to the world!
Our Mission
Careers After Babies is a social enterprise committed to making the world a better place for working parents. We will:
Change how employers behave making them a better employer of choice for working parents.
Raise the bar by sharing the successes of the best employers of working parents through our community, helping to educate other organisations.
Make job opportunities with our family-friendly employers more accessible to working parents.
Collaborate with and support charities and other social enterprises that are committed to supporting working parents remaining with and re-entering the workplace.
Find out more about our mission here.
So now it’s time to start changing the world. One organisation at a time!
This is your chance to be part of a pioneering community that shares not only your ambitions to be the best employer of working parents but also their learning, experiences and practice.
Small businesses, sAVE £100!
To celebrate the launch I’m offering the first 25 small businesses that sign up £100 off their membership for the year! Join the Certification now and you will be my first SME members and the groundrock of the Careers After Babies community.
Big businesses, talk to me!
Keep on talking to me. You can find out about the Careers After Babies Accreditation here and book a call any time. I’m ready and waiting to chat!
A massive, massive thank you to everyone who has spoken to me in the last few months, and all of those who have supported the work so far.
Here’s to the beginning of the next chapter!
