Her life changed. Her workplace didn’t.

The Overlooked Retention Risk: Motherhood, Management and the Cost of Workplace Friction explores what happens when an employee changes through motherhood, but the workplace continues responding to the version of her who existed before that transition.

Motherhood can change how women experience ambition, capacity, identity, flexibility, trust, and success. Yet organizations often continue operating from the same expectations, assumptions, and management practices that existed before leave. The result is workplace friction that can easily be mistaken for disengagement, reduced commitment, or a performance problem.

The risk is not motherhood itself. The risk is what happens when the change is misunderstood.

Drawing on original research with working mothers, more than 15 years of leadership experience, and Jasmine Bibb’s RESET framework, this session helps HR and people leaders recognize the difference between observable change and the stories they may be writing about it. Attendees will leave with a more practical lens for manager readiness, reintegration, employee experience, and retention and a clearer understanding of how organizations can respond when the employee who returns is still becoming.

Duration: 60 minutes; adaptable to 45–75 minutes depending on program format.