Women make up nearly half of the UK working population, this includes nearly four million women aged 45-55. This increasing group of working women experience menopause between these ages, and as a large part of the UK’s workforce, employers need to invest in support so that they don’t lose valuable employees during their inevitably challenging healthcare journey.
At UKIM, we offer a range of services to help employers support their employee’s experiencing menopause. From training and counselling to events and campaigns, and eLearning, there’s an abundance of resources available so that you can keep employees healthy and at work.
The training and eLearning that we provide, allow managers and employees to understand menopause and the symptoms that many people will experience and in turn, creates a comfortable and open environment where people feel able to reach out for support. A good workplace environment is key to helping productivity and employee retention.
Our specialist occupational health teams have the expertise and experience to work with employers and HR teams or managers to ensure that those experiencing menopause have support available so that they feel comfortable, productive, and happy at work. With psychological support and general menopausal advice, we can suggest some reasonable adjustments to help keep your workforce full and functioning.
There are so many benefits for employers when investing in occupational health support. It allows for better workload management for managers and employers, and it also enables access to professional medical help. Having specialist occupational health means that accurate and safe advice can be recommended and cascaded throughout the company.
As women make up a large proportion of workers in the UK, particularly those aged 45-55 and experiencing perimenopause or menopause, the support available will help them manage symptoms so that they remain in work, benefitting organisations operationally and financially. Employers’ will have full and productive workforces as there’ll be less absences and higher productivity due to feeling healthy. It also prevents the need for recruitment often, which benefits organisations financially as it can cost a lot.
Research has found that almost 900,000 women in the UK had left their jobs due to menopausal symptoms. Without occupational health support for menopause, employers can lose valuable and experienced employees, as well as struggle financially due to recruitment and potential operational issues.
Menopause is something that women ages 45-55 experience when their periods stop due to lower hormone levels. Perimenopause is when women experience symptoms of menopause but their periods have not yet stopped.
The symptoms vary from anxiety, mood swings, brain fog, hot flushes, irregular periods, low self-esteem, difficulty sleeping, headaches, migraines and more.
Due to symptoms, many women feel unwell and unable to attend work so they may have to take time off on sick-leave, and this can be long or short. It also means that those experiencing menopause can have a drop in productivity and focus, meaning that workplaces will have higher levels of presenteeism.
If staff are still attending work, they might struggle with tasks due to things like brain fog and so tasks might take longer to complete, or training may be required. Teamwork and collaboration might be hindered due to mood swings, and a lack of understanding surrounding menopause and its wide-ranging symptoms.