RETURN TO WORK COACHING
Supporting Leaders After Leave, Stop Losing your Best People
The Cost of Getting it Wrong
Organisations invest heavily in developing people, funding their leave, and welcoming them back—only to lose many within a year. When 30–50% of returners leave, the cost is huge: 6–9 months’ salary per departure and a deeper loss of confidence, motivation, and trust. A once high performer returns uncertain, a manager struggles to support them, and the team grows resentful as morale and diversity quietly erode.
Many returners struggle silently, they often feel out of the loop, juggling new pressures and unsure how to rebuild their career trajectory. Without support, they disengage and underperform, leaving before HR can intervene.
Meanwhile, managers can feel fearful of saying the wrong thing and unclear on obligations and lack the skills to have supportive conversations, while HR firefights the consequences.
The Alternative: Confident Returners, Stronger Teams
Employee and manager both feel supported
From day one, Returning employees have a dedicated coach to rebuild confidence and manage priorities, while managers receive guidance to handle conversations effectively. Both feel equipped and aligned.
Proactive communication between employees and managers
Coached returners engage openly with managers about expectations and boundaries, preventing misunderstandings and building trust.
Faster return to performance
Employees contribute meaningfully within weeks, reaching full productivity by three months, often bringing fresh insights from their time away.
Improved retention rates
Coaching boosts retention from 50% to 85%, as employees feel valued and see a clear future with the company.
Strengthened employer brand
Supportive transitions signal care, attracting and retaining talent while boosting engagement and reputation.
ROI – preventing just 2 departures means the coaching has paid for itself
Avoiding two departures offsets the coaching cost; additional benefits—productivity, morale, diversity, and reduced legal risk—are pure gain.
Reference: Chivers,2025
Our Unique Approach
We coach the relationship, not just the individual
Most support focuses solely on the returner. We know that's only half the picture. We work in depth with both the returner and their line manager to open genuine lines of communication, build mutual understanding, and create a relationship based on trust rather than assumptions. When both parties feel supported and equipped, the transition succeeds.
We tackle the confidence crisis head-on
Loss of confidence is the issue we hear about most—and it's what derails talented people fastest. Our coaches are specifically trained to rebuild professional confidence quickly and sustainably, so your returners reclaim their voice, their presence, and their performance in weeks, not months.
We address the cultural narratives that hold returners back
Returners face a barrage of unhelpful messages: that motherhood and career ambition are incompatible, that asking for flexibility signals lack of commitment, that illness makes you "damaged goods." Our coaches have specific tools and techniques to help returners navigate and challenge these narratives, so they can move forward without being held back by societal baggage.
We offer organisation-wide support, not just individual coaching
Real change requires more than one-to-one sessions. We can provide talks, resources, and content for parent or health networks, run group coaching programs to build communities of support, and equip your organisation with the knowledge to sustain a culture of successful returns.
Our coaches are specialists, not generalists
All our coaches are fully qualified and accredited, but more importantly, they have specific training and experience in return-to-work coaching. This isn't generic life coaching or standard executive coaching—it follows a structured framework designed specifically for this transition, which means your returners get expert support that understands the unique challenges they're facing.
We help returners reframe their experience as a strength
Through tailored diagnostic tools and personal profiling, we help returners build a new leadership brand where their experiences of navigating complexity, managing competing priorities, developing resilience become their superpowers, not something to apologise for or hide.
The organisations that get this right don't just retain people. They retain the right people - experienced, loyal, and grateful to work somewhere that saw them through a vulnerable transition.
Imagine this scenario
A different way
Your employee returns from parental leave feeling nervous but supported. From day one, they have a coach - someone outside the organisation who gets the complexity of their situation. In confidential sessions, they work through the identity shift, rebuild their confidence, and create strategies for managing new priorities without guilt or burnout.
They're not struggling silently. They're proactively communicating with their manager, setting boundaries that work, and re-establishing their professional presence. Within weeks, not months, they're contributing meaningfully again. Within three months, they're back to full productivity - maybe even bringing fresh perspectives from their time away.
The manager breathes easier. They're not alone in supporting the return; they have a partner in the coach. Conversations are clearer, expectations are realistic, and the working relationship stays strong.
Six months later, the returner is thriving. They've navigated a promotion conversation successfully, they're visible in meetings again, and they're talking enthusiastically about their future with the company. They tell their friends you're a great place to work through life transitions. Your retention rate for returners climbs from 50% to 85%.
The ripple effects are powerful. Other employees - especially those planning families or managing health conditions - see that you genuinely support people through major life transitions. They stay. They engage. They recommend you to talented candidates.
Diversity numbers improve because women aren't falling out of the pipeline post-parenthood. Your teams perform better because you're keeping experienced people who understand your culture and have established relationships. Your managers are more confident and less stressed.
And the ROI? When you prevent just two departures, the coaching has paid for itself. Everything beyond that—the productivity gains, the morale boost, the employer brand enhancement, the legal risk reduction—is pure value.
Helen Mason
Practice Lead
Who Are Our Coaches
Most of our coaches have been trained at top training providers and have at least 15-20 years’ leadership/coaching experience. They use cutting edge and evidence-based techniques drawn from behavioural science and cognitive behavioural psychology, positive psychology, neuroscience and mindfulness.
REFLECTIONS
How returners say they feel about returning to work
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