Excellence in HR: Driving Lyft's benefits toward equity

When Tanner Brunsdale was in his 20s, working his first job in the world of benefits, he was diagnosed with lymphoma. Despite his professional expertise, he struggled to manage his own care. 

"I didn't know how to navigate this complex healthcare system on my own," he says. "That's my driver now: I want to provide the resources employees need to remove the friction within the healthcare system." 

Since joining Lyft as senior manager of benefits and mobility at the end of 2021, Brunsdale has prioritized offering benefits — from mental health to fertility and family building — that successfully serve all employees, regardless of their geography, gender, sexual orientation or ethnicity. Here's how. 

Read more: Announcing 2022's Excellence in Benefits Award winners

What's been a challenge of the last year? 
We're a fully flexible workforce, but as employees have moved all over the globe, I'm thinking about their access to high quality healthcare. Can a single mom in the middle of the country access the same care as a white male in San Francisco? If not, what can we do to change that? For example, Lyft has super rich fertility benefits that offer four full cycles of IVF, but our surrogacy and adoption benefits don't match that dollar amount. So we're working to equalize those benefits. 

What do you count as some of your biggest wins of 2022? 
We have employees in Ukraine, and when the war broke out, we worked really hard to create a rich support package — increasing life insurance offerings, providing time off and giving immigration support and an allowance to help them get out if they chose to leave the country. Luckily, we've been able to stay in close contact, and everyone is safe.