Supporting working parents.
Strengthening workplace wellbeing.
Even the simple daily challenges of parenting can affect how someone functions in the workplace.
A toddler who isn’t sleeping; an anxious new school starter; a teenager pushing back; parenting styles that aren’t always on the same page – all these can create the sense that one part of life is encroaching on another, and neither is functioning at its best.
North Star helps organisations support parents before family pressures become workplace problems.
With our combined forty years of professional experience, alongside the experience of raising our own families, we come at this from both perspectives. We have been the parents working tirelessly to juggle the conflicting demands of home and work; we have also, in our professional lives, been the people others come to when they are trying to do the same.
We know that when parents feel supported at work, life at home can feel easier. And when they feel better equipped to deal with the challenges of family life, they can bring more focus and energy to their working day.
That is the positive cycle we want to create.
Supporting people at home isn’t separate from supporting them at work. It is part of the same picture.
46% of working parents are concerned about their children’s mental health, with Deloitte estimating an annual £8 billion cost to UK employers through reduced performance, absence and employees leaving roles.
Deloitte UK, 2024
Scroll down to explore our workplace programmes
Going Upstream
Workplace support often becomes most visible when something has already gone wrong: absence, burnout, declining performance or an employee reaching crisis point.
We want to get there earlier.
North Star works with people while family life is functioning, giving them a better understanding of themselves and the relationships around them. It means there is more in place when life inevitably becomes difficult.
This is where the NORTH Path sits.
Notice. Own. Relate. Talk. Hold.
Not because every family has a problem to solve, but because every family benefits from understanding what helps it work well.
Because what happens at home doesn’t stay at home
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Focused sessions for working parents on the parts of family life that most often compete for attention at work.
Topics include mental load, emotional regulation, communication and adolescence.
Sessions are designed to teach something useful, challenge familiar assumptions and give participants approaches they can use at home.
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Our core programme for working parents.
NORTH is structured around five areas that influence how we function within family life:
Notice. Own. Relate. Talk. Hold.
Across the programme, participants develop a better understanding of their own responses and the family system around them. The emphasis is on learning before crisis: recognising patterns early and developing the skills that help family life work well.
NORTH can be delivered to a cohort over a series of sessions, allowing learning to be applied between sessions rather than disappearing at the end of a single workshop.
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Returning after parental leave isn't simply a return to an old job. The employee comes back with a different set of responsibilities outside work and often a very different idea of how the two parts of life need to fit together.
North Star's Return to Work programme helps employees prepare for that transition and address difficulties early, rather than waiting until the new arrangement isn't working.
It can sit alongside an organisation's existing parental leave and return-to-work provision.
Ways we can work with you
Family life is already part of workplace wellbeing.
The question is whether your organisation waits until it becomes a problem.
North Star can complement your existing wellbeing provision or provide a dedicated programme for working parents.