Who We Are
Strong Foundation Coaching & HR works with organizations to build shared understanding around the people experience of leave of absence.
When someone goes out on leave, the impact is rarely limited to one person or one role. Employees experiencing leave, teams, People Leaders, and HR are all navigating change at the same time — while work continues and relationships evolve. Without a shared way of understanding what is happening, these moments can feel fragmented, uncertain, and difficult to navigate.
Our work focuses on how people across the organization make sense of leave before it occurs, while it unfolds, and as employees return. We help create a shared approach that supports steadiness, coordination, and thoughtful decision-making — without adding complexity to policies or processes.
Using the Connected Leaves Pathway — Prepare. Sustain. Reignite. — we guide organizations in developing a common understanding of how the leave experience unfolds, what tends to matter most at different points, and how people can move through disruption together while work continues.
Connected Leaves Pathway
A Shared Way of Understanding the People Experience of Leave
Leave of absence is often supported by policies, processes, and timelines — yet it is lived as a people experience. When someone steps away from work, roles shift, responsibilities adjust, and relationships continue in real time. How leaders, teams, and HR understand and respond to this disruption shapes whether leave is experienced with steadiness or becomes fragmented and reactive.
At Strong Foundation Coaching & HR, we believe that when someone goes on leave, the workplace does not pause — it adapts. Our work focuses on helping organizations build shared understanding around the people experience of leave so work and relationships can continue with steadiness, even when not everything is known or resolved.
The Connected Leaves Pathway
The Connected Leaves Pathway brings this shared understanding to life by offering a common way for HR, People Leaders, teams, and employees experiencing leave to approach the people experience of leave as it unfolds.
The Pathway is organized around three phases:
Prepare. Sustain. Reignite.
These phases reflect how leave is commonly experienced and what tends to matter most at different points as work and relationships continue.
Prepare — Foundational Readiness
Prepare reflects a shared understanding that leave is a normal part of working life. This phase supports steadiness before disruption occurs by helping leaders, teams, and HR stay clear about roles, expectations, and how work will continue when leave arises.
Sustain — Staying Connected While Work Continues
Sustain reflects how work, relationships, and communication continue during absence. Responsibilities shift, information evolves, and teams adjust in real time while remaining appropriately connected to the employee on leave. This phase balances urgency with steadiness so work can move forward without unnecessary friction.
Reignite — Reconnecting Work and Relationships
Reignite reflects how work and relationships reconnect as someone returns. This phase supports a thoughtful ramp-up that acknowledges change and helps teams re-establish rhythm together as people, roles, and priorities continue to evolve.
Why This Matters
When leave is understood as a people experience, the mindset across the organization shifts. With shared understanding in place, decisions are made with greater consistency, relationships experience less friction, and disruption is approached with steadiness rather than urgency.
The Connected Leaves Pathway supports organizations in navigating leave in a way that centers people, sustains leadership continuity, and allows work to continue alongside existing policies and processes.
Prepare. Sustain. Reignite.
Because when someone goes on leave, the workplace does not pause — it adapts.
Strong Foundation Coaching & HR was founded by Jennifer Cortum, SHRM-CP.
Jennifer brings a background in HR and leadership coaching, with a deep understanding of the real-world complexity HR teams, People Leaders, and teams navigate during leaves of absence. Her work is shaped by years of supporting organizations as they make sense of situations that are nuanced, sensitive, and disruptive — particularly when there is no clear roadmap for how people should respond.
As a Workplace Disruption Guide, Jennifer’s approach is practical, grounded, and collaborative. She works alongside HR, People Leaders, and teams to build shared understanding and steadiness during periods of leave, helping organizations approach these moments with care — without judgment, pressure, or oversimplification.
About Jennifer
What It’s Like to Work With Us
Working with Strong Foundation Coaching & HR is steady, thoughtful, and collaborative.
We work alongside HR teams — not in place of them — to support shared understanding around the people experience of leave. Our engagements create space for HR, People Leaders, and team members to think together, develop a common approach, and respond with steadiness as leave unfolds.
In our conversations with HR practitioners, many describe a sense of relief in having this work named and addressed directly. It reflects a recognition that while leave is managed through policy, the people experience surrounding it often lacks shared understanding — and that having a thoughtful, dedicated focus in this space makes a meaningful difference.