012: Deconstructing Stigmas Around Women’s Health with Emily Napier

Why is women’s health so heavily stigmatised within the insurance industry, both from an employee and client perspective? How can increased collaboration between specialist corporates and insurance companies create positive touch points for clients, granting them bespoke solutions and aiding our industry’s reputation?

In this episode, we’re thrilled to be speaking with Emily Napier, New Business Development Leader for Europe at Philips, focusing on women’s health and maternity care. Emily discusses how, through her role, she collaborates with insurance companies to develop bespoke products offering solutions to the challenges raised by women’s health conditions and pregnancy. Furthermore, in conversation with Sandra Lewin, she discusses how increased awareness of women’s health within insurance companies could not only help with maintaining client loyalty, but also talent retention.

 

Quote of the Episode

“[When starting a family], all of a sudden, you're thinking about so many different insurance options for the first time… Women make 80% of all the household decisions for themselves and spending for the family, but particularly on insurance. So, to be able to reach these people and to target them,; that's how we can help insurers, because we have access, to 80% of all pregnancies [across Europe through the Pregnancy+ app]. It's about helping the pregnant individual, finding the best deals, the best benefits, and the best solutions for them, so that they can get everything in one place. And they can make cost savings, but ultimately, it [also] helps the insurer because it's providing positive touch points.”

Philips Avent is collaborating with insurance companies across Europe to integrate their digital women’s health and maternity solutions into insurance products. For example, they have recently launched a partnership with Swiss insurer Zurich. This gives Pregnancy+ users access to Zurich’s digital platform LiveWell, and vice versa. This highlights the huge potential for insurer collaboration with corporate partners, to integrate solutions for women’s health and other areas underserved by the market into our industry’s offerings. Not only can this increase brand satisfaction and engagement; it can also increase loyalty and client retention. We have a huge opportunity to support clients through monumental changes such as pregnancy and women’s health conditions, which can yield huge benefits for their personal journeys and our businesses.

 

Key Takeaways

Insurance is typically perceived as a grudge purchase. Yet, it is something people consistently need, and which becomes a significant consideration particularly when one is considering starting a family. At the same moment, one might be contemplating life insurance, car insurance, home insurance, and supplementary health insurance cover simultaneously. What can we do as an industry to support those making these decisions? What amenities or support can we incorporate into our insurance offerings, in collaboration with specialist corporates, to support people along those journeys? Through incorporating women’s health consideration into insurance offerings, which Emily is negotiating with insurance companies across Europe, they are providing services which can make a substantial difference to people’s lives, whilst also affording them a solution they needed to purchase anyway.

Yet, women’s health in particular remains a fairly taboo topic across the industry. What can we do to start the conversation about developing women’s health provisions in insurance policies? Emily and Sandra suggest championing women’s rights and equal opportunities across the workplace as a great place to start. Furthermore, the circulation of training around the various health conditions that affect women of all ages can encourage these conversations to take place.

Increasing these conversations from a client perspective may also assist with the female talent retention issue within the industry. Approximately 45% of women leave insurance and do not return when starting a family. Educating employers about the suite of things that someone could be experiencing during the maternity process, to help them provide the best support and care, could help to retain talent, thereby lowering recruitment costs. Consequently, if employers endeavour to educate and empower women to understand their options if they do want to start a family, helping them to have the healthiest possible pregnancy outcome for themselves and their baby, can reap benefits both for the business and the individual.

To incentivise this internal and external consideration of women’s health within insurance companies, we need to share these stories. These issues will remain stigmatised for as long as we remain silent about them. There is already significant media focus on these issues, so if we follow these headwinds, we can make great progress in propelling the conversation and thereby securing improved benefits for women at every stage of their insurance careers, and for women purchasing insurance products.

 

Best Moments/Key Quotes

“Women's healthcare products are seen as niche, certainly in the insurance industry. Yet, when we look at the population, it’s 50% women. So how are we a niche? Women tend to buy most of the insurance products for their house; yet again, the products are not really catered for their needs.”

“If you have more corporations partnering with insurance companies, or public health organisations, together, we have the innovation to create solutions, I don’t think one person, or one party can do it on its own.”

“Women have different hormones, different organs, different bodies to men. So, we do need specific treatment and plans, and different options available. I think, because it's complex, a lot of people put up their barriers straight away, rather than trying to break them down.”

“The problem is, even if you do work on your diversity pipeline, and you bring talent in, if your company is not set up to support that talent, because it doesn't take into consideration women’s lifecycle and how it impacts them throughout the various stages, then these women won’t stay, because they have to adapt.”

 

Resources

Philips – Philips Avent and LiveWell by Zurich announce partnership: https://www.philips.co.uk/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/press/2023/20231108-philips-avent-and-livewell-by-zurich-announce-partnership

Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez

 

About the Guest

Emily Napier is the New Business Development Leader for Europe at Philips, focusing on Philips Avent and Women’s Health.

Emily’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-napier-8420aa77/

 

About the Host

Sandra Lewin started her career in insurance as a broker and has since taken on many different roles. Alongside being a host of this podcast "100 Women in Insurance", she also specializes in helping insurance businesses and professionals establish a social media presence, delivers change programs, and provides one-on-one coaching for women looking to take control of their careers and lives.

Connect with Sandra on LinkedIn and find out more: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/sandralewin