After two years of living life in a pandemic, it’s become clear – employees want more in the way of benefits and they’re not afraid to move jobs in order to find them
Known as the Big Quit (or the Great Resignation, depending on where you read about it) it seems having more time to reflect has seen employees around the world reconsider their worth.
So as well as holiday allowance, bonuses and staff parties, companies are looking for new ways to retain their staff – and fertility benefits are one of them. A growing number of UK companies are now offering cover for IVF, egg and sperm freezing and donation and surrogacy as part of their health insurance policies.
But not only that – family law firm Burgess Mee have appointed the world’s first Fertility Officer to help employees talk open up about their desire to start or expand their family
Fertility officer Natalie Sutherland has told the Times newspaper, “It’s fairly pointless having IVF and egg freezing benefits of people are scared to use them – and they often are”.
“There’s a stigma around infertility, and women still worry about career progression if they mention plans to have children, which means IVF is usually done in secret.”
Natalie says that her role is as someone to speak to, but there’s a practical side, too, arranging for time off for fertility appointments as well as talking to would be employees that theirs is a company that welcomes employees having a family.
She hopes that other companies and professions will follow suit and open up the conversation with employees
Having time off to have a baby doesn’t mean that your career is over, far from it. And she wants that to be her defining message.
