Dive Brief:
- Employers often offer their employees coaching, but some are opening coaching programs specifically aimed at "overwhelmed" new parents, the New York Times reports.
- Specifically, those employers are offering new parent coaching in person, over the phone or through small group session webcasts to mothers and in some cases, new fathers as well in order to help them find their way back to the workplace.
- The trend does not come completely out of altruism, as employers also have a twofold goal: raising retention by relieving stress and "eventually improving gender diversity among their senior employees."
Dive Insight:
For the most part, these new parent coaching benefits are found among employers who have a very tough talent battle and also expect long work days from their people. For example, large accounting firms such as Ernst & Young, KPMG and Grant Thornton are offering new parent coaching. Other firms as different as MetLife, Deutsche Bank, Etsy, Proskauer Rose, and Kohl’s have some form of new parent coaching either in place or about to launch, the Times reports.
This trend is not a one-size-fits-all solution, as each employer seems to be deploying a different flavor of new parent coaching – both in style and delivery parameters.
Benefits from perks like new parent coaching included reduced turnover costs, less absenteeism and fewer health expenses as well as workplace safety issues, even among employees working in offices, she said.