Employee benefits benchmarks: How leading companies are designing their women's and family health benefits in 2025

Most HR leaders are familiar with employee benefit benchmarking, the process of evaluating your benefits against industry standards to ensure you're remaining competitive, cost effective, and aligned with employee needs. This benchmarking is crucial in attracting and retaining top talent and boosting employee satisfaction, which in turn drives business success.

By offering comprehensive family benefits, companies can set themselves apart while caring for their employees. In fact, 69% of employees have taken or considered taking a new job that offers better reproductive and family benefits specifically. 

Learn more about what benefit benchmarking looks like, what’s changing in 2025, and what you should prioritize to design competitive employee benefits. If you want to get specific women’s and family health benchmarks for your industry, visit our benchmarking tool. 

What is employee benefit benchmarking, and why does it matter?

HR leaders are no strangers to the importance of benefits in attracting and retaining top talent. In fact, three-quarters of employees are more loyal to their current companies due to the benefits they receive. 

Employee benefit benchmarking is essential to see how your company’s benefits package compare to those of other employers and industry standards. Not only does this benchmarking process help recruit and retain talent, but it also helps control costs and ensures your company is evolving to meet employee expectations. Outside of statutory—or mandatory—benefits, some key program benchmarks to check are parental leave policies, family-building support, menopause support, mental health care, and caregiving benefits for both children and the elderly.

Key benchmarks in women’s and family health benefits

To combat employee burnout, anxiety, and rising costs, companies are prioritizing physical, emotional, and financial support at every stage. This multifaceted support yields multi-prong results, including happier and more loyal employees as well as lower healthcare costs.

Globally, one of the most prominent employee benefits trends that crosses physical and cultural lines is the need for comprehensive family planning and health benefits. 69% of employers plan to increase their investment in women’s and family benefits over the next few years, and 75% of employers say that reproductive and family benefits specifically are important for retaining employees.

So what benefits are employers actually offering? Here’s a breakdown of the top family benefits, pulling data from Maven’s annual survey of over 1,500 benefits leaders and 3,700 employees.

• Parental leave: 67% of U.S. employers offer paid parental leave, compared to 54% of employers globally.
• Maternity and postpartum support: 55% of employers provide this benefit, which increases to 58% globally.
• Mental health support: 54% of U.S. employers and 49% of global employers are prioritizing mental health support.
• Fertility, adoption, and surrogacy: 40% of companies offer fertility benefits, and 39% provide adoption/surrogacy support.
• Childcare and eldercare: 39% offer childcare benefits while 33% provide eldercare support.
• LGBTQIA+ and menopause support: Both of these areas are growing year over year, with 20% of employers now investing in LGBTQIA+ health and 21% offering menopause support.

Looking forward: Employers' top benefits priorities

When measuring results, 36% of employers rank clinical and health outcomes as one of the top indicators of success. With many companies operating on a tight budget, proving ROI through improved health and business outcomes is increasingly important. Benefits vendors like Maven have demonstrated success through a clinically-validated care model that is shown to tangibly impact key health measures, like reducing the need for fertility treatment or lowering NICU admissions. 

Top employer priorities include preparing for parenthood before pregnancy through preconception support and fertility education, since preconception care is one of the biggest ways to reduce healthcare costs. To support the growing demand for inclusive benefits, employers are also prioritizing fertility, adoption, and surrogacy support, as well as eldercare and childcare to support multigenerational caregiving responsibilities. To address burnout and stress for working parents specifically, employers are focusing on parenting support, maternity and postpartum care, and mental health benefits.

The business case for investing in family health benefits

As companies face retention challenges and employee burnout, HR leaders are emphasizing the importance of reproductive and family benefits in attracting and retaining employees. 84% of employers say that reproductive and family benefits are crucial for recruitment and 85% say they’re critical for workforce retention.

Most employers plan to expand family health benefits vendors in the next 2–3 years. However, with this expansion comes the need for vendor consolidation. One in four HR leaders (26%) say their top process challenge is managing multiple benefits platforms, highlighting the need for personalized, end-to-end employee support that leaves no gaps in access.

These investments in reproductive and family benefits have tangible business impact, with companies seeing direct ROI in improved employee engagement and lower healthcare costs. In an internal Maven analysis, 30% of members who received preconception care achieved pregnancy without costly assisted reproductive technology like IVF, driving significant savings for employers and employees alike. 

How HR leaders can benchmark to offer competitive employee benefits

Ready to benchmark for yourself and see how your benefits compare? 

Step 1: Analyze your current offerings

To get a better understanding of industry standards, use the data provided in Maven’s 2025 annual report. See how you stack up and identify gaps in key areas like fertility, mental health, or parenting support.

Step 2: Assess employee needs

Conduct employee surveys and focus groups to gather direct feedback about what employees need. You can also analyze benefits utilization to see which benefits are popular and which might be underutilized. From there, align benefit offerings with workforce demographics. With a multigenerational workforce, employees will have different needs at different life stages. For example, millennial and Gen Z employees are driving demand for fertility and mental health support, while Baby Boomer and Gen X employees increasingly need menopause support.

Step 3: Measure success with key metrics

When it comes to benefits, there are several ways to measure success, one of which is the aforementioned employee utilization rates. If usage is lower than expected, consider educating employees on the benefits available to them through information sessions and multichannel communication. HR leaders can also track the impact on recruitment and retention, as well as the cost savings of reduced medical costs, lower absenteeism, and improved productivity. 

The importance of reproductive and family benefits

Benchmarking benefits is no longer optional for HR leaders—it’s essential for staying competitive. For your employee benefits package to be truly comprehensive, they need to go beyond standard, statutory benefits to make a meaningful difference to employees at various life stages. Aside from the positive impact women’s and family health benefits have on individual employees and their families, they also improve employee loyalty, motivation and satisfaction.

HR leaders who prioritize data-driven decision-making and end-to-end benefit solutions will see the most impact, which starts with assessing your current benefits program and exploring opportunities for improvement. If you're an employer who wants to make a real difference to your people and your business, Maven can help. To find out more about working with us, get in touch today.