Support for Employees During Infertility Awareness Month & Beyond
June is Infertility Awareness Month
June is Infertility Awareness Month highlighting infertility issues faced by as many as 48.5 million couples around the world each year. Infertility is incredibly stressful and draining. Research has even shown the stress levels of women diagnosed with infertility are equivalent to those with cancer, AIDS, or heart disease.
In our recent survey, we found that 61% of employees would change jobs for fertility benefits. Regardless of if you offer fertility coverage or not, these are steps every employer should take to effectively support their employees on the path to parenthood:
Bring Awareness and Vocalize Support
Establish a workplace environment where employees know they are welcome to open up about their experience with infertility, should they wish to do so. Encourage your managers to emphasize understanding and support for medical conditions that may require special flexibility or accommodation on the part of employers. For example, if an employee, especially someone within senior leadership, is already open about their infertility, encourage them to lead by example. Talk openly about the experience, when appropriate, and offer to be a resource for others struggling. Without singling out infertility, invite employees to discuss with you privately. All of this begins with employers creating a culture that support all employees and their needs and acknowledging that when someone comes into work they aren’t necessarily leaving “home” behind.
Provide education
The stigma of infertility often prevents people from sharing what can be an already isolating experience. While employees may not always be comfortable sharing with colleagues or a supervisor, it’s important for companies to proactively offer educational resources, support, and communication as part of health care and benefits information. As part of this communications strategy, be sure to provide the option to access information and resources in a private, anonymous manner. Considering sharing resources with:
Employee communications during certain times of the year (National Infertility Awareness Month, Women’s Health Week, Men’s Health Week, Pride Month)
Parents to be/infertility support groups
Awareness campaigns on company intranet/benefit sites
Offer flexibility
Employees with infertility struggle to establish a healthy work/life balance. They likely will require a lot of doctor’s appointments, so it’s a challenge to manage their workload while starting their family.
If you offer a combination of flex-time and telecommuting options, an official paid medical leave policy for infertility treatments might become less necessary. Offer guidance on the best work-from-home and time management practices to make this policy successful for both employees and the company.
Organize a support group
Patients going through fertility treatment generally agree that only others going through the same journey really understand. Privately offer to organize a group for discussion and support or tap into an existing parents’ group. Employee Resource Groups can help fight feelings of isolation and restore perspective, even for those who choose to not identify their specific challenge.
Communicate company resources
If your company has fertility and family building benefits, be sure they are readily available and understandable to all employees and included in regular benefits education. Even if your company does not offer these types of benefits, there may be existing company resources that can be especially helpful to address infertility such as employee assistance programs with counseling services. BenefitBump helps fill these gaps through advocacy, planning, mental health support related to infertility, support for grief and loss, and helping participants access and understand infertility benefits and publicly provided supports.