It is a reality that, especially in recent years, companies around the world have found themselves in need of redesign their work styles, the format of the conferences, and discuss the need to find more flexibility and better frames of gender parity, with conditions that satisfy the mix of currently active generations. Especially if we talk about moms in the world of work.
The role of working women is especially relevant, with aspects such as leave periods in the case that they wish to be mothers, the rights that the professional role implies combined with the personal and the balance regarding salary gaps with men, among others. .
In addition to the work of the talent areas, both mentoring and professional executive coaching, which is the branch that works alongside managers of companies and organizations, can contribute to more conscious, consensual and balanced decision-making for both parties, seeking promote the well-being of people and work environments.
Oddly enough, for many companies, especially in Latin America, the fact that young women can get pregnant is often an impediment to access a job and even promotions.
At the same time, there is good news: there are hundreds of organizations that have stopped thinking of motherhood as an obstacle for a woman to access management positions, although much remains to be done. In fact, in several countries they are defining new benefits for themselves and their partners.
5 ideas for them and companies
If you are wondering how to have more evolved visions for owners, boards and managers to reflect on, here are some questions from professional executive coaching that can help:
- What can we do as a society, and companies in particular, to limit the gaps that occur?
- How to consider the different variables and find a midpoint that allows generating the appropriate conditions so as not to relegate professionally women who decide to be mothers, giving birth or adopting?
- What planning conversations do they need to have?
- How can professional coaching help companies make better decisions and think about different possibilities?
5 ideas for your company to support professional moms
Also, here are five ideas that can guide these debates in companies, thinking of a win-win for all parties involved:
1. See professional women for their worth, and not just for their role as mothers
This implies working on the opening of the mental model and the business culture where the differential of the person is privileged, over the specific fact of the time that the process of being a mother will take.
2. Equalize the opportunity gap
Possibly if a high-performing woman decides to be a mother, companies will be much more open to consider benefits, exceptions and licenses, than for another in different positions within the same company. A sense of fairness is one of the essential values that I suggest keeping in mind.
3. Climb steps of awareness of business management
Through my work as an executive coach in eighteen countries, when senior management achieves this opening, notable transformations occur, where there is room for empathy to predominate and take into account the personal and professional desires of each team member, in addition to performance. labor and achieving results.
4. Evaluate people on equal skills, and not just on their personal events
This aspect will help to eliminate certain biases that may appear in decision making; one of them is about whether or not to hire a woman of childbearing age.
A bias is an automatic path that is taken with a certain habituality, and that does not allow analyzing other options. They are very visible in cultures that have remained in time and that do not challenge their model, which perhaps should be reviewed.
So those biases can be checked, because they not only delay, but companies miss out on really notable talent, because of just one aspect of those people.
5. Define a policy for couples who work together and are going to have children
In many companies there is a situation where the members of a couple work together; Therefore, it is necessary to carry out a process of conversations with both about the opportunities to accompany both before, during and after the pregnancy.
In many countries it is already being regulated in this sense, considering the male figure within the benefits of special licenses and broader participation in the transition to becoming a father.
Finally, I share a series of practices that can be implemented if any company wants to take firm steps of conscious motherhood within the culture:
- Genuinely worry about their condition and ensure the corresponding resources for the different stages.
- Accompany the professional and mother in the best possible way.
- Contemplate flexibility in schedules and management of stressful situations.
- Contribute to their well-being in the work environment with adapted furniture, spaces for babies, privacy for breastfeeding, mobility and specific assistance if necessary, in addition to support in health and food issues, among other forms of accompaniment.
- Redesign a time schedule of tasks with a different flow than usual; for example, tasks from lower to higher demand, depending on the stage of pregnancy and maternity and the time of the leave process.
Daniel Colombo Facilitator and Executive Master Coach specialized in senior management, professionals and teams; mentor and professional communicator; international speaker; author of 31 books. LinkedIn Top Voice Latin America. ICF certified; Certified Coach and Member of the John Maxwell Team.