Microsoft Turns to Maven to Support All Paths to Parenthood

Microsoft, the largest software company in the world, has turned to Maven to provide their employees with the support and guidance they need to begin their parenting journeys. Each day, eight babies are born to a Microsoft employee. Through Maven, Microsoft hopes to support each and every employee’s unique path to parenthood, whether it’s through childbirth, surrogacy, or adoption.

Sonja Kellen, Senior Director, Global Health and Wellness at Microsoft, published a blog post expressing their excitement about the partnership, while reflecting on National Infertility Awareness Week. The partnership with Maven complements Microsoft’s mission to invest in the long-term health and wellness of their employees. As Sonja describes it, “We’re always trying to rethink and evolve what is essential to our employees, and want to ensure the wellbeing of all parents, wherever they may be in their family-building journey.”

In the past few years, many of the world’s largest organizations have expanded their benefits offerings for working parents and their families. Each year, millions of women leave the workforce due to pregnancy discrimination, social and racial disparities in access to adequate maternal healthcare, and post-partum complications. The pandemic has placed renewed emphasis on the need to support employees and their partners along the parenting journey, both to help them stay productive, and to ensure healthy outcomes for their families. Starting a family is one of the most profound experiences in many of our lives, and each path to parenthood is unique, requiring different types of support and expertise. 

Maven provides aspiring parents on-demand access to specialists from over 25 different disciplines, as well as engaging clinically accurate content that’s tailored to their stage of the journey. We also provide care-matching for people of color and LGBTQIA+ parents so they can seek advice unique to their situations from providers who can empathize with their backgrounds. “The path to parenthood is full of twists and turns, and it looks different for everyone—but that’s exactly why we want to help interested employees prepare for it however we can,” said Sonja.

Microsoft’s employees are just as enthusiastic about Maven: as soon as the partnership began, many Microsoft mothers and parents-to-be joined the platform and started booking appointments with providers. “Within a week of launching, more than 1,300 members of our Microsoft community joined and began booking free appointments.” In fact, Microsoft employees are experiencing on average three times more engagement with Maven than other companies.

Through Maven, they’re able to receive timely interventions, helpful content, and access speciality providers for all of their maternity needs — from doulas to lactation consultants. Mothers who use Maven have a 90% return to work rate, compared to the national average of 57%. Microsoft is combining Maven with other benefits for parents to ensure mothers, fathers, and families can plan their pregnancies and navigate the return to work as safely and effectively as possible.

“From what we’ve seen so far, Maven looks like a great place to start the planning—user reviews already average 4.99 stars out of 5! I hope employees continue to make the most of Maven in the years to come.”
To learn more about Microsoft’s partnership with Maven, read Sonja’s blog here.