EXCLUSIVE: Ernst and Young has rolled out its maternity coaching webinars to employees in Austria, Belgium, France and the Netherlands.

The firm launched the webinars for its UK employees in February 2011.

The webinars cover all stages of pre, during and post-maternity, and help staff manage the transition in and out of the workplace successfully.

Sally Bucknell, director of diversity and inclusiveness at Ernst and Young, said: “One of the reasons to expand the webinars is that we have a strategic intent to increase the representation of females in the organisation.

“The maternity experience is seen as a dropping-off point. They have the same challenges in other Western European parts of our global group.”