Member Article

How businesses can improve their menopause support in the workplace with Meera Bhogal

In the last few years, we’ve started to open up the conversation around menopause and the huge impact it can have on the workplace. After going through menopause myself aged 40, things like brain fog and anxiety really impacted me in the workplace along with other areas of my life. It’s why I started to learn more about menopause and, eventually, made it my mission that my own business would support and train staff about menopause. I even started working with businesses to advise them on how they can do the same too with my programme, Don’t Pause for Menopause at Work.

The facts around menopause in the workplace are pretty shocking. In fact, 10% of women are thought to have left their job during menopause and a lot of that is due to lack of understanding in their workplace. When asked, 8/10 said that their employers hadn’t trained staff or put in place a menopause abscence policy. Despite the conversation growing, many women still feel they lack the confidence to speak to HR:for example, 75% of women felt as if they couldn’t talk about menopause with their colleagues.

Let’s talk about some simple things all businesses can do to improve their menopause support.

1.Consider the practicalities

Think about what practical support can be offered by your HR team to support colleagues going through menopause. Of course, this may vary on a case by case basis but could include things like: changing shifts and flexible working (to help with brain fog, fatigue and sleep issues) allowing a different uniform (to help wearing lighter clothes for hot flashes) and split breaks so staff can have more frequent (but, of course, shorter) breaks. These small changes can make a big difference to staff productivity and morale.

2. Prioritise your menopause policy

The Equality Act of 2010 requires employers like yourself to make any reasonable adjustments for staff going through menopause so you do need to make sure they’re complying with this legalisation!

Your policy needs to be well-thought out and helpful; providing knowledge and resources to staff going through menopause. I advise you work with menopause experts to ensure your policy is comprehensive but also speak to current members of staff too as their input is so valuable!

3.Use menopause champions

I also recommend use menopause champions within your organisation. These can be employees within your organisation who support members by signposting them to lots of free resources and support as well as offering lots of support and guidance. This is something I implemented in my own workplace and recommend everyone does!

4. Recognise the value of menopause employees

Did you know that menopausal women are the highest growing demographic in the workplace (just under 6 million working women are either menopausal and perimenopausal in the UK)?

That’s a huge chunk of our workplace and like yours too. But if don’t begin to understand how to best support women with it, we will most likely lose talented and dedicated team members!

Menopause needs to be a big part of wellbeing conversations HR have with their staff, and businesses need to take real practical steps to help employees feel valued members of the workplace and, of course, have a positive impact of productivity and work satisfaction of the whole company.

Meera Bhogal is a menopause expert and founder of Don’t Pause for Menopause . For more information visit Meera on instagram @meerabhogal

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by business writer .