Peppy Menopause and Fertility

Wickes Continues to Invest in Colleague Benefits with Peppy Fertility and Menopause

Additional expert-led private medial level support launched to all colleagues

Home improvement business Wickes, continues to be an industry leader with the additional roll out of two new healthcare benefits through provider Peppy. Following 2020’s Peppy Baby launch, the company has introduced Peppy Fertility and Menopause to all colleagues.

It is being launched following the continued work delivered by two of Wickes’ Diversity and Inclusivity workstreams; Well-being and Balance for Better, which look to improve wellbeing and equality. Peppy connects Wickes employees directly to real-life practitioners, giving all colleagues the trustworthy, personalised support they need in the moments they need it most.

Let’s talk about Menopause
When it comes to the Menopause, physical and psychological symptoms can affect a woman’s performance at work, quality of working life and levels of absence. Women experiencing menopausal symptoms are often reluctant to confide in managers, reporting feeling worried that their symptoms will be negatively linked to performance and they are embarrassed to discuss experiences like hot flushes, tiredness, poor concentration and ‘brain fog’. With over 1,000 female colleagues between the ages of 40-60 in the Wickes business it’s clear support was needed to be put in place.
For the launch of Peppy Menopause, Wickes held two webinars: ‘Let’s Talk About Menopause’ and ‘Support Others Going Through Menopause’, which were attended by female and male colleagues of all ages.

Supporting the Fertility journey
With 1 in 6 couples in the UK experiencing difficulty when trying for a family and the many complexities and challenges that can occur, trying to get pregnant can be a time of great anxiety, uncertainty and, for some, sadness. Despite being widespread, this subject is rarely touched on openly in the workplace. Wickes is hoping that the introduction of Peppy Fertility will encourage more conversations and support. A combination of many people choosing to wait longer to have children, a general trend of rising infertility rates and NHS cuts, has led Peppy to provide specific support at this critical and commonplace life transition.

Through the secure Peppy app, colleagues can speak to an experienced fertility practitioner one-to-one via chat and phone or video consultations, from 9am to 9pm, Monday to Friday. Peppy also offers specialist mental wellbeing support as part of its fertility support and its practitioners can support users at every stage of their fertility journey – from thinking about starting a family, to going through IVF, to same-sex couples considering surrogacy.

Sonia Astill, Chief People Officer at Wickes said: ‘Our most important assets are our people and we have an ethos around ‘Let’s care for each other’, which is why we believe supporting family life through benefits is invaluable to our colleagues, and Peppy Menopause and Fertility are great additions to Peppy Baby that we’ve already launched.

With NHS fertility treatment mostly suspended due to Covid 19, I feel this launch is especially important as I can’t imagine the additional pressure and worry this is causing to those who want and need support right now. When you long for a baby it can affect everything; your mood, your self-confidence, your relationships, your work-life. This is why I am so pleased we have this service to support our colleagues and their partners.

I really hope the new Peppy benefits will be a great help for those who need it and that as a business, we will become more sensitive to and aware of the issues around menopause and fertility and be there for our colleagues to support, major life transitions."

Mridula Pore, CEO & Co-Founder of Peppy comments: “Wickes are moving from strength to strength for family and reproductive healthcare support. From day one, their launch of Peppy Baby has been met with phenomenal feedback, and they are now offering expert-led Fertility and Menopause support to all colleagues. We are so proud of this partnership, and very excited to see Wickes cement their position as industry leaders.”

Case Studies for Peppy Fertility at Wickes
For Wickes colleague testimonials on the new service please contact the press office for further information.