Parental leave is your company’s most overlooked talent retention strategy.
Founded by Dr. Amy Beacom in 2014, the Center for Parental Leave Leadership transforms parental leave from a retention risk into a leadership development opportunity through parental leave coaching, consulting, and 20 years of proof.
Most organizations have a parental leave policy. That’s not the same as having a parental leave program.
The gap between what’s written and what employees actually experience is where talent quietly disappears. It starts before leave, when parents don’t know what to expect and managers don’t know what to say. It continues during leave, when coverage is informal and connection fades. And it accelerates in the months after return when the organization has moved on, but the employee hasn’t yet found their footing.
65%
of mothers who leave their employer do so within the first year after returning to work
68%
of returning parents say their manager had the biggest impact—positive or negative—on their return experience
~1 in 2
new parents have already switched jobs for more family-friendly employment, often for less pay
Up to 2×
cost of an employee’s annual salary to replace them
When good talent leaves, they’re rarely leaving the workforce. They’re leaving for a competitor. And the reason is almost never a single thing.
- It’s unclear policy.
- It’s undertrained managers.
- It’s employees left to figure out a major career and life transition on their own.
No single fix holds if the rest of the system stays broken. That’s why we address all three.
“There are few transitions bigger than the transition from worker to parent to working-parent. When managed with empathy and clear communication, it becomes a powerful opportunity to foster deep loyalty, retain top talent, and strengthen your organization’s supportive culture.”
How we transform the parental leave experience
For your employees, your managers, and your organization.
Every solution we offer is grounded in the RETAIN Coaching™ methodology—the only evidence-based, and human-centered approach to parental leave coaching and consulting in the world.
RETAIN Coaching Hub™
The only digital platform built exclusively for everyone touched by parental leave. Parents, managers, and HR professionals get structured learning, expert coaching, peer community, and proven resources—not just to get through leave, but to grow through it.
Certification & Training
Build internal capability through the Leave Leader™ Manager Training Series, develop certified in-house RETAIN Coaches, or work with us to create a custom training program for your organization.
RETAIN Coaching™
Self-paced and self-led through the Hub, or high-touch and personal with a one-on-one certified RETAIN Parental Leave Coach. The same evidence-based methodology, the right level of support for where your employees are.
Consulting & Research
Whether you’re just getting started or ready to go deeper, we can assess the gap between your policy and practice, design systemic solutions, or partner with you to build a parental leave program that actually works.
Built on research. Proven in practice.
RETAIN Coaching™ is the evidence-based parental leave coaching methodology behind everything we do.
Built on 35+ years of research in adult development, leadership transitions, and organizational psychology, RETAIN Coaching™ guides parents, managers, and workplaces through all three phases of the parental leave transition. It’s not a checklist, nor a one-time conversation. It’s a structured, proven framework that creates consistency, equity, and excellence—for every employee,
every time.
At the heart of the methodology are the 10A Transition Touchpoints™, our proprietary framework spanning 10 critical moments that have been proven to have an oversized impact across all 3 Phases of Leave. Together, they ensure every employee moves through the timeframe with structure, support, and intention, from announcement through the adjustment period that follows their return.
Our 3 Phases of Leave Framework
Preparing for Leave
Before leave begins, employees and managers align on expectations, build transition plans, and set the conditions for a successful experience on all sides.
During Leave
While on leave, connection is maintained intentionally. Parents are supported through one of life’s biggest transitions. Teams are managed with clarity through the absence without losing momentum.
Returning From Leave
The most critical and most overlooked phase. Reentry is treated as the prolonged transition it actually is—not a single date on the calendar.
We didn’t enter an existing market. We built it.
The Center for Parental Leave Leadership (CPLL) is the first and only consulting and coaching company devoted exclusively to improving the parental leave experience for working parents and the organizations that employ them.
Dr. Amy Beacom (founder & CEO) imagined and began creating the field of parental leave coaching and consulting in 2006, during her doctoral work at Columbia University. After pilot testing her methods in Australia, she founded the Center for Parental Leave Leadership in 2014 to bring that work to organizations at scale. CPLL’s pioneering work created the vocabulary, tools, timelines, and frameworks now widely adopted across HR, DEI, and caregiver support programs worldwide. The RETAIN Coaching model provides the framework others imitate but cannot replicate.
By the numbers
The depth of research behind the RETAIN Coaching™ methodology.
80+
Countries where CPLL’s frameworks and manager trainings have been used.
27,000
Companies served through CPLL’s work and partnerships, across industries and sectors.
150+
Certified RETAIN Parental Leave Coaches across 36 states and 8 countries.
The Parental Leave Playbook
Written by Dr. Amy Beacom and Sue Campbell (published by Wiley, 2021) as the first book of its kind. It puts a RETAIN Coach in the hands of parents, managers, and HR alike for one of the most significant leadership transitions in any career.
Parental leave touches everyone. That’s why our solutions do too.
For Organizations
Build stronger parental leave policies, practices, and programs with the research, methodology, tools, and expertise only CPLL can offer.
For Managers
Lead your team through every phase of the parental leave transition with the tools, training, and coaching to do it confidently.
For Parents
Find expert coaching, structured learning, and a community that gets it, for every phase of your parental leave journey.
For Coaches
Whether working in-house or independently, get certified in the methodology behind the only evidence-based approach to parental leave coaching in the world.
Two decades at the forefront of parental leave. Here's some of what we've learned.
Research, resources, and thought leadership from the team that created the field.
Not sure where to start?
Blogs
Our thinking on all things parental leave, retention, and what it means to lead through this transition well.
Downloads
Free resources, guides, and tools for HR leaders and organizations ready to go deeper.
Podcast
Listen in on our podcast — Parental Leave, Reframed — as we share the stories and wisdom that redefine leave.
In The Media
Press coverage, interviews, and features on the work CPLL is doing to redefine how organizations approach parental leave.
What our clients say
Accounting Policy Director, Cummins
