Now, in a time when companies can do whatever it takes to recruit and retain employees, for many companies, the reproductive advantage of innovation has become a necessity.
Thanks to the pandemic, which has brought today’s tight labor market, corporations have had to find unusual ways to attract and keep prized workers, said Rachel McCann, senior director at Willis Towers Watson, an insurance advisory and brokerage firm. . He added that fertility gains have become one of the more popular methods. “Absolutely grown up.”
In America, the demand for workers far exceeds the supply. There are currently around 1.8 open jobs for every unemployed worker, which is significantly higher than the pre-Covid ratio of 1.2. As a result, employers are taking pay cuts and offering perks that were unheard of before 2020 — including covering college tuition and offering bonuses to employees who don’t leave work.
placer package
Employers are also offering plushers health care packageTo compete for talent includes providing expanded mental-health coverage.
Companies are finding that fertility benefits are becoming increasingly popular among female employees – particularly those between the ages of 25 and 40. This benefit is also important for couples who are infertile, same-sex couples and single individuals, as well as those who have been unable to conceive naturally or start a family later in life. are.
“In the five years before the pandemic, we saw a lot of interest, but not a lot of buying,” said Kate Ryder, chief executive officer of family planning provider Maven Clinic, whose clients include Snap Inc., Buzzfeed Inc. and Boston. Scientific Corp.’s so-called “great resignation” included the loss of valuable employees, a desire to provide more support to burnout parents, and more inclusive workplaces that all prompted companies to consider fertility benefits, she said. “Now everybody’s buying.”
The most popular type of fertility package offers cap per employee benefits. An example is a lifetime benefit of $25,000, which would cover approximately two rounds of in-vitro fertilization treatments, or a little more than one cycle of egg freezing.
But the $25,000 can run out quickly. According to some studies, three IVF cycles, for example, are the most clinically effective approach for women under 40. Patients may also experience additional costs, including egg or embryo storage and medications needed for IVF.
Survey data from workforce consultant Mercer showed that by the end of 2015, only a quarter of large employers (500 or more employees) had covered IVF. But in 2020 this figure increased to 27%. And last year, it jumped to 36%.
Mercer data shows that the percentage of large employers covering egg-freezing benefits climbed to 15% in 2021, up from just 5% in 2015.
beyond tech
The range of companies offering fertility benefits has also expanded far beyond technology. Chief Executive Officer Tammy Sun said Carrot Fertility, a global fertility-benefit provider, also saw interest in financial services and consulting from most companies.
Over the past two years, Carrot has added customers in the food and beverage, retail, automotive and manufacturing industries. They are also working with labor unions and municipalities. Sun said revenue increased nearly 400% last year. The closely held company declined to provide further financial details.
“This has been a big part of our Attraction campaign,” said Aja Harbert, human resources director at Los Angeles venture capital firm B Capital Group, which began offering fertility benefits through Carrots in 2021. She said it helped convince the four candidates. Accept the job offer. “It pushed them over the edge when they had competing offers,” she said.
Increased employer investment in fertility benefits has also helped offer vendors a more holistic approach to family planning. Two years ago, many of the family planning vendors “felt like technology startups” and have since “bounced and grown by leaps and bounds,” McCann of Willis Towers Watson said.
For example, Maven Clinic provides fertility treatment and education as well as physical and mental support, from preconception to postpartum.
When Priscilla Martinez, a senior industry account manager at Microsoft Corp. in Chicago, was having trouble conceiving, she was able to get pregnant after using Maven Clinic’s nutrition and fertility counseling services. They had their first child in early 2021 and continue to use Maven’s new-parenting support classes.
Martinez said he didn’t think much about benefits when looking for jobs in the past. But now that she wants another child, her mindset has changed. “It’s definitely something that has helped keep me in the job,” Martinez said.
control cost
Mercer senior associate Samantha Perciello said that in the past, given the costly treatments such as IVF and egg freezing, employers did not want to offer fertility benefits because of concerns about the high cost. But 97% of employers surveyed by Mercer said that adding benefits didn’t significantly increase their costs, according to the company.
One way employers can keep costs down is by limiting benefits, and most people do. The most common is a lifetime dollar maximum, and of those, $16,250 is the average amount, Mercer data shows. About 13% of companies limit the number of IVF and egg-freezing cycles to three.
Unless employees take advantage of the benefits, and very few people actually do, companies will not bear the brunt of the cost. Mercer estimates that less than 3% of women may need such treatment.
Still, as more Americans postpone starting families, fertility benefits have become “one of the most important talent retention and attraction tools on the table,” said Carrot Fertility’s Sun.