Parental leave: how to get rid of the hassle?
Parental leave is one of the most powerful tools employers have in their parental support toolbox. It’s a great opportunity to be A Very Good Employer - tackling gender inequality, preventing burnout and retaining talent. But, let’s be honest: it’s also a massive hassle. When an employee tells you they’re pregnant, (out loud) you say: “Congratulations!” But what about that voice in the back of your head?
It’s not that you’re not happy for them. As a person, you’re delighted. Perhaps you’re a parent and you’re experiencing firsthand how amazing this whole thing is (and how challenging - which is why you understand the importance of being a supportive employer too). Or perhaps you know how long they’ve been trying and what a relief it must be for them to finally hear a healthy heartbeat. In any case, this is good news. For them.
But as an employer, you feel the burden. The impact of someone’s absence on the team, the distribution of the workload, the client relations, the finances. It’s a lot.
This creates an inner tension. An inner tension between being a good person, and a supportive employer versus facing absence and uncertainty in your business. And while you say “Congratulations!”, in your head you might hear “Crap!”
How do you soothe that inner voice that starts to panic when someone says ‘pregnant’, and take this inner tension away?
Positive impact
Let’s start with focusing on the positive impact you can make as an employer by offering parents the parental leave they deserve: meaning equal, fully paid leave beyond the legal bare minimum*, which is 16 weeks for the person giving birth, and 1 week for their partners.
(*our HQ is in Amsterdam and we work for Dutch clients, so we’re using the legal bare minimum in the Netherlands).
For mothers, extended fully paid leave hugely benefits their career. Recent findings (2026) from the European Parenting Leave Policies (EPLP) dataset - a longitudinal 55-year long European study analysing leave policies across 21 European countries (so yeah, pretty robust) - show that any maternity leave under 3 months leads to a higher employee turnover, more cases of postpartum depression, and a massive drop-off in workforce participation. Fully paid leave of at least 4 to 6 months shows the highest career retention rates, high rates of sticking with the same company, and strong long-term maternal health.
So it’s not just mothers who benefit: higher retention is good news for employers too. In addition, we recently came across this TEDTalk by Shu Matsuo Post who makes a big plea for paternity leave (or as we like to say: partner leave) and how it benefits both parents, and businesses.
Benefits for both parents
Matsuo Post starts with explaining the benefits for dads and partners. Men who take paternity leave (read: partners who take partner leave) experience a stronger bond with their babies. The longer the leave, the more engaged the partner is in the first few years of their child’s life.
Relationships between parents also benefit from equal parental leave, as parents are spending time together, sharing the load and bonding with their new baby - adjusting to the new rhythm together.
Paid parental leave is a boost for productivity
Benefits for business and equality
Matsuo Post continues with the benefits of good parental leave terms for businesses: “Research shows 80% of companies that offer paid parental leave report a positive impact on morale, and 70% notice a boost in productivity.”
Furthermore, it has a profound impact on gender equality in the workforce: new mothers face a 30% to 50% drop in earnings that lingers for years. In the Netherlands, we call this ‘babyboete’ - or ‘baby penalty’ - internationally known as ‘the motherhood penalty’.
To make matters worse, new fathers often experience no financial penalty or even see a wage bump. Matsuo Post mentions a Swedish study which finds that for every month of paternity leave taken by the father, the mother’s income increased by 7%. A recent study of the Dutch government (2026) supports these findings showing that dads taking parental leave contributes to career growth for women and an increase in their income.
Burnout prevention tool
So parental leave can be a boost for both parents, close the gender pay gap and increase productivity in your business. But it’s a key tool in preventing burnout too.
Research from HumanCapitalCare highlights that parenting is a significant driver of stress. Women, who still disproportionately handle the ‘mental load’ of parenting, take significantly more days off due to stress than men (31% versus 20%). In the Netherlands, stress-related absenteeism has surged, reaching a 36% increase over the last five years.
On average, absence costs a Dutch employer €340 per day per employee. And if stress leads to full burnout, the average employee will be absent for 318 days. Let’s do the maths. The average cost of burnout per employee is 318 x €340 = €108,120. The UK’s Equal Parenting Report 2026 shows that for every £1 spent on paid parental leave, the return is £10 (which is €1.16 to €11.60). Investing in extended paid leave literally pays off, with committed, productive employees over burnt out people who want to leave their job as a result.
The average cost of burnout per employee is 318 x €340 = €108,120
The retention gain
Let’s zoom in more on the other gain from good parental leave terms: employee retention. Retaining talent is a major issue companies are facing in the light of parenthood: 24% of mothers leave their job or change employers after pregnancy due to lack of support. And 66% of HR executives report employee retention as their biggest workforce challenge.
What we know from Dutch research, looking at replacement costs - such as recruitment, onboarding, and lost productivity - when someone leaves your company because of a lack of support, this adds up to 1.5 times their annual salary, and 2 times for people in senior management.
Open, inclusive cultures where parental leave is respected help companies attract and retain the best talent. Employees increasingly choose a company based on the culture. Recent European labor studies (2025-2026) show that in companies with ‘holistic’ support (health, flexibility, and output-based culture), the return-to-work rate after childbirth jumps to 94%, compared to an average of roughly 70-75% in unsupported environments.
According to the 2026 HR Trends Report for the Netherlands, enhanced parental benefits (beyond the legal minimums) and flexible work arrangements are now listed as top-tier benefits required to stay competitive. Like Matsuo Post says: “This is a space where any company can give themselves a boost.”
Business whack-a-mole
The case is clear: offering your employees good parental leave terms pays off, for both parents and your business. But that little voice in the back or your head still shouts about absence, workload distribution and client relations. Parental leave remains a hassle, and it can feel like playing business whack-a-mole because you never really know when it pops up. What can you put in place to lower the stress that it brings up?
Here’s a few things we know can help:
clear company guidelines around pregnancy, leave and the return-to-work period, including HR & management scripts
templates for handovers, bepoke for different job roles
a return-to-work, re-boarding process
What you need is tools, templates and tangible guidelines to whack all those moles in. Better yet, you need them tailored to the specific needs of your business. Looking forward to saying “Congratulations!” and 100% meaning it?
