Nearly three decades after Cuba Gooding Jr.’s character shouted “Show me the money!” in Jerry McGuire, your employees are likely thinking something similar: “Show me the benefits!”
One-third of employees would take a pay cut for more health benefits, according to a Marsh McLennan Agency report published earlier this year. Some of the health benefits that would help employees, particularly those hoping to start families, may not even be on employers’ radar, according to Flory Wilson, founder and CEO of nonprofit Reproductive & Maternal Health (RMH) Compass. And they’re “easy wins,” she added, because they’re typically low cost and will likely “pay for themselves.”
In a recent report, RMH Compass analyzed public information about the benefits packages of the 100 largest US employers by headcount to see where they’re falling short on reproductive and maternal health. Wilson shared with HR Brew the importance of these benefits, and what people pros can do to better support workers.
Bereavement leave. Half of the 100 largest companies provide bereavement leave, but only 12% have a policy that explicitly covers pregnancy loss, miscarriage, or stillbirth, the RMH Compass report found.
“When a worker is experiencing [pregnancy loss], either directly or if a partner is, there’s a real emotional toll, and the last thing that someone should have to worry about in that moment is, ‘Oh, gosh, can I take a day off?’” Wilson said.
HR should clearly state whether its bereavement leave policy includes pregnancy loss, miscarriage, and stillbirth for employees, she added.
“When we talk to HR professionals, as we’re collecting data, often they’ll say, ‘Oh, well, of course, it can be used for that purpose,’” she said. “What we’re saying is, ‘Look, it’s implicit, so much of this stuff is implicit in the workplace policies…Make it explicit.’”
Fertility family formation benefits. While fertility benefits, like in-vitro fertilization (IVF), have been politicized in recent years, an HR Brew/Harris Poll survey earlier this year found that people pros expect their companies to expand, not reduce, these benefits. Some 41% of the companies included in RMH Compass’ report cover IVF treatments, while 37% cover a portion of adoption and surrogacy expenses.
In an effort to be more inclusive, Wilson said that employers should refrain from calling these “fertility” benefits and instead call them “family formation” benefits. “If you’re talking about a same-sex couple, calling these fertility issues is kind of an inaccurate framing of the topic, so we use that language ‘family formation,’” she said.
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To that end, she also suggested doing away with eligibility requirements, like those that mandate couples to have “been trying to get pregnant for 12 months.” Instead, she recommended that employers state in their policy that family formation benefits are offered to employees regardless of gender, sexual orientation, age, and medical status.
Doula and midwifery care. While employers have increasingly adopted bereavement leave and family formation benefits, Wilson said pre- and post-natal care perks, like doula and midwifery services, are still uncommon. Just 4% of the companies in RMH Compass’ report offer such a benefit—she hopes that will change.
“There’s a limited awareness of how having access to doula and midwifery services really is a critical piece of an equity and inclusion aspect of [HR],” Wilson said. “Health outcomes for Black, brown and Indigenous women, when they have access, especially, to pre- and post-natal doula services, for both the woman and the child are just hugely transformed.”
When employers offer employees access to doula and midwifery services, Wilson said, this can help prepare them, physically and mentally, to return to work post-birth.
“It is a win-win from all angles. Workers want it. Employers can benefit,” she said. “And, it is extremely rare.”
Impact on all employees. Reproductive and maternal health perks can benefit all employees, Wilson said, because they “cut across gender…men actually recognize the value and importance of having access to all of this care because their wives, daughters, [and] other dependents may be on their employer-sponsored health plan.”
They can also help improve retention, Wilson said. Employees considering starting a family are more likely to stay at a company with reproductive benefits.
“There’s just a really compelling business case, but what there hasn’t been is clarity on [which health] benefits matter the most to workers and employers sharing information to their workforce, and…prospective workers in a transparent, and consistent, [and] cohesive way,” she said.