Introducing the RMH@Work Corporate Index
Summary
In 2024, Reproductive and Maternal Health (RMH) Compass committed to launch the inaugural RMH@Work Corporate Index, the first-ever in-depth reporting of the reproductive and maternal health benefits provided by the 100 largest U.S. employers who collectively employ more than 21 million workers. The index raises awareness and advances the standard of RMH benefits for workers by providing performance benchmarks and equipping employers with the resources – such as sample policies, vendor lists, and case studies – to improve their offerings. Over the next five years, RMH Compass will engage with these employers by sharing benchmark data and resources to encourage them to strengthen their reproductive and maternal health benefits including but not limited to fertility support, contraception coverage, and maternity and postpartum care. In addition to improving the health standards for their direct employees, these improved benefits will also impact employees’ dependents, including spouses and children on dependent care plans.
Approach
Reproductive & Maternal Health Compass (RMH Compass) commits to launching the inaugural RMH@Work Corporate Index, the first-ever in-depth reporting of the reproductive and maternal health benefits provided by the largest 100 U.S. employers who collectively employ over 21 million workers. This commitment raises awareness and advances the standard of RMH benefits for workers by providing performance benchmarks and equipping employers with the resources – such as sample policies, vendor lists and case studies – to improve their offerings. In future years, the RMH@Work Corporate Index will recognize those employers that meet a high-standard of RMH benefits. This commitment covers the first five years of annual RMH@Work Corporate Indices.
By leveraging a hybrid data model that includes publicly-disclosed information, data from employer-sponsored health plans and survey responses from participating companies, the RMH@Work Corporate Index encourages U.S. corporations to be more transparent about their RMH benefits. By providing these performance insights, companies know where they stand-out and what they need to do to improve. To date, no other in-depth surveying of corporate reproductive and maternal health benefits has been conducted; this commitment will also serve to hold employers accountable to providing critical health benefits to their workers.
The corporate partners listed in this commitment represent the first businesses to actively participate, demonstrating their commitment to the reproductive and maternal health of their workforce. As the participant list grows, RMH@Work commits to sharing performance insights and results collected via the annual survey. Success of this commitment will be measured in scale and depth, with an increasing number of participating companies in future years and through quantified improvements in their reproductive and maternal health benefits offerings.
Action Plan
The purpose of this commitment is to create a race-to-the-top for companies. The action plan evaluates, verifies, and provides performance insights to improve the reproductive and maternal health benefits of participating companies on an annual basis.
Work on this action commenced in April 2024, when the RMH Compass team began outreach with the largest U.S. employers, inviting them to participate in the inaugural RMH@Work Corporate Index. The inaugural report will be released at CGI in September 2024.
In the last quarter of 2024, RMH Compass will provide custom performance reports to participating companies and engage one-on-one to review and identify areas for improvement. Resources for implementation will be provided to encourage continued improvement. Developing these resources is an on-going aspect of this commitment; our resource hub will grow over time and with the support of our commitment partners.
Over the course of the five-year commitment, the RMH@Work Corporate Index Report will be released each September. Beginning in January of each year, RMH Compass will engage the 100 largest U.S. companies. Each company is asked to complete the RMH Compass Survey, a free, online diagnostic that measures performance across four principles of their RMH benefits programs, including: comprehensive healthcare coverage, flexible and supportive workplace policies, employee communications, and employer-based advocacy. In June, data will be verified by RMH Compass Research Fellows; results are analyzed to identify trends and compared year-over-year to measure incremental progress.
Each year, as the dataset grows and evolves, those results and the top-performing companies will be highlighted in the RMH@Work Corporate Index Report, thus achieving our goal of creating a race-to-the-top for corporate RMH benefits.
Background
The majority of U.S. corporations have been slow to recognize a critical workplace issue – workers increasingly want and need employers to provide supportive reproductive and maternal health (RMH) benefits. Data tells a story that should compel employers to action.
There is a clear business case for providing comprehensive, high-quality reproductive and maternal health benefits. Employees rank working for a values-aligned company as the most important factor for thriving at work (Marsh McLennan, 2024) and women’s reproductive health is cited as the most pressing social issue by 71 percent of U.S. workers (Mercer, 2023) . One-third of workers would forego a pay raise for a stronger benefits package and 71 percent of workers would stay in a job that offered better healthcare benefits. Better health insurance is cited as the second most common reason a worker leaves a job (behind higher compensation) ( Marsh McLennan, 2024) .
The majority of 18-34 year old workers believe their employers are not doing enough to support and protect their reproductive health (Fortune. 2022) . According to Marsh McLennan’s 2024 Employee Health Benefits Trends Report, the number of workers who want access to abortion care, contraceptive coverage, fertility support, lactation support and postpartum care significantly outnumbers employers who provide these benefits. Moreover, men and women prioritize the importance of these benefits at equal rates, indicating this is a priority for all workers.
Events over the last five years have highlighted how essential these benefits are for the average American worker – from the caregiver crisis highlighted by the COVID pandemic, the overturning of Roe v. Wade limiting reproductive health care access, to novel legal attempts limiting fertility and contraceptive care around the country.
The business case for RMH benefits is clear – companies can improve productivity and loyalty, lower turnover and attract top talent with great RMH benefits.
Progress Update
Partnership Opportunities
RMH Compass has already raised more than $770,000 in philanthropic support to launch this commitment. Additional resources needed to support this commitment include financial support from funders operating at the intersection of business, gender justice and reproductive rights. In addition, the opportunity to make this commitment at CGI should sow the seeds for continued media coverage of RMH@Work, a critical amplification of this initiative as it scales over the five-year commitment period. Lastly, connection with subject-matter experts at CGI can help to inform the RMH Compass Survey framework and shape reproductive and maternal health standards in the future., A core component of this commitment includes the development of a hub of corporate resources for participants. This will include a library of business case one-pagers that equip companies with the financial performance information to advocate for adding RMH benefits to their offerings and sample policies, vendor lists, and case studies for implementation. The RMH Compass Survey and all resources will be publicly available for any company that wants to evaluate and benchmark their performance. Beyond these best practices, we have identified partners to serve as paid consultants to support corporations with implementation as needed. Taken together, these resources create an ecosystem similar to the ecosystem that has developed around the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index.