5 tips when hiring to maternity covers

Last week I have had two people start in maternity cover contracts. One in our HR practise and another in our Commercial practise, in a sales related role. Whilst short term temporary roles are not common in either of my specialist areas, maternity covers, recruited via fixed term contracts are prevalent.

I am always mindful of the mixed emotions, potential stress and the opportunities that surround the recruitment of maternity cover contracts.

The imminent arrival of new little human is extra special, but understandably, parents to be can have mixed feelings around stepping aside from their roles. Furthermore, finding suitable cover for maternity covers can cause worry and stress, both for the incumbent of the role and for the employer.

At the same time, recruiting to maternity cover contracts offers great opportunity. Opportunity to reduce anxiety and worry for employee and employer, and opportunity to offer career enhancing experience to a covering individual.

So, what I have learnt to be important when recruiting into maternity covers? Here are my 5 top tips.

1)As soon as you are aware of the need, do something about it.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you start attraction activity right away, but it means that you get all your ducks lined up in a row, early doors. There is nothing worse than leaving things to the last minute, for any party concerned.

Both of my clients did this, they removed worry and were pro active. For them, this involved was briefing us as soon as they were aware that the need would be coming. This was months in advance of the hire needing to start. This enabled us to agree a timetable, get ahead on the process and build it into our talent pipeline planning. If you are not using an agency then it could mean that you sort out who will interview, when you will interview, when you will advertise and how you will advertise well in advance.

2)Plan to hire someone who will gain something from the contract, to foster commitment, loyalty and performance.

Whilst you are looking for skills to cover a need, it is also important to recognise that the person delivering to the contract should be gaining something too. Establish what the needs are and identify what gaps you could train (particularly if you have a good hand over). In my experience this is crucial, and it leads to a committed and grateful covering contractor, who’s career can benefit long term also from new experiences gained.

3)Be flexible around hand over and start dates, when you see the right person.

People have different ideas on what the right amount of hand over should be. And I hear the concerns. Too much might lead to people treading on each other’s toes. Too little and you lose knowledge transfer and miss the opportunity of a soft-landing induction. In my experience it is best to work to what the right incoming candidate needs. It is likely that the person you are hiring is skilled and in demand. You don’t want to run the risk of losing cover if you cant facilitate a good start date for them.

You are best to work backwards and secure your cover, and then plan tasks and hand overs accordingly. Is an overlap a bad thing? Often it isn’t and if finances allow, it is useful to be over resourced. It is also noticeable to me that people standing aside for a period are often in the end grateful to be handing things over to someone and winding down in the run up to their due date.

4)Involve the current incumbent in the hiring and interview process

This might seem obvious, but it is important and makes a big difference in my opinion. As the line manager, you might want to take control of hiring a maternity cover in your team, often with sentiment of removing worry and stress from the person temporarily departing. However, remember that the current incumbent understands the role uniquely and is well placed to interview for it. The familiarity the incumbent and the person covering gains through the interview process is also super valuable, to help for a smooth knowledge transfer in induction and hand over too. It is also a really nice thing to do. Lets face it, it can be hard for someone to hand over their role and it is noticeable how this reduces worry and anxiety for people going in maternity leaves. In my experience the departing individual is grateful to be involved.

5)Plan for overlap, both sides of the contract.

It is sensible to offer the covering individual some overlap either side. A hand back is often welcome both sides and I have seen some lovely instances where people hand back which helps the returning Mum, whilst they look for a new role. It is a really useful soft landing and overlap for both sides. Equally, the overlap at the front give you some insurances should Mum to be need or want to take maternity leave early. If you have a planned 6 month cover, offer 7, 9 then offer 10 and 12 months, offer 14 etc.

If you have an upcoming maternity cover in your HR or Commercial functions, get in touch I  would love to help. Outside of hiring to roles for our clients I am always happy to offer pointers, insight and my experience to help people so feel free to call and chat in any circumstance.