Difference Makers Series: The care opportunity with Megan Rapinoe

Megan Rapinoe is the captain of the U.S. National Women's Soccer Team, an Olympic gold medalist and two-time World Cup champion. On March 2, she was named in TIME’s 2023 Women of the Year list of extraordinary leaders working toward a more equal world. In this episode, Megan joins Unum leave expert Ellen McCann for a frank and lively discussion on pay equity, inclusive leave policies and other ways employers can demonstrate care for employees facing challenging times.

• The call to “be more.” After the national team’s second World Cup victory in 2019, Rapinoe challenged everyone to “step outside of yourself, be more, be better, be bigger than you’ve ever been before.” Applying this to the HR context, she said it is a charge to make an impact on your organization and on the lives of your employees. [02:46]
• The rise of the care opportunity. Employee needs and demands for support from their employers are growing, and are key drivers of attraction and retention. According to Ellen, leave is critical in this equation: “Companies focus so much on employees at work. What about those times when our employees can’t come to work?” [07:33]
• The importance of inclusive policies. Employers show caring by implementing leave and benefit policies that are inclusive and equitable, addressing the needs of all caregivers and relationships, not just parents and children. [11:19]
• Pay equity as a signal of caring. Equitable pay shows employees that employers care about them as individuals. [12:18]
• Pay equity as a driver of attraction and retention. In a still-tight labor market, employees have new power to negotiate pay. The pay-equity fight won by the U.S. National Women’s Soccer Team has had far-reaching effects on the environment worldwide, and women are more aware than ever of what they deserve and what they require. [19:32]
• Steps to an effective pay-equity program. Think through where your company has been and where it wants to go, identifying areas where it is still falling short and why. Apologize for mistakes in the past. Make pay equity an authentic priority and act to fulfill your promises. [23:39]
• The importance of the employee experience. Caring and inclusiveness extend to the experience employees have while accessing the benefits you provide. [29:18]

Featured speakers
Megan Rapinoe
Chief Equality Officer, Trusaic

Megan Rapinoe is a difference maker on a global scale. She is the captain of the U.S. National Women’s Soccer Team, an Olympic gold medalist, and a two-time World Cup champion, renowned for her activism. In February 2022, after a lengthy legal battle led by Rapinoe, the U.S. National Women’s Soccer Team reached a historic equal pay agreement with the U.S. Soccer Federation, which included $22 million in back pay for the players and the promise of equal pay going forward. Today, Megan Rapinoe is Chief Equality Officer for Trusaic – a leading workplace equity company focused on advancing social good by solving HR's most complex challenges across people, data and analytics. 

Ellen McCann
Assistant Vice President, Leave Solutions, Unum Group

Ellen McCann serves as a leading expert in applying benefits and benefits technology to power modern solutions to more effective employee leave programs, stronger regulatory compliance and enhanced digital HR transformation.


Read more about Megan Rapinoe, one of TIME’s 2023 Women of the Year, at https://trusaic.com/megan-rapinoe-partnership/. For more information about Unum, visit https://www.unum.com/employers/solutions