By Keri VanFleteren, Director of Human Resources
Parental leave is an exciting time for new parents, allowing families time to bond with their new addition and adjust to the changes that a child brings. At Karna, we understand the importance of supporting our employees during this time and have cultivated a family-friendly culture that sees work as a part of life, not as life itself. In this blog post, we have asked two employees who recently welcomed new additions to their families to share both their personal and professional tips from their experience.
Preparation for Leave
Once the happy news was official, our employees started planning, both personally and professionally. On a personal level, they opted into short-term disability benefits and started saving money to offset unpaid leave, as well as some serious nesting at home with organization projects and freezing meals for later. Professionally, our employees stressed the importance of working with their managers and teams to identify point people and develop plans for current and future projects for a smooth transition. This also included creating detailed documents outlining plans, emergency contacts, project statuses, and instructions for colleagues taking over responsibilities.
Experience During Leave
Parental leave can be a joy-filled yet overwhelming time, and we encourage new parents to enjoy this period without the pressure to return to work too soon. Expecting the unexpected (health challenges, childcare difficulties, family dynamics, financial stress) can make this time more complicated, so it’s important to get support from family, friends, and healthcare professionals. Communication with your boss and HR a week or two before returning can help in planning a smooth transition back to work.
Transition Back to Work
When the time comes to get back to work, we stress the importance of accommodations that will help with the transition. Flexible work arrangements, such as part-time and/or remote work, are essential especially because it is so difficult to get consistent childcare early on. Our new parents often take advantage of a gradual transition, with regular check-ins and a flexible workload to help manage both work and family responsibilities.
Flexibility and Accommodations
New parents actively and regularly utilize flexible work arrangements such as working from home, flex time, and designated pumping space and time to ease the transition and begin to balance the needs of their new family with work. These accommodations can significantly impact both employees and their families and are integral to our culture.
Cultural Attitudes
Karna provides a supportive, life-friendly culture for all employees, whether or not they are parents. However, new parents need special attention through active support and encouragement for proper leave and offering flexibility both before and after the new arrival.
Advice for Others
Our new parents offered some advice for other employees who are seeking to expand their families – the main one is to take as much time as you can for parental leave, whether you are a birthing parent, non-birthing parent, or adoptive parent. However, planning as soon as possible for childcare (waiting lists are long!) and proactive strategies for financial impacts can ease the stress during and after leave. It’s important to be transparent with HR and your manager about accommodations you may need before, during, and after this very significant change.
Conclusion
Karna is committed to supporting our employees during these important life events. Everyone here, from leadership to HR, encourages open communication to ensure positive parental leave experiences for our employees and their families.