Member Article

On International Women’s Day, Peppy reports an increase in workplace support for menopause

On this, International Women’s Day (Tuesday 8 March), Peppy, the digital health platform, reports there has been a significant change in employers’ attitudes to offering workplace menopause support:

• In September 2021, 20% of employers reported they had put menopause in place during the past 12 months, this rose to 38% by January 2022. • Similarly, in September 2021, 24% of employers said they do not offer workplace menopause support and were not intending to do so, and this dropped to just 10% by January 2022.

According to the research, 29% of employers say they have always had menopause support in place and 17% are currently arranging it or planning to in the next 12 months.

Dr Mridula Pore, CEO of Peppy said: “International Women’s Day celebrates the achievements of women across the social, economic, cultural, and political spectrum but all too often women have had their careers curtailed because they were not supported through the menopause.

“We need to build workplaces where women thrive and achieve their full potential and a key way to achieve this objective is to ensure menopause support is available to everyone who needs it. It’s really heartening that this message is very much starting to break through.”

Retention of female staff A fifth of employers believe offering menopause support to be important, so that staff consider the employer to be caring. However, the research reveals that this type of support goes beyond altruism and is critical to business success.

• 92% of employers think it is important for employers to offer menopause support from a retention point of view. • Four in five (80%) of employers have concerns that their best talent could leave if they do not provide menopause support. • 46% agree that it is important to mitigate the risk of the wider workforce being impacted by the few i.e. a team being affected by a colleague having time off or not being productive. • 37% say menopause support reduces staff churn. • 31% believe that offering menopause support is key in appearing a more attractive employer against competitors

More to be done to fully persuade senior leadership Despite HR leaders being on board with menopause support, 35% reported that they think senior leadership at their organisation is more inclined to view menopause as an issue that only affects the individual without having a wider impact on the wider workforce. Consequently, 39% of HR leaders think that their senior leadership team do not view workplace menopause support as something that positively impacts recruitment and retention.

Dr Mridula Pore continued:“In the past, too many women have either left their place of work, or significantly reduced their hours due to menopausal symptoms. However, these women have amassed a wealth of knowledge about the organisation in which they work and have a colossal amount of experience in their specific role – it makes good business sense for employers to do all they can to better understand how they can retain this invaluable asset.

“We congratulate every employer who has taken steps to mitigate any symptoms and issues that women experience during menopause but no organisation should rest on its laurels – there is always more to be done in terms of communication and encouraging utilisation.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mridula Pore .