Managing someone through parental leave is one of the most overlooked leadership challenges at work. Dr. Amy Beacom shares the conversations, coverage strategies, and return practices that make the difference.

Most parental leave policies fail in practice, not on paper. Dr. Amy Beacom shares what HR leaders need to audit, how to build a business case, and what to change first.

Aflac’s 2025 study reveals that dividing a co-worker’s workload among the remaining team leads to burnout, health declines, resentment, and a cascading cycle of new leave. Here’s what companies should do instead.

Learn the 4 pillars of parental leave that shape employee experience and retention: policy clarity, financial planning, work coverage, and return to work.

If you're an HR leader, people ops professional, or executive who wants to know where your company actually stands on being parent-friendly, here's how to find out

Curious what selfdom-spoken-about fear undercuts every investment your company makes in “family-friendly” culture?

The Future of Working Motherhood 2026 report puts powerful data behind this reality: attrition, burnout, and stalled careers are not the result of lost ambition or lack of commitment. They are the predictable outcome of systems that fail to plan for change.

Canada’s long leaves are a strength. Coverage isn’t. Here’s how to fix the approach to parental leave backfills with fractional talent that protects people and performance.

Why companies roll out a generous parental leave policy and still watch as top talent walks out the door.

Every business leader knows that moment. A top performer shares they’re expecting. You’re genuinely happy for them—but then the internal panic sets in.

There’s a difference between stepping in for someone and taking on a vacant role or freelance project. A big one.

Parental leave is one of the most impactful—and vulnerable—moments in an employee’s career. But for many managers, navigating these conversations feels uncomfortable.

Even when companies have generous policies on paper, many parents still carry a heavy, quiet guilt. Not just for being away, but for feeling like we owe something in return.

The secret to being a working parent has never been about balance. It's about juggling. And this juggling act starts right at the beginning.

Let’s talk about choice, equality, and what changes when dads take parental leave.

Returning to work after parental leave can feel like a second cliff. Most companies pour all their effort into offboarding and the transition into parental leave: the checklist, the handoff, the farewell lunch.

What about re-onboarding?

Since we work with companies across both the U.S. and Canada, we’re often asked: Are the challenges with parental leave the same in both countries?

Let’s be clear: parental leave is not a perk. It’s not a “look how generous we are” moment.

It’s business infrastructure.

This article is adapted from a 5-part series unpacking one of the most pervasive, yet rarely spoken, challenges facing working parents today — the fear of what parental leave might cost them.

For many women in leadership, there's spoken and unspoken pressure to take shorter maternity leaves, even when a company has a generous parental leave policy on paper.