Menopause policies, IVF leave: Why women want to work for these companies

With menopause policies and IVF leave, the top workplaces for women in 2024 have been ranked. Check our searchable list to see if your employer made the cut.

Carly Douglas

@Carly__Douglas

2 min read

March 8, 2024 - 4:00AM

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Fertility leave, “menopause policies”, onsite and fully-funded childcare and 26 weeks flexible paid parental leave.

These are just a few of the benefits Australia’s top 101 employers for women are offering to their employees.

To mark International Women’s Day, Work180 – an organisation which assesses workplace policies, benefits and initiatives that drive gender equality – has exclusively provided the Herald Sun with the top 101 workplaces for women in 2024.

Work180 CEO Gemma Lloyd said companies that scored a spot on the ranked top 10 list – many of which are traditionally male dominated workplaces – were bringing innovative, family-friendly ideas to the table – and were reaping the rewards.

CEO of WORK180 Gemma Lloyd. Picture: Jared G Marshall.

Among them was paid grandparents’ leave, fertility leave and pregnancy loss leave, onsite, fully-funded childcare and even childcare allowances to new parents returning to work.

Big four accounting firm Ernst & Young took out the top spot again this year.

Ms Lloyd spotlighted EY’s 26-week paid parental leave policy which can be taken as one block or split into multiple blocks, saying it represented “true gender equity”.

“It shows that EY don’t just have a policy, they’re encouraging their people to use it,” she said.

Oceania Talent Leader at EY Lauren Stanton said the family-friendly leave benefit was offered to both men and women equally and was available to employees from their first day at EY.

“We’ve now found that there is a 50-50 split for men and women accessing paid parental leave,” she said.

“We have also removed primary and secondary carer labels.”

Ms Stanton said there had been a 33 per cent increase in men taking parental leave since the changes were introduced in March last year, and almost 40 per cent across the board.

“We also have increased compassionate leave for early pregnancy loss and offer fertility leave for employees going through IVF and fertility treatments,” she said.

“And for parents returning to work, we offer flexibility that includes compressed work weeks and working from home, as well as support to transition back to work.”

Ms Stanton said the benefits had “absolutely” helped with attracting and retaining top talent.

Other top 10 companies include Liberty Financial, Systra ANZ, Accenture and Experian ANZ.

Ms Lloyd said employers in traditionally male dominated fields like financial technology company, Stake, were recognising the benefits of reeling in more female employees.

She said Stake offers a $1000 per month childcare allowance in year one of new parents returning to work.

“FinTech companies don’t typically have a high ratio of female employees, and Stake wanted to improve their numbers,” she said.

“Stake’s various initiatives have helped improve the gender ratio over two years from 13 per cent representation of women to 28 per cent in 2023.”

Compressed work weeks and working from home to support parents transition back to the workplace is offered at some of the top employers.

“The company has increased the likelihood of job offer acceptance from 19 per cent to 81 per cent for women and from 24 per cent to 76 per cent by men and it has reduced staff turnover.

Ms Lloyd said at financial institution Liberty women and all-gender bathrooms now have free feminine hygiene products available.

The company also offers six-days paid reproductive health leave and five days paid fertility support leave policy.

Another new benefits, which Ms Lloyd said was being rolled out this year, were “menopause policies”.

This includes training for leaders on how to have “comfortable and confident conversations with employees experiencing menopause”, flexible working, breathable PPE and access to cold, freshwater.

“This is incredibly important as 25 per cent of the workforce is experiencing menopausal symptoms at any one time,” she said.