Expanding benefits to help employees prioritize their wellbeing

For employees to bring their best selves to work, they need benefits that enrich their overall wellness. I'm excited to see organizations leaving behind restrictive policies in favor of more comprehensive and flexible benefits, such gender-neutral paid leave for birth, adoptive, and surrogate parents, mental health resources and expanded wellness benefits. But there is more that can be done and by listening to employees, organizations can create policies that help truly meet the evolving needs of a diverse workforce.

As a company that was founded with a commitment to listen to all women and to help address gaps in women's health, one policy that stood out as being ripe for change was our bereavement policy. Like many other companies, our initial policy defined specific qualifying events such as the death of a loved one, but there were no provisions surrounding a miscarriage or stillborn birth. Recognizing this, in the U.S., we decided to expand our qualifying events to include miscarriage and stillborn births and to increase the leave to 20 days. And there are many other aspects of wellness where this type of thinking can be applied, such as expanding menopause benefits and leave and supporting employees managing both child and elder care.

Making people feel psychologically safe 

Organizations have recognized the importance of creating and sustaining an environment where people feel psychologically safe and for good reason: when people feel safe, they are more likely to innovate and adapt to change. In a psychologically safe environment, people have the freedom to be their true selves, feel that those selves are welcome in the workplace, and that they have a voice in driving the vision of the company forward.

One of the ways an organization can promote psychological safety is by having frequent, quality conversations about performance. This must be an employee-driven process in the natural rhythm of one's work. I've found that when employees are the ones requesting and owning feedback, they are much more receptive to it, and the process builds trust, and in turn, safety.

Embedding pay and gender parity into the fabric of every organization

It's been encouraging to see conversations around pay and gender parity gaining momentum, but action needs to match discussion. Globally, women remain underrepresented in leadership roles and are paid less than men on average. Changing this will require companies to commit to achieving gender parity at all levels within organizations, from interns to board members.

For example, while Organon is proud to have one of the most diverse boards of directors in the pharmaceutical industry, we know that we can go further. Accordingly, by 2030, we aim to achieve balanced gender representation (consistent with labor market availability) through all levels of the company.

Additionally, in 2022, we engaged external economic and legal experts to conduct pay equity studies in two of our largest markets (the United States and the United Kingdom).  We intend to extend those studies into other regions over the next three years.  Going forward, we plan to continue using comprehensive evaluative approaches to help equitable decision-making regarding compensation allocation across our organization, and encourage other organizations to take similar actions.

Read more: These 5 trends will define employee benefits in 2023

These are just a few of the trends that will change the workplace in 2023 and beyond. While we have our work cut out for us, I'm excited for the workplace of the future, which will undoubtedly be more diverse, inclusive, and innovative than ever before.

Aaron Falcione, Chief Human Resources Officer at Organon