Creating Support for Parents and Colleagues Returning to Capital One

Anna is a creative director who joined Capital One in 2018. She develops creative assets that transform Capital One’s brand into captivating visual experiences at conferences and other events. She welcomed her daughter, Holly, in 2021. 

Anna felt prepared for maternity leave when she was pregnant. Her work was delegated, her team was excited for her, and she had 18 weeks of paid leave through Capital One’s parental benefits. She even took a week off to rest before she had her daughter, Holly. 

While she and her team were excited about her return, Anna was overwhelmed as she navigated being a working parent while catching up on everything she missed.

“I had my daughter and I was suddenly met with a new life that I couldn’t just plow through on my own,” Anna said. “I had to accept that I can’t do it all. Through this process, I learned that accepting help is not a weakness — it’s a strength.” 

So, with help from her community at Capital One, Anna created a return-to-work toolkit to help associates navigate returning to their jobs after an extended break and give their managers the tools to support them. 

Building the toolkit began with conversations between Anna and a colleague also returning from maternity leave. They both sit on a committee with empowher, Capital One’s Business Resource Group (BRG) for women, and decided that organization was the best place to start. 

They started with getting leader support from empowher and &family, the BRG for parents and caregivers. Human Resources and Associate Relations helped them build their ideas and pointed them to resources to include. Sometimes, these planning meetings would become spaces for other caregivers to share their experiences of returning to work and balancing the many facets of their lives. 

“Capital One leadership was enthusiastic about the idea,” Anna said. “I had leaders sharing vulnerable moments about hard times they overcame. It showed us that returning to work can be hard, even when you have the support of your company, coworkers, and family.”

After nearly two years of hard work, the toolkit launched on the company’s intranet in early 2023. Anna used her design and communication skills to effectively break down the toolkit into sections for associates returning to work, managers supporting associates coming back, and year-round resources, like locations of lactation rooms, an associate wellbeing hub, and family care programs.

The toolkit features tips that Anna knew would be important based on her research with associates, including blocking off additional time to catch up on new tech and messages, advice on setting up goals after an extended absence, and how managers can provide support to their associates for their first week, month and three months back.

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