Practical consultation for HR teams and managers navigating sensitive employee situations involving maternity return, menopause, divorce, changing family responsibilities, midlife or other significant transitions.
The purpose is not to diagnose the employee or solve her private life, but to help the organisation think clearly about what it can realistically influence.
Women's Talent Retention Programme
Supporting organisations to retain experienced women through significant life and career transitions.
A psychology-informed workplace programme for HR teams, managers and employees navigating maternity return, menopause, divorce, single parenthood, midlife career shifts and other significant changes that can affect working life.
What the programme is intended to support
Retention
Reduce avoidable departures during significant life and career transitions.
Manager capability
Help managers approach sensitive employee situations with greater clarity, confidence and consistency.
Employee experience
Give women access to relevant, confidential and practical support.
Performance continuity
Support sustainable performance while circumstances, priorities or practical needs are changing.
HR capacity
Give HR teams additional expertise and perspective without building another large internal programme.
Maternity return
Returning to work after having a child can involve major practical, professional and identity adjustments. UK government evidence shows that while many mothers return to their previous employer, a substantial proportion either do not return or subsequently leave.
Menopause
Menopause can intersect with some of the most experienced years of a woman's career. CIPD research found that 17% of women experiencing menopause symptoms had considered leaving work because of inadequate support, while 6% had already left.
Divorce and separation
Divorce can affect mood, concentration and work performance, although the impact varies considerably between people. Research also shows that some individuals report positive effects on their work or career, reinforcing why assumptions about an employee's experience can be unhelpful.
Why Organisational Support Matters
Organisations cannot remove the personal realities employees are navigating. What they can influence is whether workplace structures, management decisions and communication make those periods easier or harder to manage.
Research across areas such as maternity return and menopause increasingly points to the importance of appropriate flexibility, managerial support and workplace culture in women’s decisions about whether and how they remain at work.
What Do We Offer
HR & Manager Advisory
Group Learning Sessions
Tailored online sessions around the transition points most relevant to your workforce, from returning after maternity leave and working through menopause to career identity, changing family roles and sustainable performance.
1:1 Psychology-Informed Consultations
Confidential, non-clinical conversations giving participating women space to understand what is changing, clarify what matters and consider practical ways forward.
The consultations do not provide psychotherapy, psychological diagnosis or medical treatment.
Life doesn't stop at the office door
Major life transitions directly affect workforce stability, performance, and retention.
Returning from maternity leave can mean stepping back into professional expectations while still adapting to a profound change at home.
Divorce or separation may temporarily consume attention, energy and practical capacity. Single parents often navigate significant time pressure and competing responsibilities. Menopause can intersect with the years when women hold some of their greatest professional experience and leadership responsibility. And as children become independent, caring responsibilities change or priorities shift in midlife, women may begin questioning what they want from work as well as from life.
When these situations are poorly understood, temporary difficulties can become larger workplace problems: strained manager relationships, unsustainable overperformance, disengagement or an avoidable decision to leave.
HR cannot solve employees’ private lives, and should not try to. But organisations can avoid making difficult transitions unnecessarily harder.
The right response might involve a better conversation, appropriate flexibility, clearer expectations, specialist support or simply understanding what is actually happening before making assumptions about performance or commitment.
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Women at Work Program FAQs
Why focus specifically on women?
The programme focuses on transition points that uniquely or disproportionately affect women’s working lives, including maternity return and menopause, alongside other significant life changes where women may experience particular practical or social pressures. It is designed to complement, rather than replace, wider employee support.
We already have an EAP. How is this different?
An EAP provides valuable broad support. This programme has a narrower organisational focus: helping HR teams and managers respond more effectively to specific transition points while giving participating women access to practical, psychology-informed, non-clinical support.
It does not replace clinical, therapeutic, medical or occupational-health services.
Can we start with a pilot?
Yes. A pilot allows the organisation to test programme use, employee response and relevance before considering a broader roll-out. Scope and evaluation measures are agreed in advance.
How do you encourage employee participation?
Participation in individual support should be voluntary. Clear communication about confidentiality, purpose and professional boundaries is important so employees understand what the programme is, and what it isn’t.
Discuss a Pilot
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