Professional services organisation KPMG uses internal employee coaches to deliver face-to-face group or one-to-one coaching sessions for new parents as part of its Empowering Parents programme.
KPMG launched its Empowering Parents programme for its 15,000 UK-based employees, in July 2017 to help support staff with all stages of their parental journey. As part of the programme, employees can choose to have one-to-one coaching, team coaching, fathers only coaching or group coaching sessions that are led either by KMPG’s in-house, full-time, professionally accredited coaches, or by one of the organisation’s associate coaches. Associate coaches are employees within the business who have undergone an employer-paid coaching supervision programme, which enables them to deliver coaching sessions for their colleagues alongside their usual day job. Associate coaches spend approximately two days a month performing their coaching responsibilities.
The Empowering Parents programme also encompasses KPMG’s parents network, which is run by employees who are parents and supported by two of the organisation’s partners. The parents network feeds into an organisation-wide portal that allows employees to easily access information about the network as well as advice on returning to work after a career break.
Through the e-portal, employees can access case study videos where colleagues share their examples of parenthood and working at KPMG. It also includes a section dedicated to manager support to ensure line managers have access to specific guidance on how to help employees prepare for leave, how they can support staff who are on leave, and how they can help new parents prepare for returning to work.
The Empowering Parents programme was initially launched to 47 employees via an on-site, face-to-face presentation led by six partners and directors. This was followed by lunch, employee case studies and group activities. The organisation is now looking at communicating the programme to its entire UK workforce.
KPMG created its Empowering Parents programme after feedback from its annual global people survey last year found that employees wanted to better understand how they could combine parenthood and work. With this in mind, the programme also supports parents around when their child starts school or becomes a teenager.
Anna Purchas, partner, head of learning at KPMG, said: “A lot of our focus has been on supporting people at transition points because we recognise when [employees are] going through a life-changing event, [they] need extra support to see [their] way and make a success of the next phase of [their] career at KPMG. We see [parenthood] as an important transition point where we want to wrap people in care.”
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