Why is menopause awareness important in the workplace?
With women over 50 currently shown to be the fastest growing sector of the working population, it is inevitable that your organisation will likely have employees working through their menopause transition.The menopause can cause physical and emotional changes and create temporary difficulties which may have an impact on performance at work.
With recruitment costs of up to five times an employee’s salary3 , plus the value existing employees bring to the business, there are significant benefits for employers to actively support staff during this natural process.
How can employers become a Menopause-friendly employer?
1. Build awareness and understanding.
Invest in training for your staff and managers on supporting those going through the menopause, including how to manage and conduct sensitive conversations. This will help to attract and retain good talent within the business.
Appointing a Menopause Champion within your senior team, could help drive positive change within the business.
2. Review existing policies through the lens of menopause.
Create a policy, guidance documents or a toolkit to ensure that existing policies are menopause-friendly and don’t directly or indirectly disadvantage someone due to menopause. This would include reviewing absence policies, performance management processes and flexible work requests.
3. Collaborate with other employers and share best practice.
Don’t try and reinvent the wheel as you’ll be able to learn from other businesses in your sector. Use your network to find out what others are doing and share the good work you are implementing to help improve awareness.
4. Workplace adjustments.
Make reasonable adjustments for those going through the menopause such as offering desk fans to help with hot flushes, allowing flexible start times to help with fatigue, allow working from home - subject to a risk assessment, quiet spaces to allow the management of stress and anxiety and regular 1-to-1 meetings to discuss symptoms. Consider it like any other medical issue that may require temporary changes to enable them to continue to work effectively.
Resource Links
*For further help with training your staff to support those experiencing menopause symptoms visit The Menopause Charity or the British Menopause Society.
References:
1. Fawcett Society
2. British Menopause Society
3. Employee Benefits News
*A cisgender person has a gender identity that matches their sex assigned at birth.
