How to build fertility benefits that work — for all employees

As drastically as the demands of the modern workforce have recently evolved, so have the demands of the modern worker — and many are craving additional support, understanding, and access from their employers and the benefits they provide.

“It should not take an employee saying, ‘Hey, I’d like to freeze my eggs but I can’t because I’m a single, 30-year-old female,’ for an employer to understand that their benefits aren’t as holistic or as good as they thought,” says Aneliese Ramsay, part of the business development team at Carrot Fertility, which works with employers to help them provide better, more inclusive fertility benefits. “It’s up to employers to know what their employees need and do the work to create an inclusive company and workforce.”

Where conventional health insurance often falls short, ancillary benefits — which can include anything from Carrot’s fertility-specific offerings to disability insurance and life insurance — can help provide employees with more power over their care and finances, and are becoming an increasingly important part of competitive benefits packages. But for employers, the options are vast, and often confusing: how can they choose benefits to both support their employees’ needs and the growth of the business?

Related: Open conversations about fertility benefits can make your organization an in-demand place to work

Ramsay will answer these questions and more on a panel at Workplace Strategies Agenda, a virtual Employee Benefit News event taking place July 21-22. She’ll be joined by other business leaders to discuss the top trends in ancillary benefits, and the smartest ways to support employees and meet the unique demands of today’s fast-evolving workplace. EBN checked in with Ramsay to get a sneak preview of some of the insights she’ll be sharing at the upcoming event. (If you haven’t registered yet, you still have time!)

Courtesy of Carrot Fertility

How has what employees expect and want from ancillary benefits shifted?
I hear this over and over again: today’s workforce really wants and expects fertility benefits as part of that ancillary offering, but insurance is not enough. With insurance, you often have to have a diagnosis of infertility as a heterosexual couple. At Carrot, we remove that requirement to offer something open and inclusive. In the United States, about one in eight couples are affected by infertility, which is really on the rise. Women above the age of 30, for the first time, are having more babies than women below the age of 30. Sixty-three percent of the LGBTQ community are starting or growing families and need reproductive care or adoption to do so, which they can’t with insurance. And Gen Z is increasingly interested in optimizing their fertility and planning ahead.

So some well-intentioned employers may be missing the mark without even realizing it. How can they do a better job of meeting employees’ needs?
It’s about drilling down to what you’re offering and understanding whether or not it’s inclusive. And, it’s about making sure that the care being offered is culturally competent. That’s really important to DEI efforts. For example, Carrot works to match our members in the BIPOC community with care providers that they feel comfortable with, which makes them feel empowered in their treatment. We see better outcome data for that, which reduces the cost for both employer and employee.

Related: The pandemic has exacerbated the demand for fertility benefits

Are more inclusive fertility benefits like what Carrot provides starting be more widespread?
Fertility used to be seen as a tech benefit — the Facebooks and Googles and Apples of the world led that charge. But now, there’s been a shift, and smaller companies, even state and local governments, are coming to us and asking how they can incorporate this. The financial sector and biotech are both two industries that are super competitive [for talent], and we’re seeing a shift there too.

Meaning fertility benefits are being seen as a recruiting and retention tool?
According to our Fertility at Work report, about 77% of employees would stay at their company longer if their employer offered fertility benefits, and 88% would even consider changing jobs for access to these benefits.

For more tangible takeaways and actionable insights to navigate the current workplace reality and create a roadmap for the future, click here to secure your place at the WORKPLACE STRATEGIES AGENDA virtual summit on July 21-22.