Highflying companies are offering a new, and surprising, benefit in their efforts to secure, support and retain staff – coaching designed to turn employees into better parents.

It wasn’t so long ago that men and women were expected to leave family life at home and not let domestic pressures affect office performance. But employers are starting to realise that problems at home can lead to disruption at work.

As a result, coaches like Lorraine Thomas, chief executive of the London-based Parent Coaching Academy, are finding their services increasingly in demand.

For clients such as Morgan Stanley, Freshfields, HSBC and Barclays she has developed seminars entitled How to Succeed as a Working Parent, Effective Alternatives to Shouting and Feel Great Not Guilty About Being a Working Mum.

“Working with companies is definitely a growth area and a very exciting one,” said Thomas. “There is more and more interest from companies that want to support their staff. It’s a sign of the times.

“Even five or six years ago you would not have imagined a time when companies would structure workshops throughout their year to support parents. We are definitely heading in the right direction.”

Thomas, who has three children, originally trained as a life coach and chose to specialise in parent coaching.

“Working with companies wasn’t something that I had ever considered. I thought I would be coaching parents on a one-to-one basis. But businesses started to come to me through my website. Most interest came from the financial and legal sector – they tend to be well ahead of the game in terms of supporting staff.”

Three years ago Morgan Stanley launched its Parent’s Network – a forum where employees responsible for children can support each other by sharing experience and ideas. The company approached Thomas last year and she has now delivered four lunchtime workshops and developed an interactive online package that the company is reviewing.

Sarah Cooper is a vice-president responsible for operational management at Morgan Stanley, where she has worked for 13 years. “When a company employs someone it takes on the whole person,” she said. “It can’t leave behind the fact that people have children. Employers need to be flexible.

“We are often too busy to talk about home life at the office and the workshops are very effective because they allow us to do this,” said Cooper, who has two children and commutes from East Sussex.

“As a single working mother I would not look at other firms that did not offer the level of support I get at Morgan Stanley. I would not be able to do my job as efficiently without it.”

Tim Mungeam, founder of Dads Unlimited, a London firm that delivers workshops and coaching to employers seeking to support their workforce fathers, believes this is a growth area. He has worked with companies such as HSBC and UBS.

“There comes a point when whether you are earning £90,000 or £100,000 becomes irrelevant if you don’t ever get to see your children. It’s a balancing act and you can see that people go for certain employers because they invest in these sorts of initiative.

“And it’s not just an altruistic gesture to your workforce – there is a real benefit to the bottom line. It increases staff loyalty and reduces absenteeism.”

He argues that the old model of separating work and family is no longer tenable and more companies are acknowledging this.

“If you are a new dad and your baby has been keeping you up all night there is no way you can be fresh when you get to work. We would suggest that, rather than an employer telling you to just get on with it, they could offer an hour in a working day to look at strategies for sleep. It is time well spent.”

Judy Reith, the founder of Parenting People, based in Cambridge, agrees. “Increasingly, human-resources departments are seeing the benefits of buying in parent coaching for busy executives and staff. It’s better than a gym membership.”

Firms in the financial and legal sector may be leading the way, but will parent coaching become an integral part of Britain’s business culture?

The results of a government-backed workplace-parenting survey are due next month – and if they are positive, such programmes could be rolled out on a much bigger scale. Business in the Community, an organisation that supports responsible business, is leading a pilot scheme, launched in June.

Clare Southwell is community impact manager for Business in the Community. She said: “With a large number of employees in each business being parents, their issues and wellbeing cannot be ignored. Many would welcome support in dealing with stress, anxiety, loss of confidence and productivity that can happen when trying to juggle work and home life.

“We are working with a targeted group of businesses, about 50 across Britain, but the interest in this has already gone far beyond our expectations.” Southwell underlines the importance of a fact and evidence-based approach to both this survey and to pilot parenting programmes.

“Companies need to see hard facts. Some big businesses are pioneers in this area and that’s fantastic. But to make parent support in the workplace an integral part of all business needs facts,” she said.

“The results [of the survey and the pilot scheme] will hopefully show that companies cannot afford to ignore the needs of their parents and that the benefits to the business will speak for themselves.”

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