The hidden talent gap affecting global organisations: family-building and hormonal health support
Could overlooked gaps in your benefits strategy be costing you experienced talent? Explore why global organisations are rethinking fertility, family-building and hormonal health support.
Traditionally, talent strategy has centred on compensation, flexibility, and career progression. Those levers still matter – but they’re no longer enough on their own.
Across industries, employers are losing experienced talent not just because of pay or role design, but because employees don’t feel supported through critical life stages: trying to conceive, navigating fertility treatment, building a family in non-traditional ways, or managing hormonal health, including menopause.
Fertility, family-building, and hormonal health support are no longer “nice-to-have” benefits. They are strategic levers that shape retention, leadership pipelines, equity, and workforce sustainability.
For global workforces, the challenge is compounded. Support often varies significantly by country, creating inequitable experiences for employees across different locations. The consequences show up centrally: in engagement and retention data, succession planning, pay equity reviews, and the diversity of leadership cohorts.
Where traditional strategies fall short
Even well-intentioned programmes can fall short when they are:
- Reactive – focused on interventions, rather than education and prevention
- Too narrow – focused solely only on fertility treatment, overlooking adoption, surrogacy, donor conception, single parenthood by choice, and LGBTQ+ pathways
- Fragmented by geography – comprehensive in one country, minimal or non-existent in others
- Separated from hormonal health – for example, menopause care sitting outside broader reproductive or family-building strategies
Traditional benefit designs were not built with this level of complexity in mind. The result is a gap between what benefits offer and what employees actually need. That gap directly affects:
- Engagement – whether employees feel seen and supported during high-stakes life stages
- Equity – whether support is available across roles, locations, and family structures
- Retention – whether experienced employees can see a path to build a family and stay in their roles
Managing global complexity
Delivering benefits across multiple countries is complex. Regulations differ, healthcare systems vary, and costs can fluctuate significantly between markets. For many HR and rewards teams, it can feel easier to defer action than to redesign what already exists.
What’s required is a different approach; instead of treating complexity as a barrier, treat it as a strategic design challenge. This creates a shift from fragmented, country-by-country solutions to more cohesive global strategies – built on a clear principle: equitable access to meaningful support, regardless of location.
In practice, that looks like:
- Setting global standards for what “good support” means across fertility, family-building, and hormonal health
- Allowing local flexibility in how support is delivered, so programmes align with local healthcare systems, regulations, and cultural norms
- Recognising that access alone isn’t enough – employees need clear and consistent communication, navigation, education, and expert guidance so they can actually use what is on offer
From benefit to business strategy
What distinguishes leading organisations is not just that they offer family-building support – it is how they position and govern it.
Rather than treating these programmes as niche or reactive, they are:
- Embedding fertility, family-building, and hormonal health within talent, wellbeing, and inclusion strategies
- Treating them as critical to retaining experienced talent and protecting leadership diversity
- Aligning governance with enterprise priorities – workforce sustainability, risk management, and employer brand
Crucially, they are also measuring impact differently. Instead of focusing only on utilisation or claims, they look at:
- Retention and progression of employees who use these benefits, particularly in mid-career and leadership populations
- Employee experience and sentiment, including how supported people feel during fertility journeys, family-building, return-to-work, and menopause
- Regional equity – how experiences differ across countries and what that means for global talent strategy
What HR and benefits leaders can do now
For organisations looking to move from fragmented or reactive approaches to intentional, strategic ones, a few priorities stand out:
- Audit for equity – not just availability
Map where benefits are offered and where gaps sit across your footprint. Global inconsistencies are often the biggest risk to both fairness and retention. - Broaden the definition of “family-building”
Ensure support is inclusive and reflects today’s reality, including fertility preservation, fertility treatment such as IVF, adoption, surrogacy, donor conception, single parenthood by choice, and LGBTQ+ pathways. Sense-check language and eligibility criteria with ERGs and local HR teams. - Connect fertility with hormonal health
Treat these as part of a continuum, not separate issues. Integrating menopause and broader hormonal health support (including for men and trans and non-binary employees) is essential for retaining mid-career talent globally. - Focus on access and experience – not just coverage
Benefits only deliver value if employees can find, understand, and navigate them. Build in guidance, education, and access to expert support at scale – whether through internal resources, external partners like Carrot, or both. - Measure what actually matters – globally
Look beyond utilisation. Track retention, progression, and employee sentiment across regions and demographic groups – particularly among mid-career and underrepresented groups – and use those insights to refine where and how you invest.
The organisations moving ahead are not simply offering more; they are designing smarter, more equitable global strategies that reflect how people actually live and work today.