10 Inclusive Employee Benefits That Can Help Create a More Supportive Workplace

There’s no doubt about it — right now, we’re living in a job seeker’s market. 

In the midst of the Great Reshuffle, talented candidates have reevaluated what they’re looking for in a job, from workplace perks and culture to benefits that support their lives outside the office. While it may feel like a challenge as you look to hire the best candidates, this also presents an opportunity.

In such a competitive market, one way your company could get ahead of the game in attracting and retaining talent is to offer inclusive benefits. These benefits have the potential to make your colleagues feel valued in the workplace — and less stressed outside of it. For companies that have embraced inclusive offerings, the benefits are part of a holistic approach to supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and help companies stand out from competitors. 

But knowing just where to begin when developing an inclusive benefits package can be daunting. Let’s take a look at the top perks emerging as must-haves, and how companies like Starbucks, Hootsuite, and Airbnb have embraced inclusive benefits to boost overall employee satisfaction. 

1. Floating holidays and unlimited PTO

For starters, offering flexible floating holidays gives employees a chance to celebrate and honor days that may be of particular importance to them or their religion, culture, or ethnic background but not everybody else’s.

Beyond that, floating holidays and unlimited paid time off can help demonstrate the trust you have in your employees. And since paid time off is one of the most cost-efficient benefits to reenergize employees, encouraging employees to take a breather can ultimately boost morale.

But keep in mind that for employees to truly benefit from unlimited PTO, they need to take it. Studies have shown that in some cases, employees actually take less time off when they have unlimited PTO versus a set number of days off each year. 

Among its many forward-looking benefits, global social media management platform Hootsuite offers half-day summer Fridays, a company-wide wellness week, and incentives for employees who use up all of their vacation days. For Hootsuite, its investment in employee benefits paid off — the company saw a rise from 66 to 81 percent in employee engagement over the course of the pandemic.

2. Leave for all parents

A 2021 McKinsey study found that paternity leave policies help improve mental health, career development, and financial status in new parents. Your company may already have a paid maternity leave policy (which is mandated throughout most of the world), but you may want to look at offering leave to all new parents rather than only those who have just given birth. 

Offering gender-neutral parental leave, including leave for parents of newly adopted children, can help contribute to lasting bonds between parents and children in early development while also creating a positive work-life balance.

To support all new parents, Hewlett Packard Enterprise offers six months of parental leave and parental transition support, applicable for new mothers, fathers, and adoptive parents. Normalizing necessary breaks for employees has led to higher retention, says Debbie Irish, HP’s head of HR in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Debbie explains that “ensuring these individuals feel comfortable with returning to the workplace is key to enabling better long-term staff retention” and is “a win-win for both employees and companies.” 

3. Flexible scheduling

More and more companies are acknowledging that while team members juggle busy schedules at work, they also have demands outside of it. Like unlimited PTO, providing opportunities for flexible scheduling can reap huge benefits and show your employees you trust them to get their work done — even if they need to run to the grocery store, pick up a kid from school, or take a parent to the doctors in between. 

Flexible scheduling can take many forms, but essentially it allows employees to get their work done outside of a traditional 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. workday and 5-day workweek. For instance, at Internet search and privacy company DuckDuckGo, embracing flexible scheduling is all about empowerment. Managers trust that employees will do what needs to get done at a time and a pace that’s most suitable for them. “We understand that everyone has their own working styles, as well as certain times of the day when they’re most productive,” says Allison Goodman, DuckDuckGo spokesperson, “so we offer freedom and flexibility to organize their individual work schedules.”

4. Family building benefits

For a long time, family-building benefits were limited to fertility tests and, in a few cases, in vitro fertilization. But this family of benefits has expanded into other areas as well, including egg freezing, surrogacy, adoption, and more. 

However, many fertility benefits were created with heterosexual couples in mind and now some companies, like JPMorgan Chase, have taken steps to support the family goals of all team members. Chase is now offering U.S. employees up to $30,000 for in vitro treatments without an infertility diagnosis. The bank also increased reimbursements for surrogacy costs from $10,000 to $30,000. Other companies have also started expanding to other types of family building by offering stipends for adoption and surrogacy. 

Expanding fertility benefits is one way to stay competitive and attract new talent. Between 2019 and 2020, there was a 500% increase in employers offering family-building benefits, according to Peter Nieves, the chief commercial officer at WINFertility, a U.S.-based benefits platform. 

5. Domestic partner benefits

Your benefits can support families of all kinds, including domestic partnerships, and help foster an inclusive workplace while potentially easing administrative and personal stress. 

These benefits include allowing partners to join company healthcare plans and expanding bereavement leave, essentially giving those with domestic partners the same benefits as married colleagues. And since cohabitation is on the rise with marriage declining in the United States and many other countries, demand for these benefits is growing too.

Global automaker Stellantis, for example, recently announced that it would resume domestic partnership benefits in addition to its spousal benefits in the United States, a reversal from its decision to end domestic partner benefits in 2015. 

The policy change has already been well-received by its employees. “This is the company recognizing that there are other ways that people are living, and we should have the same benefits,” said Doug Furgason, cochair of the automaker’s LGBTQIA+ employee resource group.

6. Gender-affirming benefits

If you’re looking to expand your company’s support of transgender employees, evaluating your healthcare benefits is a good place to start. Gender-affirming surgery can be very expensive, and often insurance companies don’t provide full coverage by default. The Human Rights Campaign compiled a list of transgender-inclusive benefits, including medical coverage of gender reassignment surgery, hormone therapy, counseling — all of which can contribute to employees feeling valued and seen by their employers. Airbnb, for example, offers comprehensive health benefits for trans and transitioning employees.

But as you’re taking steps to foster a welcoming workplace for all employees, make sure that one of them is to engage your employees in a conversation about creating an inclusive culture. For instance, PwC has a “TransFam” ERG that works to enhance internal resources and support for trans and gender-nonconforming employees to make everyone feel safe and heard.

7. Caregiving benefits

From taking care of kids to tending to an aging parent, many employees can benefit from the day-to-day support of their obligations, particularly working mothers. For example, some 50 million Americans serve as unpaid caregivers for loved ones, and enhancing a company’s benefits to support these employees can help alleviate some of the financial and emotional stress that can come with caregiving responsibilities. Starbucks and Tripadvisor are two companies that are now subsidizing employee use of Care.com’s Care@Work program that provides backup care for children and seniors alike and offers professional guidance to caregivers.

A growing number of employers are also beginning to offer these knowledge-driven benefits to alleviate the stress that comes from administering and organizing care for loved ones. 

8. Wellness benefits 

In a recent study by the workplace mental health nonprofit Mind Share Partners, 84% of respondents reported at least one factor from work — including burnout, emotionally draining work, and poor work-life balance — that adversely affected their mental health. “Younger workers and members of underrepresented groups,” adds Bernie Wong, Mind Share Partners’ senior manager of insights, “were affected even more severely.”

Although wellness benefits are nothing new, the pandemic and even recent stories from the world of sports have placed a renewed emphasis on how companies can support their employees’ physical and mental wellbeing. If you’re actively looking for ways to improve well-being at your company, a holistic wellness plan is a sensible place to start.

For many companies, this goes beyond perks like gym stipends and free wearable fitness trackers. Unilever, for example, created a free well-being app and online Global Well-Being Hub to give employees access to a wide variety of resources, including classes, management training sessions, support from mental health professionals, and the opportunity to take a pulse check on their personal wellness.

9. Diverse healthcare providers 

It’s a powerful option to have a network of healthcare and mental health care providers who reflect the demographics of your workforce. Studies have shown that having a physician from the same racial or cultural background is good for patients, leading to higher patient satisfaction, better outcomes, and better adherence to medication protocols.

So, having a provider directory with information such as gender and race is a next-level inclusive benefit. “Work with your insurer or third-party administrator to examine your health plans provider network,” writes Ann Marie Olszewski, an employee health and welfare benefits consultant, in a LinkedIn post. “Are sufficient, high-quality primary care providers found within a few miles of employees’ home zip codes, including in underserved communities? What about obstetricians and gynecologists, necessary for women’s reproductive health? Are there any providers who specialize in geriatrics, and in gender affirmation?”

10. Tuition assistance and financial education

Our last inclusive benefit that can help attract talented, motivated team members is providing tuition assistance for employees. Some companies encourage employees to pursue degrees while they work — LinkedIn, for example, will reimburse up to $5,000 per year for educational expenses — while others use the benefit to reduce the financial burden of student loan debt.

In 2020, Google announced that its benefits for U.S. employees had expanded to include a student loan repayment program. The benefit matches up to $2,500 per year in student loan payments and is inclusive because, as Google has noted, student loan repayments disproportionately impact women and communities of color.

Your company’s education benefit can also include other types of personal development, like financial wellness benefits to educate employees on how to grow wealth and help them develop lifelong financial savvy. 

Showing your employees that you care about their holistic well-being through inclusive benefits like the ones above will help cultivate an engaged, diverse workforce that strives to make your company succeed.

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