World Menopause Day – Time to Take Stock

It’s World Menopause Day on 18^th October; the purpose of the day is to raise awareness of the menopause and the support options available for improving health and wellbeing. In recent years, many businesses have been thinking about how this translates to the workplace, with growing recognition of the value of providing workplace support not just for employees at this life stage but for the business too.

If you are thinking about taking steps to support your employees, here are some things you may find it helpful to know from a business benefit perspective:

1. Protecting your business from employment tribunal claims
2. Retention, recruitment and performance
3. ‘Low cost’ provision 

Protecting your business from employment tribunal claims

As you may be aware, there have been an increasing number of employment tribunal claims involving the menopause over recent years. With this in mind, it’s worth highlighting that:

• Menopause is not a protected characteristic in its own right under the Equality Act. That said, employers do still have to be careful as, depending on the circumstances, it can be possible for an employee to bring a menopause related claim as one of sex discrimination, disability discrimination and/or failure to make reasonable adjustments. This is something that is increasingly being seen in employment tribunal claims

• Depending on an employee’s symptoms and how they are affected by the menopause, it is possible that they may meet the definition of disability in the Equality Act – hence the claims for disability discrimination/failure of an employer to make reasonable adjustments for a disabled person. Whether the definition of disability is met will be fact-dependent 

• If an employee has two years’ service or more, they can complain to an employment tribunal if they feel they have been constructively unfairly dismissed because of how they have been treated, so it’s important for businesses to ensure they act appropriately in relation to their employees

Ensuring that those with management responsibilities in your business have an awareness around menopause and peri-menopause and are alert to employee rights can help to prevent issues from arising. 

Retention, recruitment and performance 

Creating an inclusive and supportive environment can be a win-win situation; it can not only help to retain employees during this life stage and help them to perform at their best, but also make your business a more attractive place to work.  

‘Low cost’ provision 

The good news for many businesses is that getting started supporting employees in relation to the menopause doesn’t have to be costly. Whilst individual situations will need to be considered on their own merits, organisation-wide, as an entry point, you might want to think about:

• Making sure employees know where to turn in the business if they have concerns or wish to discuss support in the workplace, such as adjustments. Appropriate steps taken early can help prevent difficulties from arising

• Considering broadly what changes could be made to help employees manage their symptoms when doing their job, this can help the business to be ready to support employees if needed 
• Assessing whether your workplace culture is open and supportive, and what, if any, steps can be taken to better meet all employees’ needs.

Remember, individual experiences of the menopause will differ, and employees will have a need to be supported accordingly.

If you have an HR matter you would like assistance with, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.