Fertility benefits rank high on the list of valuable benefits that make recruiting top talent, retaining valuable employees, and reducing turnover easier. Providing coverage for family building options has been shown to increase employee retention and loyalty.
According to a recent FertilityIQ survey, 68 percent of millennials consider fertility benefits when choosing an employer, and 9 out of 10 employees with fertility issues will switch jobs for benefits.
This scenario was very true for millennial, Katie Goad and her husband Adam. They had an 8-year-old daughter and wanted to expand their family. After giving birth to her first child, Katie had surgery that meant she would have to undergo IVF in order to have another child.
Lacking insurance for IVF, Katie was determined to expand her family without going into debt in the process, so she explored her employment options and discovered that Starbucks offered benefits to cover IVF, even to hourly, frontline workers. Starbucks is revered for being among the first to provide fertility benefits to hourly and part-time employees.
“I was honest with them in my interview about what my goal was, and what my intentions were,” Goad said in a recent interview with Benefit News.
She landed the job and started working as a part-time barista.
In a recent survey, FertilityIQ, author of the extensive Family Builder Workplace Index, found that 73 percent of fertility patient respondents felt more gratitude toward their employer because of fertility benefits, 61 percent said it made them feel more loyal, and 53 percent said it influenced them to stay with a particular employer longer.
“In this tight labor market, millennials are entering the family building years and flooding the workforce. Companies eager to recruit top talent know that offering fertility benefits, paid parental leave, and flexible schedules fosters a great sense of loyalty,” said Patty Stull, Chief Marketing Officer of SGF.
Once Katie qualified for health benefits through Starbucks, she began fertility testing and treatment under the care of Dr. Mark Perloe at Shady Grove Fertility Atlanta.
“It was an absolute pleasure helping Katie and her husband expand their family,” says Dr. Perloe. “I was inspired by their tenacity and resourcefulness. We were thrilled to call Katie and let her know that she was pregnant after her first IVF cycle.”
Stories like Katie’s are becoming more common as more employers cover fertility treatment such as intrauterine insemination (IUI), in vitro fertilization (IVF), as well as expanding coverage for egg freezing and even surrogacy. Benefit News reported that employers including Starbucks, Slack, Foursquare, Box, and Samsara all recently updated their benefits.
FertilityIQ’s research found similar results. Of the 30,000 IVF patients who were surveyed on their employers’ (or their spouse’s employers’) 2019 fertility treatment policy, over 400 US businesses and organizations had policies in place to cover the cost of IVF, and 23 percent of the companies on this list offer newly implemented or substantially enhanced fertility benefits compared to 2018.
The good news continues; the gains and progress span many different industries, not just technology and financial, who are credited for paving the way. Retail, insurance, banking, healthcare, and manufacturing all showed enhanced fertility benefits compared to last year.
“Fertility coverage is definitely moving in the right direction,” says Stull. “Seventeen states currently have a requirement of employers to offer fertility benefits, the latest being New York, home to SGF’s newest IVF center. This is great news for patients as it opens up access to care.”
Schedule a new patient consultation to explore your options at SGF. Call the SGF New Patient Center at 877-971-7755 or complete a brief online form.
