Apple has announced a new healthcare program aimed at attracting more female staff. The program includes an offer to preserve eggs and help women postpone bearing and raising a family.
A company note reads, “We continue to expand our benefits for women, with a new extended maternity leave policy, along with cryopreservation and egg storage as part of our extensive support for infertility treatments … We want to empower women at Apple to do the best work of their lives as they care for loved ones and raise their families.”
This move follows the appointment of Denise Young Smith as head of human resources in February this year. The offer to store eggs is besides other initiatives that include extended leave for parental care and subsidised student loan refinancing.
The move, it is believed will help the iPhone maker to retain talents. In another PR effort it is also trying to find out what its 98000-strong employees care most about.
Not lagging behind is Facebook whose programs for its female employees are more transparent. Its offer includes financial assistance of up to $20,000 for freezing eggs.
There are still other offers female employees can take – adoption and surrogacy assistance for example. Typically storing eggs can cost an employee around $10,000 at $500 a year in fees alone.
Both giants are known to experience a severe shortage of senior women in their workforce. The sex ratio for employees in Apple is reportedly 70% in favour of men while it is 69% for Facebook.
