BP ups ante in benefits battle
In the fight to land and keep top-notch employees, BP has a new weapon: a spate of specialized benefits.
The British oil giant has long boasted of high-class perks, including a health center, child care service and two fitness centers on its Energy Corridor campus. But now it’s added some new — and very particular — benefits for U.S. employees this year, including paternal leave after the adoption of a child, special therapy for autistic children and gender reassignment surgery, he procedure required to change the anatomy of a man to that of a woman, or vice versa.
“We have a very broad population with lots of needs,” said Karl Dalal, BP’s director of benefits.
Such benefits are not new among major corporations. Apple, Coca-Cola Co. and Ford Motor Co. all cover transgender services, for instance. But oil and gas companies have largely been slower to come around, experts said.
“What you’re seeing is the cultural revolution of the industry,” said Chad Hesters, managing director of global executive search firm Korn Ferry’s Houston office. “These things take geologic time.”
Of the almost 650 companies that offer transgender benefits, only a few are oil and gas companies, including Royal Dutch Shell, Irving-based Exxon Mobil Corp. and California-based Chevron Corp.,
according to the Human Rights Campaign.
And Shell just recently boosted maternity leave, offering 16 weeks paid. It also has a new eight-week paid parental leave policy that is gender neutral.
Hesters said benefits used to be more of a onesize-fits-all package. Now the industry’s largest companies are moving toward a more inclusive and comprehensive employee benefits package.
“It has everything to do with the global nature of their workforce,” Hesters said. “In Western Europe, a lot of these benefits already exist.”
BP’s additions come organically, Dalal said. Employees were asking for them. BP executives looked around their hallways and saw a changing workforce: one younger, more diverse and with different needs from times past.
So the company boosted maternal leave by four weeks to 10. Dads, who had zero before, now have two weeks. And either parent can get four weeks off after adoption or surrogacy.
BP also added coverage of a specialized autism therapy, called Applied Behavior Analysis, for employees’ children. It’s the leading therapy, Dalal said, but most companies consider it child care and don’t help pay for it.
And the company’s group for lesbian, gay and bisexual and transgender employees suggested BP should expand medical coverage to gender reassignment surgery.
Yes, the additions are expensive, Dalal said. But the alternative is to lose talented employees. Too many are already leaving for the technology or financial sectors.