Beyond Policy: Creating Maternity Transitions That Work for Families and Employers
Published: 18 Jun 2026
By Schnel Hanson MCIPD, MA HRM — Contributor, Working Families
For many organisations, maternity leave is treated primarily as an administrative milestone, a matter of planning, documentation, and logistics. But maternity leave is rarely just that. It is a human transition, a workplace transition, and for many women, an identity transition. Yet too many women still experience the return to work as something they have to survive rather than something their employer has properly designed for.
As a Chartered HR Practitioner, Corporate Wellbeing Strategist, and PhD researcher specialising in women’s occupational wellbeing during maternity and return-to-work transitions, I have spent more than a decade working across HR, coaching, employability, and wellbeing. The same pattern surfaces repeatedly: policy may confirm a woman’s entitlement to return, but culture determines whether she feels she still belongs.
The culture gap that policy cannot close
Most organisations genuinely want to do the right thing. The more common problem is quieter and harder to name. It lives in the informal decisions that happen around the policy.
A woman announces her pregnancy and her projects quietly go to someone else. A manager stops raising promotion because they assume she will not want pressure. A returning mother asks for flexibility and finds her commitment questioned. Another comes back to a changed team, a new manager, and systems that moved on — with no one having thought through her reintroduction.
These moments are not always deliberate. They are sometimes framed as kindness, practicality, or business need. But the effect is the same: reduced visibility, slower progression, damaged confidence and, in many cases, a decision to leave.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission, in research with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, found that significant numbers of mothers experienced negative or potentially discriminatory treatment at work — including dismissal, redundancy, pressure to leave, and loss of opportunity (EHRC, 2016). Working Families’ employer benchmarking consistently reinforces that family-friendly practice depends not on written policy alone, but on manager behaviour, flexibility, and workplace culture.
A maternity policy can explain entitlement, notice periods, and return dates. It cannot create psychological safety, fair access to opportunity, or a manager who knows how to hold a good transition conversation. That is the gap organisations need to close.
The Work Trimester framework
Through my doctoral research and professional practice, I have developed the Work Trimester approach, a phased framework for understanding and managing maternity as a planned workplace transition, not a single absence event.
If pregnancy is understood in trimesters, the workplace transition around maternity should be understood in phases too.
Phase One — Pre-leave. This is when practical handover happens, but also when assumptions can begin. Employers need to keep women visible in development conversations, agree communication preferences, discuss career aspirations, and actively protect access to opportunity before leave starts.
Phase Two — During leave. This is not about maintaining contact for the organisation’s benefit. It is about offering appropriate connection and belonging, on the employee’s terms. Keeping-in-touch days, updates, and invitations should be purposeful and pressure-free — routes back in for those who want them, not obligations.
Phase Three — Return and reintegration. This is where most organisations underestimate the adjustment. A returner may step into a changed team, altered priorities, new systems, and a different manager. A structured reintroduction plan — not a generic welcome back — is what rebuilds rhythm, confidence, and clarity.
The Work Trimester approach does not require a complicated new HR process. It requires employers to treat maternity as a transition that needs design, leadership, and genuine care.
Why the return is the critical moment
The return to work is often spoken about as if someone is simply coming back to where they left off. They are not. Workplaces do not stand still. Teams change. Priorities shift. Knowledge and informal networks move on.
This is why many women experience a confidence dip on return, even when they are highly skilled and deeply committed. The issue is not capability — it is the experience of re-entering a workplace that continued without a structured bridge back in.
That distinction matters to HR professionals and line managers. If a returner’s uncertainty is misread as poor performance, the organisation may respond with pressure when what is actually needed is clarity, coaching, and time. If the transition is understood and managed well, that same moment becomes a point of renewed engagement rather than risk. The CIPD has consistently highlighted that supportive line management and inclusive practices are critical to retention and engagement during significant life transitions (CIPD, 2022).
The organisational cost of getting this wrong
Poorly managed maternity transitions carry a real and measurable cost. Organisations risk losing experienced people, weakening leadership pipelines, increasing recruitment costs, and eroding trust among those watching how working parents are treated.
Research from McKinsey and Deloitte has consistently shown that women’s retention and progression are affected by workplace culture, flexibility, and whether inclusion is real in day-to-day practice, not just stated in policy (McKinsey, 2023; Deloitte, 2022). Women are more likely to leave organisations within the first year of returning from maternity leave when structured support is absent.
The reverse is equally true. Employers who manage maternity transitions well send a powerful cultural signal. They demonstrate that family life and career ambition are not competing identities. They retain knowledge, protect confidence, and build lasting loyalty.
The legal landscape — and where it is heading
The legal framework is essential context. UK employees already benefit from statutory maternity protections, protection from pregnancy and maternity discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, flexible working rights, and redundancy protections during pregnancy and the return-to-work period.
The Employment Rights Act 2025 strengthens this landscape further. Current government and Acas guidance confirms that enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant workers and those returning from maternity leave are due to come into force in 2027, with further regulation and consultation shaping how those protections operate in practice.
This direction of travel is significant. It signals clearly that pregnancy and maternity are central to fair work, workforce retention, and equality. Organisations that wait for the law to push them forward will already be behind those building cultures fit for working families today.
Law sets the floor. Culture determines the lived experience.
What organisations can do now
Practical improvement does not require a complete overhaul. It requires intention, consistency, and investment in manager capability.
Before leave, make transition conversations normal. Managers should discuss workload, handover, career aspirations, communication preferences, and how the employee wants to stay connected. During leave, contact should be respectful, agreed, and purposeful. Before return, there should be a structured conversation about role changes, team updates, flexible working needs, development, and progression.
Line managers need support to have these conversations well. Many want to do the right thing but feel unsure what they can ask, how to discuss confidence, or how to balance flexibility with operational need. Equipping managers with the tools, language, and permission to hold fair, human, and bias-aware conversations is one of the most high-impact investments an employer can make.
In practical terms, effective organisations tend to:
- Formalise key conversations before leave, during leave where appropriate, and before return
- Equip managers to recognise unconscious bias and lead care-aware transition discussions
- Maintain visibility of development and progression opportunities throughout leave
- Offer structured reintroduction or phased return approaches
- Encourage peer support through mentoring, returner networks, or internal communities
Returning mothers should not have to re-prove ambition simply because they have had a child. Development plans, promotion conversations, mentoring, and access to meaningful work must remain part of the return journey — by design, not by exception.
A question for every organisation
If a valued employee were returning from any other significant life transition, would you simply point them to a policy, or would you design a thoughtful, structured route back?
Maternity deserves the same level of intention. Not because mothers need special treatment, but because fair treatment sometimes requires recognising the transition someone is experiencing.
Turning insight into action
Most organisations want to support working families well. The real opportunity is turning good intentions into consistent, everyday practice.
Women should not have to choose between wellbeing, identity, and career progression when they become mothers. Employers have both the responsibility and the opportunity to make sure they do not.
Maternity is not a pause in talent. It is a transition in talent.
When organisations recognise this, they move beyond compliance and begin to build cultures where working families can genuinely thrive. That is good for women, good for families, and good for every employer that has already invested in the people it wants to keep.
References
Acas (2026) Employment Rights Act 2025. Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.
CIPD (2022) Managing and supporting employees through life transitions. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Deloitte (2022) Women @ Work: A Global Outlook. Deloitte.
Equality and Human Rights Commission and Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (2016) Pregnancy and maternity-related discrimination and disadvantage: experiences of mothers. EHRC.
Gov.uk (2025) Make Work Pay: enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant women and new mothers. Department for Business and Trade.
Gov.uk (2026) Stronger parental leave rights to give millions of working families the security they deserve. Department for Business and Trade.
McKinsey & Company (2023) Women in the Workplace. McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org.
Working Families (2024) Benchmark Report. Working Families.
About the contributor
Schnel Hanson MCIPD, MA HRM is a Chartered HR Practitioner, Corporate Wellbeing Strategist, executive coach, and PhD researcher specialising in women’s occupational wellbeing, maternity transitions, and inclusive workforce design. She supports organisations to move beyond policy and build evidence-informed workplace cultures that strengthen retention, confidence, and belonging for working parents. She is the founder of Serenity Experience and the creator of the Work Trimester framework, which reframes how organisations design and deliver support across every stage of the maternity transition.