As many as one in seven couples, may have difficulty conceiving. The number could have a huge impact on your people as the reality of the challenge couples and individuals may face are rarely recognised and often misunderstood by employers. As a result, many people suffer in silence.
The positive news is following the Fertility Treatment (Employment Rights) bill being read in parliament in June, fertility is becoming a more prominent topic in the business world.
We encourage you, to create a fertility friendly workplace.
Here how we can help you with five steps to achieve this:
1. Clear policies and communications
Often a policy is where employees first look to see if their workplace even recognises fertility treatment. A dedicated fertility policy or guidance is the start, but not the only answer to invoke change in this space. It is one of the many things that organisations can do to signal support to employees, ideally developed in conjunction with the review of current HR policies, combined with awareness raising and educational content to bring the issue to life and embed the conversation as part of the day to day culture of the organisation.
2. Workload considerations – Flexibility
There is a considerable amount of time involved for all those navigating fertility journeys. This may include initially identifying fertility problems, dealing with underlying health conditions, liaising with doctors, attending appointments, and undergoing a wide range of investigations and treatments, among other things. All of these take up a great deal of physical time and energy and more often than not are emotionally charged. We encourage organisations to recognise this and build in guidance to support attending appointments, entitlements, allowing time off in hours (not just full days) and hybrid working where possible.
3. Educational training
Raising awareness of fertility issues in the workplace is an important educational piece for all employees, however it is particularly pertinent to offer training for managers. Topics such as fertility and pregnancy loss are highly sensitive and managers will only know how to approach these topics with the correct training. It would be unrealistic to expect them to know everything about all of the different complex and personal experiences involved.
4. Building Internal Support Networks
Having someone in the organisation that actually understands about the fertility journey, someone who can be there for both managers and employees to go to for guidance and support can make a huge difference. We know that providing informal peer-to-peer support for employees who have been through a difficult journey or who are currently experiencing fertility struggles can be a key resource in dealing with the emotional challenges and helping people feel less alone. Often when these issues are talked about internally, those with lived experience may volunteer to help with a passion to support others stemming from their own experience.
5. External support and signposting
Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP) can be a huge source of support for those on complex fertility journeys. While some clinics offer counselling, it is often very expensive, and the content and number of sessions can vary. Businesses could consider offering more specialised fertility counselling through their workplace schemes, with practitioners specifically trained in fertility counselling who can also provide an opportunity to talk through workload concerns. We have an HR expert with first hand experience of fertility and IVF treatment who can help you navigate these conversations.
Organisations cannot be expected to know it all or have specialised support for every single scenario when it comes to family building, but what they can do is signpost to credible, specialised support for different family building journeys. If businesses implemented a dedicated fertility policy whilst also reviewing their current HR policies, it could positively transform a person’s whole fertility journey and ultimately ensure open and constructive communication between managers and employees.
It is important to think about now and be ahead of the curve, with conversations in parliament already underway to provide the statutory right to employees for time off for fertility appointments.
If you have any questions on any of the above, please get in touch with the office: hr@wardwilliamshr.co.uk or call 01932 830664.