When Cynthia Gut found out that she was pregnant between verbal confirmation and signing the contract, it was clear to her that she wanted to let us know. Have you already experienced a similar situation? What do you do now? A cancellation with excuses? No! Now you have the chance to hire a top candidate.
Top skills as an encore
While you may notice a confident demeanour, a friendly or interested manner in other candidates, with a pregnant applicant you get top skills as an encore. Because Cynthia has shown much more with her application than just her qualifications for the job. She shows courage. She shows will. She shows ambition and motivation. A pregnant woman looking for a job takes risks and is not afraid of challenges. Top skills that are otherwise not so easy to recognise in the application process.
Courage, will, ambition - and that's not all
If a candidate was brave enough to inform the future company about her pregnancy, even though most professional articles advise against it, this shows honesty, forbearance and consideration. As such, she also brings important soft skills that we desperately need in any Team. Honesty is more important to this applicant than an employment contract. "It would have been contrary to our values to penalise a candidate for her honesty," says Eliane Hofer, HR Manager at HR Campus. We promise you that these soft skills will also prove their worth in your company.
Preferably pregnant and happy
Cynthia's colleagues also advised her not to announce her pregnancy before signing the contract. The fear of not getting a job because of this is great and unfortunately not unfounded. However, we at HR Campus believe that pregnancy should not be an obstacle in the job market. Far too often, employees remain unhappy in their existing jobs because the job market looks bleak for pregnant women or women who want to have children. "Wouldn't it be better to have a pregnant, happy employee than one who is not pregnant and not happy?" asks Cynthia. Absolutely, we think! We show just how important happy employees are in our article " Employee wellbeing ".
A rethink needs to take place
I'm sure we all know the feeling of concealment from our childhood. The Duden dictionary defines it as "deliberately not telling someone about something you are obliged to tell them". Not a good feeling that is often accompanied by insecurity and feelings of guilt. If candidates feel forced to conceal a pregnancy, this can also be a massive psychological burden. As a progressive company, we should take responsibility. So if an applicant has the right qualifications and the courage to tell us about her pregnancy, take the chance and hire a top candidate.