Building a resilient workforce
As companies tailor healthcare benefits to cater for the needs of a diverse workforce, women’s health and family building are emerging as key focus areas.
Key Takeaways
- Focusing on employees’ unique needs, including women’s health, can help organisations support gender equity.
- Current challenges in women’s health include access to quality support, affordability, and workplace culture.
- Education and training, robust coverage and analytics can help to address these challenges.
For HR leaders looking to drive business performance, women’s health is becoming an increasingly important topic. The current healthcare landscape presents three major challenges related to women’s health:
- Access to Quality Clinical Care
Women are often under-represented in clinical research, leading to later diagnoses for certain illnesses compared with men. Women are also 50 percent1 more likely to suffer from severe medication side effects. These issues are compounded by inadequate provision for health conditions that are only experienced by women.
See AlsoAll about fertility and preconception testing | Top DoctorsThe Complete Guide to Fertility Prep: From Cycle Tracking to TestingVA.gov | Veterans AffairsRelationship between Chlamydia Trachomatis infection, infertility, and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D: a cross-sectional study from NHANES 2013–2016 - Affordability of Care
According to research and analysis by the Grattan Institute2, women in Australia often pay more out of their own pocket for healthcare services than men. They’re more likely than men to visit their GP and pay for prescription medication and more likely to have two or more chronic conditions. Cost isn’t the only challenge women face in accessing treatment. According to a recent study, 21 percent of women in APAC felt strongly that they are likely to have delayed or avoided medical treatment at least once due to a family obligation3.
- Total Rewards and Workplace Culture
Over the course of their lives, women in Asia have less income, less savings and less access to pension benefits than men4. This affects both their overall financial wellbeing and their ability to afford healthcare, highlighting the important role employers can play in addressing access and affordability issues for women.
How Women Experience Menopause in the Workplace
Workforce participation rates for older women in Asia are rising faster than for men5, yet the majority do not feel comfortable seeking support from their employer during menopause. Thirty-nine percent of women who experience pain or discomfort due to menopause say they work through it and 13 percent don’t feel comfortable discussing the impacts of menopause with their manager6.
US$150 billion: value of estimated global productivity losses for businesses due to menopause7.
Source: Bloomberg
Although menopause is openly discussed in some workplaces, overall there is a society-wide lack of awareness and understanding of this life stage. Employers have an important role to play both in fostering workplace cultures where women can talk freely about symptoms and in providing flexible working options and benefits to reduce the negative impacts of menopause-related health issues.
Family Building Benefits are Growing in Importance
With one in six of our global population experiencing infertility8, more people are seeking help with trying to conceive. Yet access to assisted reproductive technologies is a challenge and government support for couples seeking help to become parents remains patchy across Asia9. This highlights the importance of a new approach to family-building benefits. Benefits can range from emotional, financial and clinical support for assisted reproduction to legal support for surrogacy and adoption.
88% of employees said they would switch jobs to get fertility coverage.
Source: Carrot Fertility and Resolve
Family building is a priority for people of all gender identities. For example, 60 percent of LGBTQ+ couples have stated interest in starting families,10 yet insurance rarely covers these costs. Companies can foster a more inclusive workplace by ensuring comprehensive provisions, such as parenting support, fertility assistance, and surrogacy for single parents, straight and same-sex couples alike.
Three Ways to Improve Women’s Health
Organisations are increasingly incorporating family building and women’s health initiatives into their employee benefits programs to support the unique needs of all employees. Here are three approaches to matching your offer to workforce needs:
- Use Data and Analytics
Analytics can help organisations identify opportunities to improve access to healthcare and lower costs. Aon’s Health, Equity and Affordability Tool (HEAT) helps firms understand and connect how healthcare costs and affordability are related to demographics, physical and mental health conditions, health habits, plan design, location, healthcare labour supply and work productivity.
- Review Benefit Offerings
The latest offerings in the rewards market include a range of women’s health and family-building benefits:
- Menopause-friendly workplaces (e.g., dress code, cooling room)
- Flexible work and leave policies for caregiving and menopause
- Reproductive health
- Fertility treatment
- Adoption concierge and legal support
- Maternity management
- Parenting and paediatric support
- Caregiver and eldercare support
Some employers now provide coverage for women’s preventative care, and access to centres of excellence for fertility and family-forming issues.
- Educate and train the entire company.
Women's health doesn’t just affect women. Training, such as a manager toolkit, should be available to both men and women and should concentrate on education and support. Organisations can also encourage women-focused business resource groups, including ones for new mothers or elder caregivers, for further support.
"More companies are addressing women's health and introducing family building benefits to meet employees’ diverse needs, bridge the gender health gap and create a more inclusive and supportive workplace for all,” says Susan Fanning, head of wellbeing solutions, Human Capital, Asia Pacific at Aon.
To learn more about offering flexible and inclusive benefits to support women and other groups within your workforce, contact us.
1 Sex differences in adverse drug reactions reported to the National Pharmacovigilance Centre in the Netherlands: An explorative observational study - Vries - 2019 - British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology - Wiley Online Library
2 Healthcare out-of-pocket costs: an agenda for International Women’s Day, The Grattan Institute
3 Why improving women’s health must become a social and national priority, World Economic Forum/Roche Diagnostics, 2023
4 The Financial Security of Older Women in Southeast Asia, Asian Women’s Forum on Financial Security, 2019
5 What Asia’s ageing economies need to do to survive, Australian Financial Review, 3 July 2023
6 Women @ Work 2024: A Global Outlook, Deloitte
7 Women are Leaving the Global Workforce for a Little Talked-About Reason, Bloomberg, 2021
8 1 in 6 people globally affected by infertility, World Health Organisation (WHO)
9 Fertility trends in Asia: a snapshot, Merck
10 Why fertility benefits should be on every employer’s 2021 list, Carrot
Explore more
- Rethinking Caregiver Benefits in Asia
- Navigating Menopause Challenges in the Workplace
- Driving Inclusion and Diversity with Employee Benefits