Dive Brief:

• Software giant SAP is about to offer more benefits to its transgender workforce. The company’s North American transgender workers already receive basic medical coverage for psychiatric counseling and gender reassignment surgery. Now SAP will extend their benefits starting in 2017, reports Fortune.
• The new benefits include coverage for a medication that arrests the effects of puberty, called puberty suppression. The drug is occasionally given to minors who aren’t ready for gender transformation. New benefits also cover surgery for facial reconstruction. This coverage is for both employees and their dependents.
• Only a small number of SAP workers are eligible for the new benefits, but the ROI on similar benefits tends to be fairly high. 

Dive Insight:

Transgender people experience high unemployment and poverty, along with social and political challenges. Companies that can provide safe and tolerant work environments would do well to bring them onboard.

Of SAP’s global employee population of 82,000, fewer than 10 would likely qualify. However, the company recognizes the growing support for LGBT workers among employers, especially in the tech industry, and wants to be inclusive about offering benefits.

SAP and similar companies are starting to invest in expensive but much-needed benefits for underserved or small populations to gain advantages in recruitment and hiring, including investments in fertility treatments.