Resources
Managing Menopause in the Workplace Hub
Is your workplace menopause friendly? Get started today – access a full range of menopause-related resources below.
Our Menopause Hub is designed to help HR teams support their line managers, encourage an open, inclusive culture, and highlight the legal risks employers must be alert to when managing menopausal employees.
Expert spotlight
Managing menopause in the workplace: 3 top tips
In this short video, Lorna Gemmell, WorkNest’s HR Training Manager and Employment Law Adviser, shares three ways HR professionals and employers can cultivate an open and inclusive culture to support those going through the menopause.
HR and Line Manager Training: Menopause Awareness Training
Our research revealed that 65% of organisations still don’t provide any menopause-specific support to employees. What’s more, only 15% of managers and employees discuss menopause openly in the workplace.
With this in mind, it’s incumbent upon organisations to upskill managers so that they can provide the necessary support to employees, and to create an environment where people feel able to speak openly about menopause at work.
Our HR and line manager training can help you to do just that.
Our menopause resources
Is the menopause a taboo subject in your workplace? Unsure where to start with supporting line managers and employees?
WorkNest’s Employment Law and HR experts can provide an array of support, from delivering menopause awareness training to helping you navigate reasonable adjustments and manage any performance concerns confidently and compliantly.
FAQ from 'Managing Menopause in the Workplace' webinar
Although not a legal requirement, it would be great if you could offer the support of a menopause officer/champion as it can be helpful for staff to have someone that they can seek support from who isn’t their own line manager. The officer/champion would need to be willing to take on the role and is likely to require some additional training. It’s often someone from the HR department or another employee who has an interest in supporting their colleagues (usually someone who has gone through the menopause themselves).
You are entitled to ask what the reason for their absence is; however, if they are describing symptoms (e.g. poor sleep) but not the menopause as being the cause, you could ask “are you aware of any underlying cause of the symptoms that have led to your increased number of absences?” and make it clear that the purpose of the enquiry is to offer support.
Occupational Health (OH) assessments can be very helpful in circumstances where an employee’s health issues are impacting them at work. An OH assessment will provide you with more information about the employee’s health issues and provide practical suggestions for measures that could support the employee. We have an Occupational Health division within WorkNest, should you wish to arrange an assessment through us.
Potentially yes, if the side effects meet the definition of disability within the Equality Act 2010 and as interpreted by case law. In reality, the determining factor will usually be the severity of the employee’s symptoms. As discussed at the webinar, there have been Employment Tribunal judgments where the Tribunal has accepted that the employee was disabled within the meaning of the Equality Act due to their menopause symptoms.
For a disability discrimination claim, the employer either has to know or could reasonably know
that the employee is experiencing symptoms of the menopause and those symptoms must meet
the definition of being disabled. If the employee is clearly struggling with symptoms and/or their
work, the manager should open up a conversation with the employee. The conversation would
start with general questions (e.g. “how are you?”, “how are you finding work at the moment?”). If
the employee doesn’t share any details, the next step would be for the manager to explain their observations in an objective and factual (and supportive) way. It wouldn’t usually be the
manager’s place to suggest that the menopause could be a factor.
