[This article appears in the current March/April 2019 issue of Boston Spirit magazine. Subscribe for free today.]
A great example of corporate response to diversity and inclusion issues in the workforce is MassMutual’s progressive new expansion of benefits, rolled out in January 2019.
“These expansions are a direct result of employee feedback,” said Dr. Claudia Coplein, head of wellness for the Springfield, Massachusetts-based corporation, which is also opening new offices at the Boston Seaport this year.
With over 450 voices nationwide in the company’s LGBT Employee Business Group (EBG), Pride, there came plenty of feedback on LGBTQ issues through this group, just one of the company’s eight EBGs that consistently share their concerns with corporate leadership.
Started 11 years ago, Pride is the company’s first EBG, but equally active are groups focusing on the interests of women, African Americans, Latinx, Asian Americans, veterans of armed forces, people with disabilities, young professionals and the allies of all of these groups. Their members make up more than 20 percent of the company’s workforce, and of course this number only reflects the percent of employees who’ve joined these groups.
To assemble the 2019 benefits expansion, leadership listened to all employees, whether or not they were members of the groups, while making sure the interests of every EBG had a significant place at the planning table.
“We wanted to make sure our benefits are designed to be adaptable to diverse situations and be inclusive to everyone,” Coplein said.
The company already had a strong record, consistently earning a score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, for example. But its leadership wanted to do even better.
Take the expansion’s redefinition of “loved one,” now defined by each employee. “Who are we as a company to determine who is important to an individual? The truth is that everybody’s situation and circle of loved ones is different. This is an opportunity to empower our employees to define family and loved ones on their own terms.”
This approach applies to the expansion of their “caregiver leave” program, which understands an employee may be caring for young children but maybe also parents, or a grandparent, or a college roommate, or you name it.
This is now true too for bereavement leave, where a traditional plan might offer five days off for an immediate family member defined as a parent, child or spouse, or three days for extended family like a cousin, nephew or in-law. “We’ve done away with that completely,” Coplein says. “We’ve not only increased the amount of paid time off, but we leave it up to the employee to define who the loved one is, and how much time they need to grieve the loss.”
As for bringing new family members into the world, benefits for family planning, fertility and parental leave are greatly expanded as well with 10 weeks of fully paid time off for mothers to recover from the birth of a child plus an additional eight weeks for parents of any gender to bond with their new offspring.
Fertility treatment and medication coverage no longer requires the “medical necessity” definition of “infertility,” Coplein said, “because quite frankly members of the LGBTQ community or people who choose to be single parents could never meet that definition. So again, who are we to decide how you should create your family?”
Transgender services are another major piece of the expansion. The company already covered the basics for those going through gender affirmation like hormone therapy testing, mental health counseling, genital surgery, and mastectomies. That coverage has now expanded to things previously not considered medically necessary or “cosmetic” in nature. “For a person going through gender affirmation, that’s not cosmetic,” Coplein said. “To maximize their success, their appearance needs to be fully transitioned.”
Other key areas of expansion are in behavioral health and cancer care. “We want to destigmatize mental health issues, and we want to make care more accessible for all,” Coplein said, who stressed that the company is similarly committed to supporting employees and their loved ones facing cancer and has greatly expanded benefits there too.
Another new program is in paid volunteer time. MassMutual already sponsors a host of community-related events, but now employees can take time off to share their talents and skills with causes closest to their hearts. “Who are we to decide what sort of relationship one has with their community and various causes? We’re leaving that up to each individual,” Coplein said.
Overall, Coplein said, “This expansion is another step in MassMutual’s cultural evolution to become a more flexible and inclusive company. We feel it’s important to build upon what we’ve said is our foundation of trust and integrity and help our employees take better care of themselves and the ones they love, and we’re willing to stand behind this to be an inclusive employer of choice.”
