Why maternity leave should be the best thing for your agency

In an industry that is majority-female, there must be a better way.

I've recently returned to work after having my second child (well, third, if you count my agency as my second).

Reflecting on my first maternity leave, I knew there were things to approach differently. But I hadn't appreciated that my superpowers as a mum were the thing I misjudged previously.

Hear me out. PR professionals are inherently busy people. We spin plates so well we could get a job at the circus.

I jumped head-first back into work after my first child. I did everything I could to be the old me and assure people that I was still every bit as capable – nay, more – than I was pre-motherhood. But that was the trap. Why are we measuring a returning parent against who they were before their child was born?

'Return to work' implies that the goal is for a parent to return exactly as they were. But they've fundamentally changed. Instead, what if the goal was to figure out how they've evolved, and harness that?

This time round, I've actively deployed my transferable skills from mum life. The ones I've found most useful? Patience and perspective. I've observed and reflected, rather than caving to the internal voice nagging me to feel useful by immediately drowning myself in being busy.

I've spent lots of time thinking about the bigger picture. Divided the urgent from the important. You know the sort, the jobs that should be top priority, but when urgent duty calls (she likes to live on speed dial), they slide off the list and into tomorrow. Next week. Next month…

The rest of my time I've spent with the team. Catching up individually with everyone to get their perspective. It's been invaluable to hear every viewpoint and build a clear picture of what's going on, what's good and what needs attention.

Stepping away from the day-to-day during maternity leave gives you a strategic reset that otherwise rarely happens. It is overwhelmingly valuable. Yet we seldom talk about it in that way. The focus is on what businesses lose when someone is away.

But what does an agency lose when a parent returns at 100mph, burns out and leaves? The cost isn't maternity leave. It's losing amazing talent altogether.

And that right there is my plea to employers. Rather than seeing a returning parent and thinking “Wahoo! They're back. Let me go and fill their diary left, right and rhubarb 'til Christmas 2030,” instead, give them some time to percolate.

Don't ask them to change every nappy in sight by the EOD, but do trust them to sniff out the ones that are starting to smell.

Nikki Collins is the founder of Earnies.