Beyond Maternity Leave: How Vietnamese Employers Can Build Genuinely Inclusive Workplaces in 2026

By Valerie Ong, Regional Marketing Manager, Reeracoen Group

Vietnam has one of the highest female workforce participation rates in Southeast Asia — consistently above 70% across age groups. Yet Reeracoen’s Hiring Manager Survey 2025–2026 and Beyond the Paycheque 2026 study both show a persistent gap between female professionals’ expectations of workplace inclusion and what most FDI employers actually deliver.

This is not primarily a policy gap. Most FDI companies in Vietnam have formal maternity leave, equal pay policies, and non-discrimination statements. The gap is in implementation, culture, and the specific practices that determine whether high-performing women choose to stay, progress, and recommend their employer to peers. This article covers what those practices look like — and how to implement them without large budgets or long timelines.

What the Data Shows

Reeracoen’s 2026 study identified a consistent pattern across Vietnam’s FDI sector: female professionals at mid-senior level (5–15 years experience) are more likely than their male peers to leave for flexibility-related reasons, and more likely to stay for manager relationship and career progression reasons. The most common departure triggers for this group:

• Inflexible return-to-work arrangements after maternity leave (cited by 34% of mid-senior female respondents who had taken maternity leave in the previous 3 years)
• Absence of visible female role models at senior level in their organisation (29%)
• Perceived stall in career progression that coincides with or follows pregnancy (27%)
• Work schedule incompatibility with family responsibilities without explicit management support (41%)

What Genuinely Inclusive Practice Looks Like

Flexible Return-to-Work After Maternity Leave

Vietnam’s Labour Code provides six months of maternity leave for most roles. The return-to-work conversation — often treated as administrative — is a critical retention moment. Employers who offer phased return options (part-time for the first 4–8 weeks, flexible hours for the first 3 months) have significantly higher post-maternity retention rates than those who expect immediate full-time return. This is not a significant cost; it is a scheduling and management flexibility decision.

Manager Accountability for Inclusive Behaviour

Policy without accountability is decoration. FDI employers with the strongest inclusion outcomes hold managers specifically accountable for team diversity and retention metrics, not just performance output. This does not require a complex DEI programme — it requires including retention of high-performing women in the criteria by which managers are assessed at their own performance review.

Visible Sponsorship, Not Just Mentorship

Mentorship tells a high-potential employee what to do. Sponsorship advocates for them in rooms they are not in. The distinction matters enormously for career progression. FDI employers who identify their highest-potential mid-senior female professionals and assign them a senior sponsor — someone with budget authority and influence — see measurably better retention and advancement outcomes than those who run mentoring programmes alone.

Inclusive Meeting Culture

One of the most common — and most overlooked — inclusion failures in Vietnam’s FDI workplaces is the meeting culture. Research consistently shows that women in mixed-gender professional settings are interrupted more, credited less for their ideas, and excluded more from informal decision-making. Managers who actively name this pattern, create structured participation in meetings, and follow up on attribution of ideas see faster culture change than those who address it through training alone.

The Business Case: Why This Is Also a Hiring Advantage

FDI employers with strong inclusion reputations consistently attract stronger female candidate pools, shorten their time-to-hire for senior roles, and receive higher quality referrals from existing employees. In a market where 80.3% of employers cite talent acquisition as their primary challenge, this is a genuine competitive differentiator.

The signal that matters most: the ratio of women in senior leadership roles. Candidates who see women visibly represented at GM, Director, and VP level in an organisation conclude that the pathway is real, not aspirational. This matters more to high-potential female candidates than any EVP statement.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are there legal requirements for gender inclusion in Vietnam?

Yes. Vietnam’s Law on Gender Equality and Labour Code prohibit gender-based discrimination in hiring, compensation, and career advancement. Companies with 1,000+ employees are required to report on gender equity measures. Beyond legal compliance, FDI parent companies increasingly require subsidiary-level DEI reporting as part of global ESG frameworks.

How do we handle requests for flexibility from employees with young children?

With a clear, written policy that applies consistently across the team — not manager-by-manager discretion, which creates both legal risk and morale problems. The most effective policies set parameters (core hours, communication expectations, minimum in-office days) while leaving genuine flexibility within those parameters. Discretionary flexibility managed informally creates an environment where only confident employees who have a good relationship with their manager benefit.

How do we measure inclusion outcomes without large HR infrastructure?

Start with three metrics: retention rate by gender at each seniority band, promotion rate by gender at each seniority band, and the proportion of women in your top two seniority tiers. Measure annually. If women are retained and promoted at lower rates than men at equivalent seniority, you have a measurable problem to address. The measurement itself — done visibly and shared with the management team — creates accountability without a dedicated DEI programme.

Related Articles

You may also find these useful:

• Labour Day 2026: What Vietnam’s Workforce Data Tells Employers About Retention

• Vietnam Family Day 2026: How High-Performing Professionals Balance Career and Family

• Vietnam’s Remote Work Push: A Practical Guide for Employers on What to Do Right Now

About the Author

References

1. Reeracoen Salary Guide 2025–2026

2. Vietnam Law on Gender Equality 2006 (amended) 

3. Vietnam Labour Code 2019, Chapter X: Female Workers

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