Asda launches maternity mentoring scheme
Liz Hall
Asda has joined the ranks of companies like Citibank and Sky which believe supporting female staff on maternity leave through coaching and mentoring helps them retain talented women.
The supermarket giant launched its mentoring initiative for female staff on maternity leave to coincide with International Women´s day on 8 March. Asda’s Leeds head office celebrated the centenary of International Women’s Day with an event featuring high-profile female speakers including career coach Karyl Innes and individual coaching sessions.
The ‘Mum2Mum’ scheme sees each mother-to-be...
I applaud ASDA’s acknowledgment of the huge transition becoming a working mother is and the need for a support framework for maternity leavers. In my experience as a coach working in this field and as the author of “Mothers Work!” I know how appreciative maternity leavers are of this kind of support. Ultimately it pays to have women at the higher levels of a business and given the huge drop-off of female talent after maternity leave (some of whom do not return because it feels just too difficult but with support like this those beliefs can be overcome) it’s important to commit to iniatives like this to drive the pipeline of talented women towards the top. A drop in confidence and feeling out of the loop are two of the biggest issues cited by the 200 women interviewed for “Mothers Work!” and ASDA’s programme, akin to a programme my team of coaches delivers, deals with both of these. Thank you ASDA. Let more companies see you as a beacon to be followed.