As more companies adopt
According to the National Health Institute, 24% of women leave the labor force in their first year of motherhood; meanwhile, three in four moms believe their employers could be doing more to
As a mom and vice president of people at marketing solutions company Customer.io, Jen Fong knows firsthand that leadership is key to ensuring parental leave policies account for what comes after parents have taken months off to bond with their families.
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"We have an exceptional people team that works very closely with our managers to just make everyone's leave a very smooth process," says Fong. "We want to make sure that you feel like your work is covered while you're out, and you're not stressed about what happens when you're ready to return."
Fong still recalls how disorienting it was to come back to work after she took parental leave in 2021. Fong was not at Customer.io yet and found herself renegotiating what work-life balance would look like for her as a new mother.
"I had to figure out how to ask and accept help — I was a little naive thinking that everything was just going to be the same in terms of the way I worked," says Fong. "Coming back taught me to set boundaries, give myself grace and experiment with different aspects of my life and how they're going to integrate themselves into this new chapter. It was a big wake-up call to some unhealthy work habits I had earlier in my career."
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The transition was challenging, but for Fong, it revealed a valuable lesson: Manager-employee communication is vital to a smooth transition from leave to work. This means managers at Customer.io know to set up frequent check-ins with new parents with the goal of helping them express how their schedule, priorities and needs may look different now.
"Having a good support [system] with your manager is so helpful," says Fong. "You can share when you're overwhelmed and share how your priorities changed. For me, I was very excited to come back, but I needed a lot of intentional reflection on how I go about this new chapter of my life. Having that feedback loop is essential."
Fong asks people leaders to consider whether employees feel comfortable discussing the growing pains that accompany major life changes with their managers. While employers can add benefits to their parental leave policies — like a ramp-on period where new parents can work reduced hours for a limited amount of time after their leave ends — Fong stresses that without communication, working parents may still feel overwhelmed or isolated from their team.
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"When managers have an open line of communication, they can unravel whether an employee needs to reshuffle some [work] around or if they need to add flexibility to their schedule so their work doesn't conflict with what they need to take care of their family as well," she says. "It's about sharing options to make things a bit more manageable."
Fong encourages companies to train managers to have specific touch points in mind when checking in with new parents. For example, they can ask employees what has changed in their day-to-day lives, and in return, managers can share what has changed in the organization.
For Fong, it's clear that empathetic leadership is what takes benefits and policies to the next level. That doesn't necessarily mean employers can shortchange the benefits themselves. Fong notes that Customer.io offers 16 weeks of paid leave for all parents, regardless of gender or path to parenthood, while their healthcare plans are 100% covered by the company. Fong reminds employers that it takes strong policies and people for a company culture to truly be supportive of its workers.
"We're definitely a team that celebrates each other's milestones," she says. "We want to make sure that there are places where they can go to and resources they can leverage to be able to make those milestones with us."
