The good news about maternity leave is you know in advance when you will need the cover and you will also have a good idea of how long you will require the cover for. But what should be a smooth and supportive transition can often be anything but.
So here are a few points of guidance from the Hubble team to help you in your maternity cover planning.
Prepare in advance
Time comes around quickly, the day you are notified of the maternity leave, you need to start planning and setting timescales in motion with both the business and the employee, working back from the agreed first day of leave.
Work in partnership with your employee
To ensure securing cover that can add value whilst being careful not to rock the boat of a settled and successful role, it is advisable to work with the post holder to understand what tasks the interim contract professional will need to cover, and which can be distributed among colleagues. This will give you a clear idea as to the experience, skills and proficiencies your ideal maternity cover professional should have.
Work in partnership with your Recruiter
Firstly, does your recruitment partner have a network of professionals with experience of supporting maternity cover. You will need to take into account a sensible amount of time for your recruitment partner to do what they do best and a little notice makes a huge difference to the quality of the shortlist.
Ask yourself:
Do you want the best talent available at the last minute or the best talent available in the market period?
Next, you will also need to take into consideration your interview process. Realistically this will be two interviews which may well take up another couple of weeks
In Hubble’s case, the hiring process is usually fairly swift as we can tap into our known interim talent pool to quickly supply a selection of qualified professionals experienced in hitting the ground running.
The best laid plans sometimes need changing. Are you prepared if your employee has to go on leave sooner?
Provide the foundations for a successful cover
Your interim cover will need clear instruction on the role and will need adequate time for onboarding. Ensure there’s plenty of time for training and handover. This may be a day and a document but ideally would involve a week of job share to paint the clearest possible picture. There should be time for a full handover briefing, shadowing and time to sit in on one-to-one handover meetings with other members of staff.
Treat the interim contractor as one of the team
An experienced interim contractor is more than capable of adding commercial value from day one but team and company integration is key to a successful maternity cover. Ensure the team and wider business acknowledge, interact and support your cover as if they were the post holder themselves.
With a wealth of experience supporting clients with their business-critical interim contract needs, including maternity cover, Hubble are ideally placed to answer your questions, provide you with additional information and most importantly partner you when recruiting for your next maternity cover.
To discuss further, contact our Director of Recruitment Rob Bascombe on 0208 1544532 or
robb@hubblesolutions.co.uk