Because how someone experiences maternity / parental leave can shape the rest of their career.
Supporting organisations to turn parental leave into one of the most meaningful opportunities for personal growth, professional development and talent retention.
Welcome to Talent On Leave
Organisations spend years developing talent. Then one of the biggest transitions in someone's career arrives. And it gets reduced to paperwork, policies and maybe a platform.
That’s a huge missed opportunity.
People don't lose confidence because they become parents. They lose it when uncertainty and challenge changes how they see and experience themselves and others.
Managers don't avoid conversations because they don't care. They avoid them because nobody has shown them another way.
HR doesn't stumble because policies aren't good enough. It’s just that policy alone can't support an identity transition.
That's where we come in.
From surviving change to growing through it
Imagine if …
Employees didn't spend leave worrying whether they still belonged.
Managers saw parental leave as leadership, not administration.
Returners came back clearer rather than cautiously.
Parents stopped proving themselves...
...and started leading themselves.
How we work
When we think differently, we experience differently. Here’s the difference that clients tell us our positive approach and experience have been making in their businesses:
Parental leave becoming an opportunity to reset and something people feel more able to talk about openly and plan for well
Individuals discovering things about themselves that help them work even more effectively than they felt they did pre-leave.
Managers feeling less pressure to be the expert, and more confident asking good questions
Individuals asking thoughtful questions that shape their leave and return in a more intentional way
Fewer people quietly ruling themselves out of progression because it all feels like too much
Working parents feeling more able to speak up, share honestly, and influence what happens next
Individuals discovering things about themselves that help them work even more effectively than they felt they did pre-leave.
Better handovers and team dynamics at off-boarding and re-boarding
Our philosophy
Talent On Leave doesn’t just coach from the sidelines or offer one size fits all services. Companies, people and leave experiences are all too nuanced for that.
We partner closely with organisations as an embedded extension of their people, talent and leadership teams or employee networks, joining the dots between individual experience and organisational reality.
That means it’s not just supporting talent before, during and beyond leave with price per person packs, but providing flexible, tailored ideas and services that also feed insight back into the business.
And the means to achieve it
Clients often tell us they choose us over larger providers because of how we work: collaborative, flexible, and grounded in their reality.
Whether we’re delivering group or 1:1 coaching, Keeping In Touch (KIT) events, internal comms support, panel conversations or feedback sessions, it’s the pragmatic and energising approach that’s often commented on.
We take huge delight in helping to make what can feel like a complex space, simpler and more empowering without minimising all of the hugely varied and truly felt experiences of every individual.
Are we right for you?
If you’re looking for a quick fix, a platform solution, or a one-size-fits-all, we’re probably not.
We’re often described as a fractional lead for parental leave experiences, someone who can step in, join the dots, and help things move forward with clarity and care.
And while the kind of support we offer can sound like it comes at a premium, we’ve chosen to stay intentionally boutique so we can offer a high level of service, without unnecessary complexity.
Much of our work has grown through word of mouth, particularly within the Scottish business community, where what works tends to be shared. The local context certainly helps with in-person events and meetings but we’re not limited by our geography, supporting clients with offices and talent across the world.
Notes from the field
