Reset: Kaiārahi Mātua – Building the skills and capacities of working parents
Overview
The Reset: Kaiārahi Mātua programme empowers caregivers to better understand themselves as parents and better meet the particular needs of their children. Focusing on practical skills, and accommodating the unique situation of every working caregiver, it builds problem-solving skills on a supportive-of-work community structure, and promotes the development of a culture in which frank parenting conversations are welcomed and validated. The programme is supported by, and delivered within, organisations that recognise the critical role they occupy in our parenting village.
Foundations: Listen to Understand – Mā te rongo, ka mārama
The programme draws on the principles of Motivational Interviewing (MI) which promotes partnership, acceptance, compassion, and empowerment to support change, Family Systems Theory that recognises that family dynamics are interrelated, and changes in one member's behaviour impact the entire family, and Sir Mason Durie’s Te Whare Tapa Whā model of four dimensions of well-being necessary to support holistic family well-being and effective parenting.
Structure
Groups: 5-8 participants
Duration: 4 weeks
Format: One session of 90 minutes per week (Optional review 3 months later)
To discuss the Reset: Kaiārahi Mātua programme and the ways in which it might integrate into your organisation’s efforts to build a supportive, inclusive culture:
THE NUMBERS
73%
of new parents consider leaving their employer
33%
have left a job due to lack of flexibility or support
40%
leave within 18 months of returning
25%
of mothers in NZ are not working 45 months after giving birth due to lack of flexible jobs or support
Sources: Parentaly, Bright Horizons, KPMG, NZAE
Reset: Kaiārahi Mātua – building confident parents and stronger workplaces.
Reset: Kaiārahi Mātua supports businesses to invest in their working parents — not just with flexibility or time off, but with the tools, space, and conversations that help people thrive at home and at work.
Parenting is the most important job many of us will ever do. With 73% of new parents considering leaving their job after parental leave, we believe they – and their whānau – need a supportive village now more than ever.
When we support parents in the workplace, we strengthen retention, resilience, and team culture.
Creating time to reflect on parenting during work hours is one of the most powerful untapped wellbeing strategies available. The skills and disciplines learnt in the process of parenting are transferable. When organisations lean into the realities faced by their working parents, and cultivate an atmosphere of support and validation – in other words, play an active role in the parenting village – they see a transformation in productivity and performance.
You can think of Reset as a permission slip that gives working parents licence to show up as the whole – and wholly productive – humans they are.
If parents in your business can’t bring the best of themselves to work, how much potential are you missing out on?
A Reset for any organisation, at any level
Introduction
Kākano Plant the seed
Thought provocation: How Did we Get Here?
90 minute workshop including Q&A.
For the whole organisation
Kickstart
Pakiaka Let roots take hold
Lunchtime Learning: active seminar series
Seven 1-hr single-topic sessions.
Short sharp sessions that create immediate clarity and connection.
For parents and internal stakeholders
Strengthen and Support
Tipu Supported growth
Foundations: internal workshop programme
Four intensive 3hr modules, plus 30m 1-1 coaching/support. Group workshop series offering real skills and real transformation.
For parents and internal stakeholders
Embed Rākau nui
Strong forest culture
The Village at Work
Facilitated design workshop to map out a sustainable culture change plan.
For leadership/
executive and People & Culture team
It’s not about fixing parents
Reset: Kaiārahi Mātua is about recognising parenting as leadership, helping your people bring their whole selves to work.
“We all know it takes a village to raise a child. But in our hectic modern times it’s hard to find that village.”
Carla Moore, Founder
Working parents bring so much to your team: skill, loyalty, leadership – but most are doing two jobs and showing up to work with only half of themselves. We help organisations create workplaces where parents can thrive. Because when they do, business thrives too.
A message from Carla
Parenting can be viewed as the ultimate expression of leadership. It is a HUGE job and no one gets it perfectly right. There's no training.We're not designed to do this without support. Then we add work on top of it!
When working parents are supported the ripple effects touch every part of our lives, from the workplace to the whānau, and then into the wider community.
I bring a lifetime of lived and learned experience to this work: raising four tamariki, creating parenting communities and holding a Master’s in Educational Psychology. I’ve spent decades working at the intersection of education, wellbeing, and community development, supporting parents across every stage of the journey.
Reset was born from a bold new idea: that the workplace can become part of the village many parents need today. While a workplace will never be a marae, the values so often lived out on the marae – manaakitanga, whanaungatanga, kotahitanga – are exactly the qualities that help teams thrive. When we honour parenting in the workplace we grow stronger leaders, more connected people and a better future for our mokopuna.
Reset: Kaiārahi Mātua is a key part of a solution. It helps forward-thinking organisations become employers of choice by recognising the real lives of their people. It’s not about fixing parents. It’s about valuing them, walking alongside them, evolving the workplace to match.
My approach blends leadership, psychology and parenting insight to help organisations to retain and empower their working parents while strengthening community from within their workplace.
Ko te piko o te māhuri, Tēra te tipu o te rākau
How the sapling is bent, is how the tree will grow
The way we care for our working parents today determines the strength, stability, and direction of our people tomorrow – in business and beyond.
Whether you’re an HR leader, CEO, or working parent yourself, I’d love to connect and kōrero. Together, we can create workplaces where people bring their whole selves – and thrive.
Carla Moore B. Soc. Sci (Ed and Psych) | M.A. (Ed Psych)
Who’s working with us to make it work for working parents?
“I believe the course has been hugely beneficial to me over the past few weeks already, and no doubt will be beneficial going forwards. In particular, Carla has provided techniques to help enable me to identify and deal with different personalities, manage stressful situations, identify potential behaviours of mine that could be considered counterproductive, learn how to more effectively communicate and listen (especially when engaging in “difficult” conversations), and learn how to more efficiently problem solve. I also feel like I now have a support network of other like-minded people at OMV.
You may have noticed that I did not mention “children” above. This is because I have found Carla’s teachings to be applicable to my interactions with all people……work team included (some of whom are a lot more difficult than my kids!). But obviously the course is targeted at parenting, and the course has certainly helped me to better connect with my family. I can already see a more positive home life and happy work/life balance. Hopefully I can keep it up!” – OMV dad