Women’s Wellbeing in the Workplace Provides Strategic Advantages

In 2019, 61% of Canadian women participated in the workforce, but largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that number had fallen to 56% by April 2020.¹ Generally, a disproportionate number of women have left the workforce compared with men.²

But with COVID-19 fading (if not disappearing) as an issue affecting the workplace, home life and childhood education, many women want to reenter the workforce.

In order to attract and retain these workers, employers need to recognize that women have health and wellness concerns separate from their male counterparts that often not addressed, despite major strides over the last several decades to do so.

The issues for women’s wellbeing in the workplace

Women have specific health and wellness needs that employers can address. Some of these concerns include:

• Female-only health issues, including contraception, fertility, maternal health, menopause, gynecology and women’s oncology.
• General health issues that affect women differently, such as heart disease, affect women disproportionately such as migraines and osteoporosis, or demonstrate gender bias during care, such as pain management and mental health.
• Caregiving responsibilities for children, elderly parents and other family members, as caregiving disproportionately falls on women.
• Mental health issues, which have hit employees hard during the pandemic, regardless of gender.

Providing women-centric health and wellbeing solutions

Many women’s health issues are still largely taboo in the workplace, but they affect productivity. It’s important to offer support for employees struggling with women’s health issues. This may include additional time off for those suffering from menstrual pain or menopausal health issues, as well as bereavement leave for a miscarriage.

But to get to that point, employees need to know exactly what wellness benefits their female workforce need and want. If an employer has many younger women employees, for instance, it may be a good idea to not only offer maternity leave top-up but also fertility and reproductive treatments, and support for surrogacy or adoption.

If you employ older women, special support for those suffering during menopause may be important. Working with a benefits broker to analyze worker data can help create a strategy specific to women’s health and wellness that offers the right programs and benefits to meet the needs of the workforce.

One way to facilitate wellness for women is to leverage technology, as doing so creates a modicum of privacy. Millions of women already take advantage of period-tracking apps when trying to conceive or determine if they are nearing menopause. Not only do digital solutions offer greater privacy, but it’s far more convenient for women to access programs remotely than to take time off work to visit a professional health or wellness provider.

To learn more about improving health and wellness offerings for women and the workforce overall, contact HUB International.

¹ Catalyst, “Women in the Workforce: Canada (Quick Take),” August 19, 2020.
² RBC, “COVID Further Clouded the Outlook for Canadian Women at Risk of Disruption,” March 4, 2021.