Beyond benefit expansion

June 2026

Women’s and family health has become a strategic priority for employers across markets. That shift reflects real progress. Organisations are investing more in support for fertility, pregnancy, parenting, menopause, mental health, and other family-related needs. Yet Maven’s 2026 research suggests that broader provision, on its own, is not enough. Many employees still do not feel consistently supported by the benefits available to them. For global employers, that is the more important story. The challenge is no longer simply to add support. It is to make support visible, usable, and trusted when people need it most.

This matters well beyond benefits design. Women’s and family health influences workforce participation, absence, retention, employee confidence, and healthcare costs. It also shapes how employees experience their employer during some of the most significant moments of life, from family building and pregnancy to caregiving and midlife health. When support feels fragmented or difficult to access, the gap between employer intent and employee experience quickly becomes a business issue as well as a human one.

Based on surveys of employees and HR and benefits leaders across the US, UK, Canada, and India, Maven’s 2026 Global State of Women’s & Family Health Benefits report highlights four themes that deserve the attention of multinational employers:

1. a widening perception gap,
2. the importance of earlier intervention in pregnancy care,
3. the growing role of AI in health decision-making, and
4. persistent barriers to access.

Taken together, they point to a clear conclusion: the next phase of benefits strategy must focus less on expansion alone and more on quality of experience.

One of the clearest messages in the report is that employees do not judge benefits by how comprehensive they look on paper. They judge them by whether they help in moments of need. Employers may be broadening support across multiple categories, but if employees find those benefits hard to locate, hard to understand, or difficult to use, confidence declines rather than grows. Maven’s findings suggest that this is exactly the tension many organisations are now facing.

That tension is especially sharp in women’s and family health, where needs often arise under pressure. Fertility treatment, pregnancy complications, postpartum recovery, return to work, and menopause are not moments when employees want to navigate a maze of policies, vendors, and reimbursement rules. They want clarity, speed, and reassurance. The more fragmented the journey feels, the less likely it is that support will feel meaningful, no matter how generous it appears in principle.

For global employers, complexity is amplified by geography. Employees may be navigating local statutory provision, private health systems, and employer-sponsored support all at once. What looks well designed at a central level may still feel inconsistent or confusing in practice. That makes communication and navigation every bit as important as coverage itself.

In practical terms, employers should be asking three simple questions:

• Can employees quickly understand what support is available?
• Is the path from question to care clear and intuitive?
• Do benefits feel connected across life stages, rather than split into disconnected programmes?

If the answer is uncertain, the issue may not be lack of investment. It may be lack of coherence.

The report also places a spotlight on high-risk pregnancy, an area where timing and coordination matter enormously. Employers are already feeling the financial and operational impact of pregnancy-related complications, yet many employees still lack a clear understanding of what high-risk pregnancy means and when additional support may be needed. That gap in awareness can delay care, increase stress, and make outcomes harder to improve later.

For employers, the implications extend well beyond claims cost. Pregnancy-related complications can affect an employee’s experience throughout pregnancy, recovery after birth, and readiness to return to work. When support arrives too late or feels disjointed, the impact may be seen in prolonged recovery, a more difficult return from leave, and weaker workforce continuity overall. Maven’s findings reinforce the idea that earlier intervention is not simply a clinical concern. It is also a workforce strategy.

The report suggests that the most effective approach is not necessarily more maternity provision, but better-connected maternity support. That means making it easier for employees to understand risk sooner, access guidance quickly, and stay supported beyond birth. Stronger maternity support should include:

• Early education so employees can better understand pregnancy risks from the start.
• Clear care coordination that helps people move quickly to the right support.
• Mental health support alongside clinical care, especially during more complex pregnancies.
• Continued follow-through during postpartum recovery and return to work.

The broader lesson is that benefits should not be designed around isolated milestones. They should support the full employee journey, especially at moments when uncertainty is highest and the need for guidance is greatest.

Another striking theme in the report is the speed at which AI has entered the health information journey. Employees are increasingly turning to AI tools for quick answers to health questions, often before they engage with employer resources or formal care pathways. This reflects a clear demand for convenience and immediacy, but it also creates a new challenge for HR and benefits leaders. Easy access to information does not always mean access to reliable or clinically appropriate guidance.

For employers, this is not just a technology trend. It is a benefits experience issue. If employees are forming early views, or even making care decisions, outside the employer-supported ecosystem, organisations may lose the opportunity to guide them toward trusted support at the right time. That can weaken the value of existing benefits, increase the risk of misinformation, and raise concerns around privacy, security, and accountability, particularly in a cross-border environment. Maven highlights all of these tensions in its findings on AI and employee health behaviour.

At the same time, the trend offers a useful signal. Employees are showing employers what they want from health guidance:

• Speed
• Simplicity
• Relevance
• Trustworthiness

The opportunity, then, is not to compete with AI on novelty. It is to provide trusted, clinically grounded support in a way that feels just as accessible. In practice, that means making employer-sponsored guidance easier to find, easier to understand, and better integrated with actual care pathways. If the trusted option feels slower or harder to use than the open web, employees will continue to look elsewhere first.

If one theme ties the report together, it is access. Benefits only deliver value when employees can use them in real life. Maven found that many women delayed or skipped routine care not because they did not need it, but because practical barriers got in the way. Scheduling constraints, long wait times, transport issues, and competing family responsibilities all continue to affect whether care is realistically within reach. This is a crucial point for multinational employers. Access is often treated as something that follows once the right benefits are in place. In reality, access determines whether those benefits produce any meaningful result at all. Delayed care can lead to more acute health needs, longer recovery periods, and lower trust in employer-sponsored support. In that sense, access is not a secondary feature. It is a core outcome.

The report also reflects the broader realities of family health. Employees often prioritise the needs of partners, children, or other dependents over their own. That means employers need benefits strategies that recognise real life, not idealised usage patterns. Flexible care options, support outside traditional working hours, and clear communication can all make the difference between a benefit that exists and a benefit that is genuinely used.

Virtual care has an important role to play, particularly for globally distributed workforces. It can reduce delays, improve convenience, and broaden access to specialist support across locations. But digital access alone is not enough. Employees also need to understand what is available, when to use it, and how it fits into the wider care journey. Visibility and ease of use matter just as much as availability.