In line with its role as a products-focused financial services company, Wealthsimple takes a product approach to the way it designs its total rewards programs.

“This means we start from a deep understanding of our clients — which, obviously, in this case, are our employees — and then we experiment, we gather feedback, we iterate constantly on our programs and, ideally, we design programs, tools and processes that are frictionless and as delightful as possible,” says Frances Policarpio, the organization’s head of total rewards.

Family planning and caregiving

The organization has more than 1,500 employees across Canada, with more than half identifying as female.

In terms of the common user journey for female employees, she notes, a popular section is family planning. “Whether you’re young and maybe starting early, from ovarian reserve testing or egg freezing, or maybe you actually want to start building a family, so [in vitro fertilization] or surrogacy, a lot of females are the primary users of that program.”

Read: How Canadian employers are redesigning benefits to support women at every life stage

The program, which was launched as a pilot last fall, is through a partnership that offers one-on-one family-building navigation. While Wealthsimple covers up to $20,000 in fertility medications per employee through its drug plan, many employees may not know where to start, says Policarpio. The program provider, which also has a deep understanding of the organization’s benefits coverage, helps employees understand their options, how they fit with their benefits plans and where there’s government support.

It also provides employees with virtual health care, which offers on-demand access to health professionals. “Moms tend to be the primary caregivers for kids. We hear........

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