Setting Coaching Up for Success: A Guide for HR Leaders Supporting Working Parents
Coaching can be one of the most valuable forms of professional support you offer your people. For working parents in particular, it’s more than a one-off development tool – it’s a space that can create long-term, sustainable change. It enables parents to pause, reflect, and rebuild confidence during one of the most demanding and transformative times in their lives.
As an HR or People Leader, you play a vital role in making this support meaningful. We know that when coaching is introduced with clarity and care, and backed by a culture that truly values it, it can have a lasting impact on both individual wellbeing and organisational engagement.
At Parent & Professional, we’ve had the privilege of working with hundreds of organisations who want to do more to support working parents, not just at the point of parental leave, but throughout the ups and downs of modern working life.
Whether you’re introducing coaching to support returners, helping working parents in senior roles feel more balanced and confident, or simply offering a space to pause and reset, this guide is designed to help you unlock the full potential of coaching in your workplace.
Here’s how to support your working parents so they can get real value from their coaching experience.
1. Position Coaching as a Development Opportunity—Not a ‘Fix’
How coaching is introduced matters. It’s important that it doesn’t feel like a response to a problem, but rather a recognition of both ongoing support, as well as potential. Coaching should be framed as a meaningful opportunity for development, confidence-building, and reflection, especially during times of change.
Working parents are often managing big shifts – stepping into new roles, returning from leave, or simply trying to navigate life with a little more ease. Coaching gives them space to pause, refocus, and build momentum.
💡 Tip: When launching a coaching programme, make sure your internal messaging highlights it as a proactive, future-focused resource that supports both personal wellbeing and professional growth. When an organisation signs up for a coaching programme with P&P, we take care of the groundwork. All working parents receive clear, engaging pre-sign-up information outlining the benefits of coaching, what to expect, and how it can support them at every stage of their working parent journey. This helps drive engagement, boost uptake, and ensure the offer lands as it’s intended: a meaningful investment in your people.
2. Encourage Parents to Come With an Open Mind
It’s completely normal for expectant or current working parents to feel unsure what to expect from their first coaching session, especially when their minds are full and time is limited. Pre-reading and positioning about what coaching is (and what it isn’t) can help people feel prepared and comfortable.
Encourage them to come with something that feels current or meaningful to explore, whether it’s returning with confidence after leave, making space for career development, or finding ways to feel more balanced. There’s no ‘right’ topic; coaching is a space to think aloud, with support.
➡️ You can share our coachee case studies as real-life examples of what others have experienced during coaching—this can help spark ideas and ease nerves:
- How 1:1 coaching helped me adapt to parenthood
- How 1:1 coaching helped me balance fatherhood and my career
- How carers coaching helped me balance work and family
3. Promote a Culture Where It’s OK to Be Honest
Working parents often feel pressure to show they’re coping, and that can make it harder to speak openly. But coaching only works when people feel safe enough to say what’s really going on.
As HR or People Leaders, you can help by making it clear that coaching is confidential, non-judgemental, and there to support, not assess. Reassure employees that they don’t need to have answers, just a willingness to reflect.
A great way to embed this kind of openness more widely is to create a peer-led space for sharing and connection. Setting up a Parents and Carers Network helps normalise the everyday experiences of working parenthood, and gives people permission to speak up, support one another, and feel seen.
👉 Here’s our practical guide to setting up a Parents and Carers Network in your organisation—perfect if you’re just getting started or looking to refresh an existing group.
4. Involve Line Managers—And Offer Them Coaching Too
Managers play a key role in how well coaching support lands. When they understand the purpose of coaching and speak positively about it, it sends a strong signal that taking time for personal development is supported, not judged.
Involving managers early on, briefing them on what coaching is (and isn’t) and encouraging them to protect the time in their team’s diaries, can make a big difference. Even better, consider offering coaching to managers themselves, especially if they’re supporting team members returning from parental leave or navigating the demands of working parenthood.
Coaching for managers creates a shared language of empathy, growth and support. It also helps them role model what it looks like to pause, reflect and lead with greater awareness.
💡 Tip: A short manager guide or briefing session can go a long way in helping line managers feel confident and supportive when their team members take up coaching.
5. Help Create Time and Headspace
Working parents are often operating at full capacity, mentally, emotionally and logistically. One of the biggest challenges to getting the most out of coaching isn’t motivation, it’s time.
As HR leaders, you can help by encouraging a culture that protects coaching time. That might mean asking line managers to avoid scheduling over coaching sessions, allowing for prep and reflection time, or reassuring parents that it’s okay to prioritise themselves for that hour.
It’s also helpful to equip working parents with the right tools and encouragement to make the most of their coaching experience. We’ve created a short supportive resource to share alongside your coaching offer:
📘 Download: Making the Most Out of Your Coaching Session – A simple, reassuring guide for working parents to help them prepare for sessions, reflect between meetings, and build momentum over time.
Ready to Support Your Working Parents Through Coaching?
When coaching is introduced with care, clarity, and intention, it can have a lasting impact, not just on individual confidence and wellbeing, but on your wider culture too. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to refresh your approach, we’re here to help you every step of the way. Download our free 5-Step Guide to Setting Up Parental Transition Coaching – it’s packed with practical tips to help you plan, launch and embed a coaching offer that truly supports your working parents.
Want to explore what this could look like in your organisation? Contact us here – we’d love to hear from you.