My lockdown thanks to go Antonio Brunerio, the so-called inventor of the breadstick. Without doubt breadsticks got me (and our son Jack) through the first lockdown and now, as nursery shuts due to Covid, and I embrace back-to-back WebEx meetings with a 19 month old, once again a breadstick becomes my go to tool to get us both through the working day. One things for sure, like many up and down the country, juggling work and childcare is certainly not easy.
Working at a company with a good family leave policy and culture, I knew I was in safe hands when taking time off to have Jack, and I felt supported by my colleagues across the business. However, when I returned to my day job from my maternity leave in the midst of the first lockdown, it felt like a very different business.
The more returners I spoke to, the more I could see some common themes were emerging; around people manager uncertainty on what to do before family leave starts, inconsistent communication during leave and IT frustrations when returning to work. Though supportive measures were in place, I knew we could do better - especially because returning virtually while juggling childcare is an art in itself.
Thankfully, Virgin Media’s inclusive culture enabled me to reach out and share my experience to help create meaningful change for other returners. With the business’ support behind me, I brought together some like-minded, action-oriented, recent returners to form a small group (or squad as we like to call it), whose mission was to improve our family returner experience for the better. It’s a project that launched this week, has been designed with equity in mind, demonstrates team play in action and brings to life our core purpose - building connections that really matter.
Here’s the actions we’ve taken:
We’ve created an infographic timeline to better explain the in-work journey someone goes on ahead of, during and after, family leave. The aim is to put all the relevant policies and links into one place, acting as a visual reminder of what to do and when.
We’ve built an interactive tool for line managers and returners to reconnect with each other, enabling better and consistent discussions. Evidence shows that the first 12 weeks are vital in helping to retain someone following a long absence.
We’ve pulled together a welcome back hamper for all family returners designed to build a connection that really matters from day one, letting our people know they’ve been missed, and are appreciated.
We’ve launched a new podcast created by returners for returners to help bring people up to speed on what’s been going on at Virgin Media. It’s a great way to catch-up on everything that you may missed while you’ve been off.
None of this is rocket science but based on the feedback so far this week, I am confident these companywide changes will improve our employee engagement and sense of belonging, and support our line managers, too.
I have loved working in partnership with other people from across the business that I wouldn’t have ordinarily worked with; we’ve formed what feels like a small coalition to make our part of the world a little better.
I have once again been reminded of the importance of galvanising networks to bring people together to co-create and deliver solutions and ideas that can have a lasting and positive impact.