As we come to the end of Mental Health Awareness week, I felt it only right to shine the light on a major contributor to mental health issues for 50% of the workforce. Every female employee will experience the menopause and all it’s lovely rainbow of symptoms that can impact performance, productivity, self-esteem, mental wellbeing and in many cases, all of these over an 8–10-year period!
As an employer, opening up the dialogue on things like women’s health and the menopause is a great start for understanding what your female employees are experiencing, which gives you a much better chance at being able to offer the right support measures to ensure they can still perform to the best they can.
It’s great to see so many employers now looking to offer menopause support or improve their offerings in response to employee’s needs, something I see growing as we progress and continue to keep the open conversations.
I really do think it’s really important to remember that as we live longer, we are working longer and anything we can do to improve what offerings we have to support employees through mentally tough times, the more likely you are as an employer to encourage loyalty, motivation and productivity.
The menopause doesn’t just impact your female employees, lets open up and bring male colleagues into the conversation, understanding what their colleagues may be experiencing can help them to recognise signs of poor mental wellbeing and to support them in the best possible ways.
In a world where attracting and retaining talent is a struggle too, the more support options you have, the more likely you are to attract and keep the right people in the business. By treating the menopause support in the same way as any other wellbeing or mental health support shows you are serious about it as an employer.
If you are a member of our membership, you can access a live session we did recently with one of our partners, Sarah Coulson. Sarah champions women’s health in the workplace and is passionate about supporting forward thinking businesses change the narrative around women’s health. You can find her details on our website here
