Maternity Leave, Cover and Solutions.

[EssexRogueTrader]

I am keen for a little bit of advice on how a workplace might deal with a leading employee, such as an office manager going on maternity leave.

Our office manager is a lawyer, she does some legal tasks as well as being a personal assistant to 2 directors. She is due to give birth in April next year. At the moment she is thinking of returning to work after Christmas 2014.

We will need to replace her while she is on leave, but probably not the whole time. We get very quiet from mid June to end of August and may not need someone full time during that period.

Also as her job is often about information for the 2 directors and phoning up and making bookings etc, it might be that she can do some of the work from home whilst looking after the new baby.

Has anyone been exposed to these situations where someone comes back to work after giving birth? Did they come back full time or part time? Did they maybe work from home 2 days a week? How was the maternity cover handled?

 

[ethical PR]

The best way forward is to talk to your employee about how she might want to return to work. Part-time, home working and staggered return would all be possible Have a look at the Goverment business website it has a guide to your rights and responsibilities.

It will also depend on your own maternity policies.

Companies tend to get in temporary maternity cover.

You can't ask an employee to work while they are on maternity leave.

A VA could be an option for the tasks you describe.

 

[sjbeale]

You should consider getting in a fixed term member of staff to cover the admin work. Try to do this so there is a handover with the present job holder.

You can have a discussion with the employee about the working hours now which can be firmed up nearer her return. If she wants to work flexible hours she should put in a flexible working request nearer the time.

There are 10 keeping in touch days during the maternity leave period where she can come into the office to do some work without affecting her SMP.