6. Mai 2025

The business case to support family planning

In a new White Paper published in cooperation with Family Forward, we set ourselves ambitious goals: to understand the current barriers to fertility treatments and family planning in Switzerland and to develop actionable recommendations. One clear finding: the looming “fertility crisis” directly (and negatively) affects employers. That’s why you should support your employees on their family journey – but how should you go about it?

In 2024, Switzerland had the lowest birth rate ever recorded: 1.3 children per woman. Switzerland is experiencing what the journalist Michael Ferber recently called a “turning point in the history of humanity.”

Falling birth rates exacerbates the skills shortage

The population of Western Europe is expected to decrease by 12% by 2100. Switzerland is already heavily dependent on immigration to “balance out” declining fertility. In 2029, the number of people reaching retirement age will exceed the number of young people entering the labor market by over 30,000. Falling fertility rates exacerbate skills shortage: There will be a shortfall of around 431,000 people in the labor market by 2040, about 8% of today’s working population. This is around eight percent of the total working population today. In short: This is a problem that directly and painfully affects employers in Switzerland.

In Switzerland, the fertility crisis is particularly acute; in the EU, the fertility rate is low as well, but at 1.46 still considerably higher than here. Part of that has to do with Switzerland’s restrictive and sometimes discriminatory policy framework: For example, it’s one of the only countries in Europe where egg donation is not yet legal. No part of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) is covered through either mandatory health insurance or some kind of public fund, making it prohibitively expensive: Three rounds of IVF cost up to 55% of the annual disposable income of Swiss households. This means that only affected persons in high income brackets can easily afford the necessary treatment. The lack of vital family support (e.g. equitable parental leave, affordable childcare) further disincentivizes proactive family planning.

Work norms cause family planning delays

But norms and legislation around how we work in Switzerland play a driving role the fertility crisis, too. In Switzerland, first-time mothers are among the oldest in Europe at 31.2 years old. Swiss (care) work culture incentivizes career-oriented women to have babies later and move through key career steps first. According to a survey by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, a staggering 69% of women with tertiary degrees (and 40% of men) expect a child to have negative effects on their career prospects.

Typical career trajectories follow a clear timeline: According to our unique dataset containing the anonymized HR data of 370,000 employees in 90 public and private Swiss organizations, nearly half of all promotions go to employees aged 31 to 40. The message is clear: Those “family primetime” years are also the time to advance your career.

The distribution of unpaid (care) work plays into this dynamic, too:  In 56% of households, mothers do most of the care work, compared to only 3% of fathers. Only 18% of mothers with kids 12 and under work full-time, compared to 79% of fathers. Unfortunately, in Switzerland, part-time work is still a career killer. Employees who work less than 80% make up 12% of all employees, but their share in promotions is at only 5%. In addition, the mindset that women still must choose between career and family has a negative impact on having children early. From a medical point of view, however, this would make sense.

Employers can change the rules of the game to enable their employees to have the families and careers they want (maybe at different points of their lives). Consider the following steps:

• Widen the career window beyond “family primetime.” Analyze what promising diverse talent you lose by restricting key career steps to employees in their 30s!
• Support equitable parental leave for all employees, regardless of gender.
• Offer flexible, lifecycle-oriented career paths that fit the diverse needs of employees.

Support your employees with fertility struggles

Family planning does not always go according to plan. Consider: 1 in 7 couples in Switzerland struggles with infertility. As an employer, you might think that your employees’ fertility journey is none of your business (pun intended). But it concerns you more than you think: If employees undergoing fertility struggles are not supported, this will have negative effects on performance, engagement and retention and increases absences and work stoppage. For example: A 2023 survey in the UK found that 18% of people undergoing fertility treatment ended up leaving their jobs because of the impact of fertility treatment, and yet more than a third said they received little to no support from their employer.

But how can you support your employees who are in such a painful and deeply personal situation? To our best knowledge, 2 companies in Switzerland offer financial fertility benefits (e.g. reimbursement of fertility treatments up to 40.000 CHF), and a small handful offers other forms of support, such as webinars on fertility, counselling, or specialist consultations. While their colleagues who do have (or expect) children receive at least some support, employees with fertility struggles are generally excluded from support. We recommend you take the following first steps:

• Develop a formal family and fertility policy so that employees know immediately what support is available.
• Offer flexible working options that fit your employees’ actual needs.
• Consider offering financial and/or counseling support for fertility treatments.

Support managers in supporting their employees

The direct manager directly shapes the culture of trust and the perception of “safe space” within a team. and whether the team feels like a safe space. For employees with health struggles, this is particularly relevant. Do employees have to reveal to their employer, that they are struggling with fertility? Of course not. Miscarriage and unfulfilled desire to have children are still taboo subjects that few people talk about, to the point where the stigma attached to them is even stronger than to sex or menstruation.

However, it would be beneficial for all those affected if the work culture allowed people to talk openly about issues such as family planning and fertility problems – without fear of negative consequences. Employers can retain and support their talents, and those affected feel supported in a difficult personal situation. What can you do?

• Employers should clearly define expectations how and to what extent leaders should support their team members when it comes to health issues.
• Teach your leaders the skills necessary to have sensitive conversations with their employees (e.g. leading effective one-on-one meetings; showing constructive reactions to disclosure messages).
• Educate leaders on (in)fertility and treatments.
• Introduce a tool to help employees decide whether or not to disclose their fertility issues at work and, if so, to whom. A similar tool is currently being launched by the Competence Center for Diversity, Disability and Inclusion at the University of St.Gallen. More information can be found on this website.

Of course, it is also essential that the state improves the legal framework to change standards around work and make fertility treatments accessible to all. But employers should also take their responsibility seriously - also because it simply makes sense from a business perspective in times of skills shortage.

Read the full White Paper - with data, analyses and specific recommendations for companies.