Working with menopause
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TWO Perth-based organisations are leading the push for greater corporate awareness of policies around menopause that can help retain and support women in the workforce.
Launched on October 18 2022 (World Menopause Day), Menopause Alliance Australia has provided resources and support for women experiencing menopause and perimenopause, the time leading up to the onset of menopause.
The charitable organisation was founded by Natalie Martin, who wanted to break the stigma around discussing and experiencing menopause, especially in the workplace.
“The conversation is not yet normalised,” Ms Martin told Business News.
“In workplaces, we need to create awareness, understanding and support to reduce the number of women leaving the workplace.
“And for companies to understand the benefits of supporting menopause in their policies.”
Similarly, Menopause Friendly Accreditation and Membership Australia was launched earlier this month to provide practical guidelines for companies to achieve its menopause-friendly recognition to help support and retain menopausal women in the workplace.
Led by Grace Molloy, Menopause Friendly Australia is a spin-off of the established organisation founded in the UK by Deborah Garlick. West Ham United Football Club, HSBC Bank, Unilever and Fujitsu are among the companies already recognised as ‘menopause friendly’ employers in the UK.
Both Ms Molloy’s and Ms Martin’s organisations aim to support employers to accommodate menopausal staff members in order to retain and attract workers, boost productivity and maintain gender diversity.
The average age for the onset of menopause is 51 years, according to federal data.
Victoria-based consultancy firm Circle In surveyed more than 700 women about their experience with menopause in the workplace, 437 of whom had experienced menopause.
Of the cohort, 83 per cent said their work was negatively affected by menopause.
Almost half said they considered retirement or taking a break from work when their menopausal symptoms were severe.
But 72 per cent did not follow through with the decision, many citing financial reasons.
Ms Martin said the onset of menopause usually occurred at the peak of a woman’s career.
She said many companies had made significant inroads around maternal and paternal needs, but the consideration should not stop at the onset of menopause.
“Our board member Grant Robson, who is the executive director of Macquarie Bank, spoke at a breakfast recently … and he was saying that women in this age bracket bring a high level of experience, expertise to their age-diverse organisations,” Ms Martin told Business News.
“He was saying that enabling women to stay in the workforce despite menopausal symptoms is essential to gender equity, retaining and developing talent, increasing performance and financial success, employee engagement and lower absentee levels.
“He also said recognising the effects of menopause and supporting a menopause-friendly culture can avoid the potential for litigation.”
Ms Martin and the board, comprised largely of doctors, worked with companies to develop tailor-made policies around menopause to facilitate a top-down approach for creating supportive and accommodating work environments.
She said some larger companies were taking menopause into consideration when creating specified menstrual, in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and menopause leave.
Ms Martin said Menopause Alliance Australia encouraged companies to take smaller measures to make the workplace more accommodating for women experiencing menopausal symptoms.
“A workplace can help assist people going through menopause to make them feel more comfortable by providing access to cold water, by putting them in an area that has air-conditioning that can be adapted, and if they’re wearing a uniform use cotton rather than nylon,” she said.
“It’s company specific, but we prefer to help make inexpensive adaptations to a company to make reasonable adjustments to the work environment.
“Having menopause leave for a smaller company is going to be too costly, but they might be able to provide flexible working arrangements where they can work from home if they’re not feeling their best.”
National law firm Herbert Smith Freehills is working to destigmatise the discussion around women’s health issues in the legal profession. Ranked as the top law firm on Data & Insights, Herbert Smith Freehills hosted a women’s reproductive health panel discussion at its Perth office this month.
Speaking to Business News before the forum, director of culture and inclusion Danielle Kelly said the event would focus on reproductive issues that women in the workplace experienced, including menstruation, endometriosis, pregnancy, and menopause.
“We have the vision to be the leading global law firm for diversity and inclusion, and this event is just one of the steps that we are taking to tackle the stigma that is so often attached to discussing women’s health issues in the workplace,” she said.
Ms Kelly said the stigma and reluctance to address women’s health issues in the workplace had created barriers to women’s inclusion and advancement.
“Creating an inclusive and supportive culture, where people feel comfortable discussing menopause and other reproductive health issues, is an important step in normalising issues facing many women in the legal profession,” she said.
“We are encouraging all of our people regardless of age or gender to attend the event, and hope it will spur ongoing discussions, adding to a culture of openness that smashes stigma and ultimately leads to greater understanding, support and inclusion.”
Herbert Smith Freehills has not created a separate leave policy for menopause, but instead encourages its staff to use personal leave to cater for their mental health and physical health-related issues.
Menopause Friendly Australia is aiming to provide end-to-end support for companies to undertake campaigns around menopause in the workplace.
The organisation plans to guide companies through the completion of five pillars to achieve its ‘menopause friendly’ recognition.
“The accreditation has been built with significant investment to make sure that when somebody does become an accredited menopause-friendly workplace, it’s really meaningful,” Ms Molloy told Business News.
“We have five pillars of accreditation and our workplaces that are members have access to those five pillars.
“We do training and development for them internally to get to the standard that we will be able to accredit them.
“It slowly nudges organisations towards what they need to do in this area.
“For example, one of the pillars is policies, which is for them to develop a menopause policy or menopause guidance document.”
In March, federal parliament passed the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023, which will require some private sector employers to disclose their gender pay gaps.
Ms Molloy said the reporting changes and other workplace legislation were having an influence on companies wanting to become ‘menopause friendly’.
“Lots of mining companies we speak to are really engaged in this area because they want to increase the rates of women working in their businesses,” Ms Molloy said.