The future of parental leave strategy starts with better business planning

Jenna Vassallo

Jan 15, 2026

Tiffany Stevenson, Chief People Officer at The RealReal, has spent her career leading people strategy at scale and pushing companies to think more critically about how they manage risk and retain talent.

When she joined Parentaly’s CHRO Advisory Board, she had a clear point of view: companies that don’t plan for parental leave are exposing themselves to real business risk - from lost productivity to talent attrition to missed goals.

She believes the companies that will thrive are the ones that treat leave like any other form of business continuity. And to make that happen, organizations need to fundamentally rethink how they approach parental leave.

We recently spoke with Tiffany about the future of parental leave and how companies can better plan for these transitions. Here are three takeaways from our conversation:

Episode 44

The False Tradeoff

Tiffany Stevenson on fixing the most overlooked business continuity risk

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‍1. Parental leave is a business continuity issue

Tiffany’s message is direct: parental leave should be treated like any other business continuity risk.

“If we really want to engage and retain a high performing workforce, companies have to treat leave and reentry as like a strategic business process and not just a benefit and not a disruption.”

She notes that companies routinely plan for disruption in areas like tech, operations and infrastructure - but fail to apply that same discipline to talent:

“We think about it from a tech stack perspective. We think about it from unplanned disasters. But I don't think that we spend enough time thinking about the impact of talent beyond succession planning.”

When leave planning falls short, performance suffers. Teams miss deadlines. Knowledge walks out the door. Resentment builds. And sometimes people quit.

“It’s not just for that individual who might potentially not return back, but it’s also the team around them.”

2. Finance and HR need to co-own the strategy

Parental leave planning often defaults to HR, but Tiffany argues it should be a shared responsibility across people and finance.

“The CFO plays a critical role in understanding where the expense lines fall and making sure that every dollar investment that we're putting into the business is yielding the outcomes that we expect.”

She urges leaders to bring finance in earlier - not just to approve budgets, but to assess the full cost of mismanaging leave.

“Backfilling talent who don't return sometimes shifts your payroll costs in ways that become untenable. Or if you're thinking about temporary backfills, it’s like the cost of doing that is something that becomes an additional expense.”

Retention, coverage, ramp time - these factors all impact ROI. Tiffany sees the opportunity for CFOs and CHROs to collaborate more strategically.

3. ERGs reveal what your data won’t

Tiffany believes ERGs play a critical role at an organization, and sees them as a powerful (and often overlooked) tool for shaping better parental leave strategies.

While employee surveys offer limited insights, ERGs surface real patterns - and help HR teams move from isolated complaints to meaningful trends.

“There’s strength in numbers… in aggregation, it’s like, no, this is definitely a trend.”

She emphasizes that ERGs can flag gaps, reinforce what’s working and create space for voices that might otherwise go unheard.

“They provide a wonderful sounding board… what’s working, where there are potential concerns, and what feels missed in that transition process.”

To celebrate all we’ve accomplished, our team shared what they’re most proud of since joining the team:

I'm most proud of how much we have done to improve the single hardest moment for women's careers (going on parental leave) ... one that is often shrouded in insecurity and fear. We've been able to help advocate for so many women (and men!) in a way that is empowering and truly life-changing.

Allison Whalen, CEO & Founder

What am I most proud of? Growth! Growing a category of support that didn't exist before Parentaly. Growing from a one-woman bootstrapped operation to a global team of 25+ employees and coaches. Growing our overall impact for working parents, with companies investing in our parental leave programming to support employees all over the world. And growing as humans: new babies, new friends, new life experiences... all while tackling new and exciting work challenges together.

Rich Burke, Head of Growth

When I reflect on what I am personally most proud of during my time here, it's working alongside a team where we constantly evolve and optimize everything that we do in order to deliver the best possible experience for the folks going through our programs. It sounds cheesy, but there are processes that my team and I used to do 100% manually that are now completely automated and systems in place that have become second nature to how we operate. Working with such thoughtful, smart, and creative people is incredible.

Sara Ophoff, Senior Program Manager

I’m most proud about doing work that makes parents feel confident and empowered about their careers during a time that can be overwhelming and challenging – not only for our clients and users who go through Parentaly’s programs, but also with our advocacy work on LinkedIn, through our podcast and other big campaigns that make a difference. It’s been pretty rewarding to build a brand people know and love because what we’re doing resonates with so many employees’ experiences in the workforce.

Jenna Vassallo, Head of Brand & Marketing

I am so proud of the way we've approached growth with such care and intentionality - with every adjustment we've made to our offerings, we've never lost sight of our goal to provide the most supportive and valuable experience for our users. I love looking back on the early stages of conversations and building that have led us to the experience we offer today. Personally, I am extremely proud of the work I've done to scale and automate our backend!

Rachel Andes, Program Associate

I am most proud of the work we do every single day to make a positive impact on working parents! Everyday I get to work with an amazing group of people…we work hard but we also have fun.

‍Sarah Gruber, Client Partner

I'm proud of scaling an employee experience that consistently delivers positive outcomes for new parents and their organizations. Our north star has always been the user, and we never sacrifice our high quality bar!

Mansi Kothari, VP of Product & Experience

I feel a sense of pride that I get to work behind the scenes supporting everyone. I’m proud to see all of the collaboration between the team and how Parentaly positively impacts employees.

Leo Manalo, Executive Assistant

I'm most proud of going through the Parentaly program myself! I'm so proud to work for and promote this company in a time where parental leave and supportive policies are at the forefront of a national conversation. But beyond this, I'm most proud to call myself a participant.

Emmy Carragher, Enterprise Partnerships

I’m really proud of the work I did to expand our coaching bench globally at Parentaly. It was so rewarding, not to mention insightful, to connect with talented coaches from around the globe. This expansion not only enriched our coaching offerings but also strengthened our commitment to making a meaningful impact on families all over the world.

‍Nicole Hagemann-Bex, Senior Coaching Operations Manager

I have tremendous pride in the knowledge that what I am doing will change the career landscape for new parents, particularly mothers. This will make it more likely that my daughter can have a career AND a family without worrying about the unintentional negative impact of taking parental leave. Nothing makes me prouder than that.

Mindy Himmel-Brown, Strategic Partnerships

In my short time at Parentaly, I'm proudest of the work we're doing with our clients' ERG groups to elevate the stories and advice of actual working parents. It's such an impactful way to spread the word about Parentaly as an essential resource for all people growing their families, and the managers who support them!

Alex Diskin, Enterprise Account Manager

I'm most proud about using LinkedIn to connect with others. I was recently able to share a helpful return to work doc with 50+ new people looking to make a difference at their company. Was pretty cool that people from Chewy, McDonald's, Honda, Cisco, AWS, Walmart and more want to integrate just a piece of what we have to offer. Also...I'm so proud of the way I feel as an employee at Parentaly. For the first time in my career my personal interests align with my professional interests and I've never felt more motivated.

Jenny Hurwitz, Strategic Partnerships

I'm really proud of being able to help the Experience team by handling the supportive functions so they can focus on the bigger picture. It feels great to know that I’m making things easier for them and contributing to the team’s success.

James Mango, Executive Assistant

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CHRO

HR & policy

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