• Spend a good amount of time celebrating.
• Ask about plans to share with others (or not) and be sure to respect privacy and wishes.
• Offer to connect them with HR to discuss leave options.
• Avoid going into further details unless prompted by the employee. The most important tone that you set is that you’re excited and here to support them.

• Review employee’s workload to plan for time away.
• Assure that you will work with them to make sure it’s a smooth transition. Send and keep sending the signal that the employee is 100% valued and supported.
• Take care to never make the leave feel like a burden to the team.
• This may be a great time to arrange a shower or group gift to show of support, but be sure to tailor this to the employee and what they’re comfortable with.

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• Develop a transitional plan to figure out who exactly will take over the most essential work/projects and assist the employee in notifying others of these changes.
• Assign someone(s) to be the point of contact in out-of-office emails while the employee is out.
• Determine how the employee would like to stay in touch while on leave.
• During the weeks before the leave, begin to work on off-ramping them and make sure no major new projects are undertaken. Ensure that the week prior to the leave commencing focuses solely on handing over tasks for a smooth transition offline.

• How exciting!
• Have you thought about when you’d like to share this news with others?
• Let me know when you’d like to pull HR into the discussion to better understand your leave options; Company offers a paid Parental Leave policy for employees with one year of service and there may also be Federal, State and Disability benefits.
• Is there anything I can do to best support you?

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• Let’s discuss your workload: what tasks can be covered by others and what tasks are you concerned about transitioning?
• Is there any work that can not be absorbed by others? Do you have any ideas for how to handle these?
• Let’s start talking about your leave length, but let’s not decide anything yet.
• How would you prefer to be celebrated? (e.g. shower)
• What support do you need from me?

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• Let’s discuss the specific dates of your leave so we can plan appropriately.
• How are you feeling about your readiness for leave?
• How would you like me to keep in touch while you’re on leave? How often and by what means (phone/email)?
• How will you notify me when the child arrives? Are you ok with me sharing the news with others? If so, how?

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This step includes the employee filling out a Leave Request Form, due no later than 30 days from the planned date of leave.

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• Honor the cadence and method of connection that you outlined prior to the employee going on leave.
• Don’t expect a response.
• When you do connect, focus the conversation on them and their family, not on work.
• Reassure: They are valued. Their time away doesn’t change that and they can/should take the time they truly need.
• Respect the employee’s family time by letting them disconnect and not starting any on-ramping until the official return date.

• While the employee is away, try to record important meetings and keep a log of vital happenings to share as part of their “Welcome Back”. Coming back can be a scary time where the employee may feel out of the loop, so help to make it easier and less overwhelming.
• Identify any new training and tasks that the employee may need to be ‘re-onboarded’ into.
• Discuss transition of these tasks and activities with the team, as appropriate.
• Confirm IT or other system access is ready for first day back.

• How are you doing?
• Is there anything I can do to support you?
• Does our prior plan for keeping in touch still work for you?

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[Team Discussion]

• Have any processes/procedures shifted while [employee] was out?
• What documents would be helpful to share upon return?
• What can we do to reconnect as a team and welcome [employee] back?
• How is workload, what tasks should be prioritized for handoff first and what can phase later?

• Ask about the baby and family often!
• Share your log of company/team happenings and recorded meetings.
• Reassure and discuss expectations for slowly ramping back as they get up to speed.
• During this time, very regular check-ins (i.e. 1–3 times a week, daily by Slack) are vital to make sure the work is at the right level (stimulating but not overwhelming).
• Handing back tasks should happen gradually, where possible, but make sure this is their preference, not yours. Create a plan that allows for flexibility.

• This conversation is best timed for after 3+ months from an employees return from leave.
• Check-in on career goals and aspirations as you normally would throughout the year.
• If aspirations have shifted, or are unclear, reassure that this is normal and ok.
• Provide support and guidance as you normally would, based on what the employee’s ambition is at this time.
• Check back in with regularity to see what the employee is learning, if their goals have changed and how you can best support.

• Do you have any questions on the changes that occurred while you were gone?
• We’ll start by handing back the most important tasks, [share details]. We were thinking these other tasks can be handed over in a few weeks, does that work for you?
• How is the baby doing? Family?
• What has been the best/most challenging part of returning to work so far?
• How I can I best support you?

• What are your short- and long-term career aspirations?
• How can I best support you?

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