Our parental leave coaching is built to support in moments where careers stall and the pay gap widens.
Grace Papers parental leave coaching works with your people before, during and after leave, and coaches their managers alongside them. That's how you hold on to talent at the moment you're most likely to lose it, protect your leadership pipeline, and show measurable progress against your WGEA targets.
Trusted by top-tier brands to empower their people and build an employer of choice culture
the full arc
Support at every phase, not only the return Parental leave is a sequence of transitions, each with its own pressures, and each a point where confidence, visibility and career direction can quietly erode. We coach people through all of it.
Pre-parental leave
Pregnancy & handover
Plan leave as a career move.
Brief managers, protect visibility, and plan sponsorship conversations before stepping away, so the parental leave begins from a position of clarity, not uncertainty.
On parental leave
Leave & keeping in touch
Stay anchored to what matters.
Navigate the identity shifts of leave and decide what staying connected actually looks like, on terms that work for this chapter, without pressure.
Return to work
Return & flexible work
Design a return that holds.
Set boundaries that protect what was agreed, re-enter with intention rather than reaction, and treat flexibility as a career-continuity tool, not an exception.
the system part
We coach the manager, because that's where the experience is really decided
Coaching the individual builds agency. Coaching their manager changes the system they return to. That combination is what turns leave into a leadership move.
What manager coaching does
Surfaces their own assumptions, including well-intentioned benevolent bias
Builds sponsorship literacy and awareness of their leadership shadow
Equips them to lead the career conversations that keep talent progressing
The impact compounds when both are coached: your person returns to a manager already framing their trajectory the same way they are.
our empowerment model
Beyond parental leave support. Agency that lasts long after the program ends.
Grace Papers parental leave coaching runs on the Grace Way, our empowerment model: Anchoring Clarity, then Finding Direction, then Enabling Agency. Your people come back with the confidence to act on their ambition and the agency to navigate the system they're part of. Your managers get a safe space to confront their own assumptions about care and career, and leave equipped to retain, develop and sponsor the talent you've invested in.
Every participant builds a Professional Vision, a career compass grounded in their values, talents and abilities. People use it in 1:1s, flexibility negotiations, pay conversations and promotion cases well beyond leave.
Ambition is already there. What coaching restores is the belief that they can act on it, and the capability to do so.
Our Parental Leave transition coaching program ensures that your organisation accelerates gender equality outcomes, benefiting stakeholders and doing right by your people.
The experience your people rate highly is the same experience that changes what they do next.
90% More confident in a conversation with their manager
70% Gained more clarity and control
4 in 5 Report real-world impact from the experience
NPS 90 Coaching experience satisfaction
Results from post experience check-ins and research conducted on participants
"
It gave me the courage to request part-time work, something that isn’t very common for men in our organisation. I probably wouldn’t have done that if I hadn’t gone through those coaching sessions.
Senior Manager · Retail
"
My line manager asked where I was going and I pulled up my Professional Vision. I don’t read it every day, but it helps me have those conversations.
Participant · Utilities
We're not just providing assistance, we're cultivating a culture of care and support
“By proactively offering Grace Papers’ parental leave support and seamlessly opting team members in, we’re not just providing assistance – we’re cultivating a culture of care and support. This preventative approach not only empowers our team members to navigate parental leave with confidence but also equips their line managers with the resources they need to offer meaningful support. Together, we’re fostering an environment where every team member can thrive, both personally and professionally.”
Naomi Ezeigwe, Inclusion and Belonging Partner – Woolworths Group
Awards and Partners
Empower your employees to balance career, care and ambition
And give your managers the capability to lead it. Book a discovery call and we'll map your priorities with a gender-equality specialist.
