Study reveals it takes four months for parents to adjust after parental leave

A study has revealed that it takes parents four months to readjust to the workplace after returning from parental leave. According to the poll of 1,000 working parents with children under five, 53% were anxious about missing key moments in their child’s life upon returning to work.

In fact, a staggering nine out of ten even contemplated not returning to work at all. It was highlighted in the study highlighted that 59% were apprehensive about balancing work and parenting, while 39% were uncertain about how they were going to cope with managing the tranisition.

The research was commissioned by Vodafone, which provides any employee returning from parental leave the opportunity to work 80% of their hours for full pay, benefits and holiday for the first six months back at work as part of its family-related leave policy.

Interestingly, the study disclosed that 77% of parents surveyed were unaware of policies similar to Vodafone’s, but an overwhelming 91% said they would utilise it if it was offered at their own workplace.

Michelle Kennedy is the CEO of online parenting community Peanut who is partnering with Vodafone to encourage UK businesses to reconsider their workplace policies.

Michelle said: “Parents bring immense value to the workplace, and as the study shows, essential skills don’t disappear when you have a baby; they sharpen.When you support parents properly, everyone wins families, businesses, and the economy alike.”

According to economic modelling by Development Economics over £10 billion could be injected into the economy and 440,000 parents could rejoin the workforce if these policies were more widely available.

“Returning to work after parental leave is one of the toughest transitions parents have to make,” added Michelle, “They are expected to just snap back to their job, career ambitions and the people they were before when in reality, everything has changed.

“The support to make this transition easier is still rare that’s why policies such as Vodafone’s 80/20 matter.”

A staggering 77% felt ‘burnt out’ upon their return to work, with the average working parent reaching this point after just four weeks. Four in ten 42% struggled with managing timings and logistics of things such as nursery pickups and childcare, often resulting in late working hours.

The OnePoll.com data also shed light on the ‘parent penalty’, where 45% stopped applying for new roles after having a child because what they were looking for didn’t offer the support they needed.

It’s clear that this is crucial for parents as 78% said flexible working leads to a better work-life balance, and 68% see an improvement in their mental wellbeing.

When it comes to the strengths they bring to the workplace, 43% said multi-tasking is one of the ‘parenting skills’ that is most applicable to their job. Patience (36%), problem solving (22%), and empathy (20%) also ranked among the top transferrable skills.

Nicki Lyons, chief corporate affairs & sustainability officer at Vodafone UK, stated: “Better productivity, improved time management, increased ability to multitask our study shows just some of the skills working parents bring to an organisation.

“But businesses have a responsibility to ensure the right support is in place for parents returning to work.”