How employers can support employees going through menopause

If only we were able to function at a consistent level of efficiency, we may get through more of our daily tasks and feel happy about our work. The reason we don’t is that we’re human, not robots. Life events, such as menopause, get in the way and have the potential to impact our work as well as our personal lives.

Being able to deal with menopause is one thing, but being able to openly talk about it is another. Do organisations provide policies and frameworks to help employees get the support they might need? Do management teams sufficiently understand the impact menopause symptoms might have on people’s performance levels at work?

We’ll tackle these questions, and a few others, in this article, and provide useful tips for organisations wanting to do more to help those going through menopause.

Understanding menopause in the workplace

Menopause is completely natural. Every woman will experience it, usually between the ages of 45 and 55 (the UK average age is 51). There are cases where menopause symptoms arrive earlier than usual, and symptoms vary. Common among these are headaches, migraines, heart palpitations, muscle and joint aches and pains, and other health issues.

Hot flashes, for instance, thought to be caused by a decrease in oestrogen levels, can be debilitating. They cause anxiety, irregularities of body temperature, and can persist for many minutes at a time. About 75% of women experience hot flashes, which are the most common symptom of the menopausal transition.

There are more menopausal symptoms, and the ability for managers to recognise symptoms could prove useful. The employment rate for women is 72.2%, which represents a significant presence in the general UK workforce. Imagine if menopausal symptoms went unnoticed or ignored, and the health and productivity costs incurred because of this.

Almost 75% to 80% of women at menopausal age are in work, according to the Faculty of Occupational Health. Their infographic says that ‘the majority of women are unwilling to disclose’ menopause-related issues to line managers (most of whom were men, or people younger than themselves). And, apart from pregnancy, the management of gender-specific health issues is rarely discussed in the workplace.

And while many studies focus on menopause as solely the concern of women, organisations should note that it’s a wide-ranging issue in other people’s lives, too. Men are affected by ‘the male menopause’ (the NHS says this is sometimes called the andropause). Menopause also happens to cis women, trans individuals, non-binary and intersex people, and Queer Menopause is an excellent guide for more information. So, this represents a broad challenge to business leaders across the UK.

The solution may lie in education, training and concerted efforts to adopt a culture of care and wellbeing.

People management training to recognise menopausal symptoms

A 2022 poll of 2,000 women revealed that 18% were looking to leave their jobs because of menopause symptoms. This significant percentage equates to about one million women leaving the UK workforce. The most common reason for leaving was reported to be ‘the pressures put on them’ (42%). The joint second-most common reasons were a failure to receive the flexible working environment required to manage menopausal symptoms, and a lack of understanding from management (39%).

Such clear evidence suggests the need to improve and for organisations to focus on menopause in the workplace through education and training, as well as the creation of guidance documents. If business leaders emphasise the importance of recognising menopause symptoms, and how they seriously impact people’s interaction with work, it could make a huge difference. (This is why it’s important for managers to have leadership skills, too.)

A potential place to start is with a training programme that helps line managers with people management skills. The University of Wolverhampton cited a report that demonstrates employees want managers who will ‘help to solve the problems they face’, with empathy being high on the list of wants (at 38%). As outlined by the UK’s Chartered Management Institute, the skills involved in demonstrating empathy include active listening, choosing language carefully, withholding judgement, and coaching others in empathy.

With more line managers able to confidently manage employee attendance, for instance, the right approach that considers individuals’ circumstances is more likely to be adopted.

Educational resources and menopause in the workplace policies

Guidance documents for every employee, not just leadership teams, could prove essential in fostering an inclusive, understanding working environment. Guidance documents need support from senior management in the first place, as underlined by an NHS Staff Council paper called ‘Menopause at work’. The report states that a chief executive (and board) should be clear in recognising that menopause is a workplace matter, and that there is a business case for supporting staff.

Having a menopause policy in place may help emphasise an organisation’s commitment to seeing menopause as a workplace matter. At the very least, amendments to existing policies may signal a step in the right direction. As the NHS paper says, ‘employers have a duty of care to the people they employ’, so having official documentation that supports principles of care is important.

Establishing a working environment that recognises menopause is an indicator of how seriously it is taken at your company. This is why it’s a good idea to allow general guidance and education to filter through to every employee across every department. Men might require some additional guidance in how to support others going through menopause, as do younger people who have not experienced it. But educational resources are perhaps best complemented by actual resources for those experiencing symptoms.

These resources might look like a menopause support line, whereby someone can anonymously or discreetly call a nurse. The oil and gas firm BP provided its UK workforce with a free menopause support line, as well as a year’s worth of personalised support as part of a benefits package. It also has a menopause Yammer group to help foster an open and supportive community. There are many more BP initiatives other organisations could be inspired by.

Opportunities driven by being proactive about menopause issues

In recognising the effects of menopause, organisations could discover opportunities to learn and adapt across the board. Occasionally, it takes a specific issue to see how other improvements could be made.By adopting a proactive approach to menopause (perhaps by signing the Menopause Workplace Pledge), leadership teams can kick-start cultural change and improve workplace policies. The outcome of recognising a significant life change may be seen in how employees interact with one another, which will hopefully be with empathy and greater understanding.