If we are to bring our authentic selves to work, then employers need to ensure there are practical tools and support in place to help those navigating different life stages.
For people born biologically female, this includes the inevitable and unavoidable menopause experienced currently by the fastest-growing economically active group and a key part of the workforce demographic. I had a wobble at work recently – nothing major but it was driven by the hormonal imbalances caused by the menopause. I felt safe to articulate this and my SCW work family came swiftly to the rescue, showing kindness, empathy, understanding and support, not just because they are great people (they are!) but because we have been working hard to raise awareness and support our workforce as they navigate this life stage.
For employers and individuals alike, one of the prime objectives is to ensure women are supported to remain in the workplace. This is the premise of the Women’s Health Strategy’s health in the workplace theme, with menopause listed as one of the key priorities. The government has recently (24 Jan 2023) published their response to the menopause, and the workplace report prepared and published in July 2022 by the Women and Equalities Committee. The report responded to 11 recommendations. Whilst some made the headlines (the ones that the government did not support), the report itself is a helpful resource if only to outline what is currently happening in this space. However, it is hardly a ‘how to’ guide to help organisations to do something.
It is, therefore, helpful to share how our own organisation mobilised to address this.
Within SCW our workforce is 60% female (less than the 72% norm for other NHS organisations); nearly a third of whom fall into the 46-55 age range, coinciding with the UK average menopausal age of 51, so we recognise we need to support this growing demographic – both those it directly affects and those who work with, manage and support us.
To ensure success, we set up a multi-disciplinary team including our Women’s Health, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and Wellbeing teams to shape the programme to leverage our combined subject matter expertise…and some lived (living!) experience. Fully supported by our Executive leadership team, we signed up to the Wellbeing of Women Menopause Workplace Pledge and developed an implementation framework, testing and learning as it unfolded. This has resulted in us:
- changing the way we work – such as amended ways of recording absence appropriately within our Electronic Staff Record, reviews of policies and guidance
- changing the way we frame conversations to build our culture of belonging by continuing the conversation about menopause and sharing our progress, stories and building allyship and networks - supplemented by vlogs, blogs and ongoing discussions in team and 121 meetings.
- changing the way we support staff by developing an employee offer and resources including access to online training, developing a menopause toolkit and guidance for both managers and employees, including how-to guides.
Our Internal People EDI & Wellbeing Programme Manager, James Jackson, reflected that
“in line with our commitment to belonging, and wanting SCW to be a great place to work, where we all feel safe to be our authentic selves and thrive, one step towards achieving this is to recognise key areas of longstanding gender disparity towards women’s health and the impact on our colleagues and customers. Leading with menopause in the workplace and recognising there are many more areas of health focus beyond this, it was great to work collaboratively and create this much-needed space & commitment of support, awareness and education.”
For those of us experiencing or supporting team members during the menopause, it’s working. We are beginning to normalise the conversation, as demonstrated by me being the lucky recipient of the support implemented when I had my recent work wobble.
If you would like to hear more or think you or your staff could benefit from our learning and tried and tested implementation framework for improving menopause support in the workplace, then please do get in touch with me
