Family Benefits: The Best Way to Attract Talent in a Diverse, Millennial Workforce

Three old friends and I recently reunited for brunch. One friend had just frozen her eggs and recounted the experience. Another, who didn’t want kids of her own, was considering being a surrogate for her close friends, a gay male couple. And the third, who is married with one child, was starting the process of adopting a second child, and wondered whether she needed to eventually leave her job or go part-time in order to help her growing family adjust. Our topics of conversation were a reminder that there are more different kinds of families, and more different ways to start a family, than ever before.

As the CEO of Maven, a women’s and family health company that provides benefits including adoption, surrogacy, and egg freezing, I’ve spoken to countless organizations that are making diversity and inclusion in the workplace a core value—not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it’s a key strategic business issue. Offering family benefits that recognize and support all of these different ways to start a family is one of the first ways a company can illustrate its commitment to diversity.

When we first started Maven four years ago, we didn’t see this focus on family benefits as much. But as the workforce is being overtaken by millennials, for whom starting a family is one of their first major healthcare experiences, the glaring discrepancies between their needs and priorities and what benefits are offered through insurance carriers or check-the-box solutions has become more pronounced.

Consider these statistics:

• When choosing between two jobs with comparable pay and responsibilities, a full 96% of millennials say that health benefits are the most important factor.
• More than 50% of millennials say that they would take a lower salary to work for a company that shares their values—values which include gender equality, family, wellness, and diversity. And by 2025, millennials will make up nearly three-quarters of the workforce.
• Millennials are twice as likely to be in LGBTQ couples.
• Millennials are more likely to enter married life with the expectation that both partners will share responsibilities at home equally, while giving equal priority to both partners’ careers.

These trends (and more!) are examined further in Maven’s latest in-depth report called “In a Millennial Workforce, Family-Friendly Benefits are the Best Way to Attract Top Talent,” which sheds light on what millennials value in their benefits, and how understanding these priorities can ultimately help companies attract better talent while lowering costs.

Happy reading! And for anyone who can add to this important conversation, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. The same values that are prized by millennials—diversity, gender equality, inclusion, family, and wellness—are what drive Maven forward, and we are committed to doing all we can to make these values real and accessible in every workplace.

You can find the rest of the paper by clicking here.