PurePurpose™ Talks Menopause!

The menopause is a natural stage of life and yet it remains a taboo subject in many workplaces. Up to a third of women will experience severe menopausal symptoms that can impact on their quality of life. It is in the work context that women often report greater difficulty in managing symptoms and can feel embarrassed and unable to disclose their menopausal status, fearing they may be stigmatised for being menopausal.

Work can be a struggle:

CIPD research (2019) suggests that three in five of those experiencing menopause transition believe their symptoms have a negative impact on them at work. Symptoms can be:

• Less able to concentrate (65%)

• An increased amount of stress (58%)

• Less patience with colleagues/clients (52%).

When you can consider that 37% of the global workforce are women, 25% holding senior management positions and 26% board level (Statista Research Dept Aug 2022), then the following statistics are concerning:

• 45% of women say they feel their menopause symptoms have had a negative impact on their work

• 47% who have needed to take a day off work due to menopause symptoms say they wouldn’t tell their employer the real reason

• 50% of women aged 45-65 who have experienced the menopause in the past 10 years, had not consulted a healthcare professional about their menopause symptoms.

Why this matters?

If you take stats from the UK alone 1 in 10 women are quitting work due to the negative impact of their menopause symptoms. Blend this with an aging population and a struggle for companies to find and retain good talent in general, you may start to understand why this matters.

Work can and should be a force for good. It should benefit workers, the organisations they work for, and the communities and societies they live in. This starts with valuing people – both their contribution to business success and their fundamental right to lead a fulfilling and healthy working life.

So what’s the role of the employer?

Employers should support people with menopausal symptoms in the same way as they would with any other health condition. We need to normalise the conversation about the menopause in the same way many workplaces have begun to break down the barriers and foster inclusion around mental health issues, stress and burn-out.

Organisations have a responsibility to create a stigma-free environment that encourages open discussion and disclosure; this will encourage people to not suffer in silence and discuss the practical steps needed to support their full engagement and productivity at work.

By taking the menopause seriously and treating it as an occupational health and people management issue, research has proven organisations can help to mitigate the potential negative impact of symptoms on the individual and the organisation, such as:

• Reduced job satisfaction and commitment,

• Higher sickness absence

• Increased desire to leave work altogether.

The following tips will support any employer wanting to develop a supportive framework for employees experiencing the menopause.

First main step - develop a framework to manage menopause via an HR health & wellbeing program. Work with Health and wellbeing professionals such as PurePurpose to underpin your company’s framework.

Your framework should as a minimum:

• Show that you acknowledge and manage menopause as a serious health issue

• Create a proactive, open, inclusive and supportive culture

• Display good people management, communicate a positive approach and attitude

• Develop information and tools for management to support teams

• Provide information and support to those who need it

• Audit current policies and practices to ensure they are inclusive

• Manage health and sickness issues as any other long term health issue.

Take Action: Continue the conversation

Great work is being done and continues. In 2019 only 10% of organizations had a framework to proactively manage menopause, but already in 2022 this had grown to 30%. Lets continue the conversation and the work to ensure any stigma is removed from what is a health issue effecting many.

The BMS – British Menopause Society have done some amazing work in partnership with ITN. For more info and tips and to continue the conversation check out: https://worldmenopauseday-thebms.org.uk