18 GENDER BALANCE LISTENING EVENTS | BDO
WORKING FAMILIES & CAREER BREAKS
Juggling work and caring responsibilities of any sort undoubtedly adds pressure - often at an important point in a woman’s career.
ACTION
Every experience was different, there were some were brilliant stories of people being promoted whilst off on parental leave, and coming back to a truly agile role, with a supportive team and People Manager. However, many women had also had tricky experiences, sometimes related to the changing logistics and life pressures and how this was no longer compatible with the job they had been doing before. Being clear on boundaries is very important, and some of that definitely has to come from the individual, but having a supportive team and People Manager was undoubtedly seen as a key to success. There is different support needed at different stages. When thinking about starting a family – some are put off progression because they can’t see it could possibly work being senior with children. We need to hear more stories about the reality and what works/ helps you to succeed (e.g. Wendy “work out what you need to stop doing”)
We also discussed ensuring that those who’d been out for any period of time could access training to bring them back up to speed should there have been any changes, e.g. changes in accounting standards. There was also an important point raised about those without families, feeling that they had to pick up the late deadlines, as they didn’t have the same ‘non-negotiables’ as those with a family. Mutual support and respect was key here. There were a couple of inspirational stories shared from women who had taken extended career breaks before joining BDO. Their experiences of joining the firm, and the thought that had gone into the recruitment process and flexibility that had been shown, were some of the highlights of the events. We should think about how we can encourage more career break returners to the firm. Coming back from maternity leave it feels like the last few years of work have gone out of the window and I have to prove myself all over again. - SM, Delegate “
For BDO X Ensure support and coaching available at different stages. Not just around maternity leave. A network, Buddy programme and /or coaching could help the individual settle back into work – including looking at training required X Role models who talk about working with balancing a family, working part time at a senior level X Review career break options that we offer as a firm X Invest in a Return to Work programme – leverage the BDO Alumni network to commence this? FOR COLLEAGUES X Engage with the resources that are there. Seek out those who you perceive are making things work and talk to them X Find a network to share experiences and ask for advice X Think about who in our networks: do we know who may want to return to work?
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