Unlocking the Value of Parental Leave Experience

This session challenges traditional perceptions of parental leave and explores how life transitions can be powerful opportunities for growth and capability development. Leaders will discover how experiences gained through parenting can strengthen critical workplace skills including adaptability, resilience, empathy, prioritisation, decision-making and stakeholder management.

Drawing on research and real-world examples, participants will learn how to recognise and value the skills employees develop outside the workplace, support successful returns to work, and create more inclusive cultures where life experience is viewed as a source of leadership potential rather than career disruption.

This practical and thought-provoking session equips leaders with the mindset and strategies to challenge bias, unlock hidden talent and better support working parents throughout their career journey.

Key Outcomes

Reframe Parental Leave as Leadership Development
Explore how parental leave and other significant life transitions contribute to personal growth, capability development and leadership effectiveness, challenging traditional assumptions about career breaks.

Recognise the Human Skills of the Future
Understand how experiences outside the workplace can strengthen critical future-ready capabilities such as adaptability, resilience, empathy, critical thinking, decision-making and emotional regulation.

Identify and Value Transferable Skills
Learn how to recognise and articulate the valuable skills employees develop through parenting and other life experiences, and understand how these capabilities enhance workplace performance and contribution.

Support Confident and Successful Returns to Work
Discover practical strategies for helping returning parents rebuild confidence, navigate transition challenges and reconnect with their strengths, skills and professional identity.

Create More Inclusive Leadership Practices
Develop a broader understanding of how life stages, caring responsibilities and personal experiences influence employees at work, and learn how inclusive leaders create environments where people feel respected, valued and supported.

Leverage Life Experience to Strengthen Team Performance
Apply practical approaches to foster conversations about learning and growth, helping team members translate life experiences into workplace strengths that enhance collaboration, engagement and performance.

Reduce Bias and Unlock Hidden Talent
Challenge assumptions about parental leave, flexible work and career progression, and learn how recognising diverse experiences can uncover capability, increase belonging and support more equitable talent outcomes.