How employers can show compassion and empathy to their female employees

Long story short: How employers can show compassion and empathy to their female employees

August 13, 2021 9:38 AM

To help women succeed, employers should think empathetically and compassionately about the whole employee, and not just the version who shows up for work.

Several companies launched new benefits this week that support women through personal challenges. Benefits management company Progeny announced a five-day paid pregnancy loss leave for employees, offering vital support through a challenging time in their lives.

For new parents, the state of Maine will provide their 30,000 state workers with breastfeeding support through Pumpspotting, an app that provides education and lactation counseling. For parents with older children, companies including Accenture are partnering with Hoot Reading, to provide tutoring and reading classes for children in preschool through sixth grade.

To help all employees balance the demands of life outside of work, encouraging PTO and time with family goes a long way to building a productive and resilient workforce. While almost half of employees feel anxious about requesting time off, according to Skynova, leading by example and setting clear expectations will show you’re invested in their well-being.

Progyny debuts miscarriage leave for grieving employees

A miscarriage is arguably one of the most devastating experiences a person can go through, and the aftermath requires strength, support and understanding from everyone in a woman’s life, including her employer. That’s why Progyny, a benefits management company specializing in fertility and family building solutions, has introduced a five-day paid pregnancy loss leave policy for all full-time and part-time employees.

As many as half of all pregnancies may end in miscarriage, but the exact figure is not known because a miscarriage may happen before a woman knows she’s pregnant. About 10% to 15% of pregnancies where the woman knows she is pregnant will end in a miscarriage, according to the March of Dimes. Research has shown the resulting impact on a woman’s health can include depression and anxiety, symptoms that can persist for years.

Read more:

Progyny debuts miscarriage leave for grieving employees

A new benefit helps working parents improve their kids’ literacy skills

Hoot Reading, an educational technology startup company, has debuted a new corporate benefit that provides

working parents

with online literacy tutoring for children in preschool through sixth grade.

The program gives employers the chance to prioritize the needs of

employees and their families

through free or subsidized access to the Hoot Reading online tutoring service. Parents who enroll their children in the Hoot for Companies benefit will have access to a virtual classroom where they will connect with teachers who

specialize in the development

of early childhood literacy skills through one-on-one, 20-minute lessons.

Read more:

A new benefit helps working parents improve their kids' literacy skills

The state of Maine is extending breastfeeding benefits to thousands of employees

Pumpspotting, a platform that supports breastfeeding moms and empathetic employers, has partnered with Maine to supply lactation benefits to 11,000 state employees and another 20,000 workers in state-affiliated agencies.

Employees and their family members will receive access to the Pumpspotting app, which boasts timely, evidence-based information for new parents, a crowdsourced map of places to pump worldwide, one-on-one support from certified lactation consultants and a global online community of fellow breastfeeding parents. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, companies that invest in creating a breastfeeding-supportive climate see a 50% reduction in absences and sick days, save $875 a year per breastfeeding parent and noticed 83% of employees felt more positive towards the company itself.

Read more:

The state of Maine is extending breastfeeding benefits to thousands of employees

Employees have extreme anxiety about taking vacation

Almost half of all employees say they feel anxiety when it comes to

requesting time off of work

, with the most common reasons for this anxiety coming back to more work than they can handle, guilt over taking time off, and concerns around looking like a bad worker, according to a

survey by Skynova

, an online invoicing platform. Twenty-one percent of employees also felt

they would get fired

if they requested too much vacation time.

As employees struggle with burnout and high levels of mental health strain, time away from the office can be a necessary — and healthy — reset. Even if employees are unable to travel, taking time to reconnect with family and focus on hobbies can be beneficial, too. Having a

defined PTO plan

for before and after the time off can help ease anxiety and ensure the workplace runs smoothly while staff is away.

Read more:

Employees have extreme anxiety about taking vacation