Maternal challenge

Mandy Mellis

Asia Pacific HR Director, Premiere Global Services

At Premiere Global Services, we believe in supporting our employees through the important stages of their lives. Our maternity and flexible working policies have enabled a number of our female employees to take career breaks.

Families today face competing priorities and we give staff the opportunity to work from home in order to balance these needs. Companies need to take on a positive attitude when it comes to giving new mothers their maternity leave. Flexibility and openness by employers are crucial in helping new mothers remain productive and effective while also enabling them to fulfill their personal responsibilities.

Most of these employees will return to work with renewed enthusiasm and vigour after they have completed their 12 weeks’ leave. These new working mothers will also be able to contribute so much more because of the positive morale and support that their companies have provided.

Adrienne Wong

HR Manager, Chevron

In support of the Singapore government’s goal to foster work-life balance, Chevron extends government-mandated maternity leave benefits to non-Singaporean employees. New fathers are also given three days of paternity leave.

Furthermore, we look beyond the immediate childbirth period and aim to foster a pro-family work culture. Initiatives include an on-site nursing room, generous child and dependent sick leave, and family days. Many employees opt for our compressed work week scheme where they work 80 hours over a period of nine days and get the tenth day off. Parents can use this to spend more time with their children.

Over the past few years, we have seen a 100% return rate from maternity leave. In 2008, Chevron’s turnover rate was 50% lower than other oil and chemical companies in Singapore. Male and female years of service are almost equal. With females making up almost half of our workforce, part of this success is due to our efforts in anticipating and meeting their needs specifically, and especially the needs of new mothers.

Rhodora Palomar-Fresnedi

Global Vice President for Diversity, Unilever

Maternity leave costs companies a lot of money. This is why the usual discussion surrounding potential recruits or current employees of childbearing age is: “we can’t retain her after she has children”.

But if you hire with that mindset, it becomes a chicken and egg situation because you make the person feel less valuable. In turn, they are demoralised and contribute less, giving this generalisation more validity.

In my experience, those who go on maternity leave actually become more productive at work when they return, because they have less time to engage in other distractions. They become more output-oriented. Indeed, having a child is its own leadership development course! You learn about negotiation, change management and creativity. Life experience in this case is more valuable than formal training.

Company policies should allow for a smooth transition back. And there should always be policies to refer to because bosses and team members tend to forget. Everybody should be accepting of the situation.