Ann Paul, Organisation Development Director at News UK, looks at how we retain talent and encourage flexibility in the way we work

I’ve always believed that the successful organisations of the future will be the ones that embrace flexibility and measure the value of their people in terms of outputs, rather than the amount of time spent in the office.

I recently signed News UK up to a project launched by a new organisation called She’s Back. They are spearheading a leading piece of research to understand what factors prevent women from returning to work after a career break, often following maternity leave. Most of us will know at least one or two women who had successful careers before taking a break to have a family and who now don’t know how to get back to work because there are no clear paths for ‘career-break returners’.

All organisations claim that they ‘live or die’ by their talent. For a company like News UK, which directly publishes and sells the thoughts and opinions of its people, it is all the more important. Ensuring that we have a diverse and representative workforce that is in tune with, and challenges, the minds of our readers and customers is crucial for our on-going growth and success.

But to allow this to happen, it is essential that all talent can flourish and we already have some productive and positive measures to ensure that it does.
We offer generous maternity packages, enabling women to take the time off that they require before returning to work, and we take our responsibilities to explore flexible work arrangements for parents seriously. But there is more that can be done.

Working with She’s Back has enabled us to better understand what we should be doing to retain our talented women who have a career break. Hundreds of women from News UK and other businesses have attended special workshops to look at ways of addressing the challenges of returning to work, and over 1,000 women have shared their views by completing an online survey [http://www.shesback.co.uk/new-page-1/].

The results of the survey will be shared on 30 April 2015 at a She’s Back event we are hosting in The News Building. This research will play a key role in shaping our own plans to ensure our talented women can return to work, contribute to our organisation and still raise their families.

Then, over time, I hope that this conversation leads to discussions around broader career breaks for everyone, not just for mothers.