How to support returning parents to the workplace

Helping employees through early parenthood can build the foundations of long-term workforce health.

Becoming a new parent is a monumental milestone that redefines a person’s identity but when the time comes to return to work, this intense domestic reality collides with professional expectations.

Data from The Returning Mum Transition Survey (2024), reveals that 69% of mothers feel deeply anxious about going back, 71% suffer from intense guilt, and 80% face overwhelming worry about balancing motherhood and work.

When parents are not properly supported through this transition, their new challenges follow them into the office, into the boardroom, and across every professional interaction.

These pressures become unmanageable and it can lead to low morale and fractured productivity. Ultimately, the breaking point arrives, and organisations lose exceptional talent they cannot afford to part with.

But, when an employer creates an environment where new parents feel valued, they protect the collective expertise of their teams. According to a KPMG Working Parents Survey (2025), 76% of working parents report that becoming a parent increases their motivation at work, highlighting that family-forming can act as a powerful catalyst for engagement when managed correctly.

Closing the gender pay gap

Women and mothers are disproportionately affected. WeAreTheCity's Working Mothers Data (2025), found that 57% of working mothers leave their organisation within two years of giving birth, and The LEIA, UK Report (2025) notes that women are 1.4x more likely than men to leave their jobs over poor parental support. When women exit the workforce, they lose the momentum of a career they have worked incredibly hard to build, and organisations lose vital team members.

Providing structured support to new parents directly plugs this retention leak, helping to address the senior-level gender pay gap.

Invisible operational costs

When an organisation successfully retains new parents but fails to actively support them, a new issue arises, presenteeism, where employees are physically or digitally present but mentally checked out.

According to a YouGov's Workplace Burnout Poll (2025), 66% of working mothers report chronic burnout and Data from the WOMBA, Fatherhood Balance Study (2025) reports that 72% of fathers struggle to balance professional and parental identities.

The Modern Families Index (2026), which reveals that over 40% of hybrid-working parents face debilitating stress while trying to balance professional output and family care. It is a stark reminder that standard policies like flexible hours and working from home alone do not solve the complex realities of the return-to-work transition.

Designing an action-orientated strategy

A successful strategy requires implementing a targeted, clinical lifecycle approach. The Working Families Return-to-Work Training Survey (2025), found that 33% of businesses offer no manager training for parental-leave returns and without guidance, an employee's return experience becomes a lottery dependent on a manager's personal empathy and experience.

To eliminate this lottery, progressive employers are implementing comprehensive programmes that combine manager education with specialist clinical care.

Fertifa’s guide, How to integrate support for new parents into your health and wellbeing benefits package (2026) outlines actionable insights that make a genuine impact.

A strategic next step is providing access to a comprehensive clinical pathway that covers pregnancy, postpartum recovery, and infant care, giving new parents direct access to midwives, paediatric specialists, and mental health support, when they need it the most.

Building the business case

Investing in maternity and parenthood support is one of the highest-value decisions corporate leadership can make for long-term workforce health. According to Vodafone UK’s Workplace Parental Support and Economic Growth Report (2025), implementing parent-friendly workplace frameworks could unlock more than £10 billion for the UK economy by eliminating preventable talent leaks.

Boards, investors, and future talent are increasingly evaluating businesses based on how effectively they protect and support their people through major life events.

Proactive inclusion is a deliberate corporate strategy that turns parental support from a reactive cost line into a distinct recruitment, productivity, and retention advantage.

Securing senior leadership sign-off relies on highlighting these productivity gains and projecting long-term savings against current headcount. Replacing generic wellness sentiment with board-ready analytics and structured clinical pathways elevates parental care into a core performance driver.

To help you build an airtight framework, you can download Fertifa's Maternity, Paternity, and Caregiver Leave policy template to use as a starting point.