This week, Rebecca Thompson, local Recruitment Manager, has kindly put together this brilliant blog outlining how she prepared for maternity leave!

“When I was in my early pregnancy and getting close to informing my employer that I was pregnant, my main thought was “how on earth do I prepare for going on maternity leave and taking a considerable amount of time out of the workplace?”.

Before we dive into that, a little about me! My name is Rebecca Thompson and I am a Recruitment Manager within a public sector organisation, where I have been for 3 and a half years, before that, I have worked within HR and Recruitment roles for over 10 years. I consider myself very lucky in two senses – I absolutely love my job, and I’m so lucky to work for such a flexible organisation with lots of family friendly policies and benefits, and therefore will have around 10 months off on maternity leave. I write this blog as my 3-month-old daughter, Olivia, is napping and I’m reflecting back on how I prepared to take my biggest break from my career to date!

It can feel like a daunting prospect, where do you begin to prepare for maternity leave, whilst also preparing for a huge life change?! The first thing to do would be to discuss with your line manager, check in with your HR team and check your procedures/policies – many employers won’t kickstart any formal processes until your MATB1 form (provided by your midwife) has been handed in – however it’s really useful to start thinking about planning for your maternity leave before this point! One big consideration for me was the replacement of my role while I was gone – my role is a management level position with a lot of responsibility so it was SO key that 1) we got the right person in and 2) I left the post in the best possible position.

The key for me was controlling the controllable – leaving my role in a great position. I ensured my team were kept up to date on progress, created handovers and working instructions and created shared areas to store these – essentially creating a bible for my role! It was so key for me to communicate with my stakeholders too; letting them know I was going and who to contact in my absence – and making those all important introductions so they knew they were in safe hands!

A few other things to consider before you pop that out of office on:

• Make a plan for your return – it may seem a long way off, but it ensures your employer knows your plans ahead of time and can prepare, and gives you the reassurance that you’ve already got some form of a plan in place to help make your return feel less daunting
• Double check your company policies and procedures – you don’t want to miss anything that you should have done before you go!
• Save/print any documentation you need – e.g., payslips, letters for your records, family policies to refer back on etc.
• Book some keeping in touch days – these are optional, but making use of them allows you to keep updated on the organisation, check in with your team and slowly start to re-introduce yourself to the world of work
• If you have colleagues who are friends, absolutely keep in touch! I’m so lucky that I have close friendships with some of my colleagues and it’s so lovely to stay in touch (and a good informal way of getting updates!)
• Make sure all of your details are up to date on the systems (think contact details, bank details etc.)
• Update your LinkedIn profile – it’s much easier to ensure your role and responsibilities are up to date when it’s fresh in your mind!

Taking a break from your career to start a family is such a huge and rewarding step, and it’s so important to break it down to make it manageable, but ultimately you have to do what’s right and what’s important for you.

If you do have any questions and want to talk it through with someone who has recently been through it – please do feel free to reach out or get in touch with the fantastic Thompson & Terry Recruitment team!”