Recognising & Supporting Menopause in the Workplace Conference, 2nd edition
Danubius Hotel Regents Park , 18 Lodge Road, St. John's Wood, London NW8 7JT
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19 AND BEEN RE-ARRANGED TO WEDS 1ST JULY. CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL LIST OF UPCOMING EVENTS ON OUR HOMEPAGE
Menopausal women are one of the fastest growing workforce groups in the UK however the issue is still being treated as a workforce taboo by some and in general has not been satisfactorily recognised and supported by employers. The MP Rachel Maclean is predicting; “It will become as unacceptable to not have a menopause policy as an employer as it is to not have a diversity and inclusion culture”, yet few companies have menopause-specific health and wellbeing policies in place.
Registration fee: £395 plus VAT per delegate
Why attend this conference?
A vast majority of the 4.4 million over 50 women will go through menopause during their working lives. Recognising and supporting menopause is vital and positions your organisation as an inclusive employer of choice to a crucial demographic. It will help improve productivity and engagement, lower absence levels, reduce recruitment costs and avoid any legal action.
- Workplace discrimination based on gender or age is illegal under the Equality Act
- Several companies have faced tribunals and lost, being ordered to pay substantial amounts
- Replacing a woman who has left work due to menopausal symptoms can cost an average of £30 000
- Corporate Social Responsibility: ensure your midlife female employees can work as long as they choose with the highest possible quality of working life
- CIPD revealed that 30% of the working menopausal women they surveyed had taken sick leave, yet only a quarter of these told their boss the real reason for their absence
- 65% said their ability to concentrate was affected
- 58% experienced greater stress
- 52% became impatient with clients and colleagues due to menopause
Part of a long-established BFI portfolio of workplace occupational health training.
Please note: If you have a topic to suggest or might like to speak at, endorse, or sponsor the event, please see how to get involved here.
Which functions will benefit from attending
- HR, Diversity & Inclusion, Recruitment & Resourcing, Policy & Strategy , Operations, Line Management, Legal, Talent, Equality, Policy, Organisational Development, Employer Branding, Engagement, Employee Relations, People Development, Learning and Development, Improvement and Quality
Hear from
Schedule
Coffee and registration
Chair's welcome and opening remarks
KEYNOTE ADDRESS: MENOPAUSE CHALLENGES IN THE WORKPLACE
Haitham Hamoda
Chair , British Menopause Society
Mr Haitham Hamoda is a Consultant Gynaecologist and subspecialist in reproductive medicine and surgery. He is the Clinical Lead for the Menopause Service at King's College Hospital. London and Chair of the British Menopause Society. Mr Hamoda has published widely in his specialised field. He is co-author of the British Menopause Society Guidelines 2016 on the management of the menopause and author of the British Menopause Society Guideline on the Management of women with Premature Ovarian Insufficiency. In addition, he is actively involved in ongoing research projects both locally and nationally and teaches at an undergraduate and postgraduate level. His areas of clinical expertise include menopause and premature ovarian insufficiency, infertility, gynaecological endocrinology including polycystic ovary syndrome, management of fibroids and endometriosis and minimal access surgery. Mr Hamoda qualified in 1994 and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. He was awarded a degree of Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the University of Aberdeen.
A LEGAL PERSPECTIVE – SUPPORTING MENOPAUSAL STAFF IN THE WORKPLACE
Jenny Arrowsmith
Partner, Employment Law , Irwin Mitchell LLP
Jenny is a Partner (Employment law) at national law firm, Irwin Mitchell LLP. She has extensive experience of advising employers of all sizes and in many sectors on all areas of employment law. She has a particular interest in discrimination issues and has been working with clients and leading training sessions on a number of tricky issues arising from mental health and how modern day working practices are influencing changes in the way we work such as agile and flexible working. She successfully defended the company in Ali v Capita which went to the Court of Appeal this year - one of the cases to watch of 2019 due to its public policy issues. The case related to alleged sex discrimination where men received statutory rates for shared parental leave whilst women benefitted from enhanced maternity leave). She was nominated as the “Lawyer of the Week” by the Times Newspaper for her work in this case in June.
- How much does an employer need to do to support menopausal staff: Key legislation and relevant law
- Understanding the legal risks of doing nothing
- Proactive steps to mitigate risk and support inclusivity
- Writing and implementing a menopause-specific policy: essential areas to consider
- Ensuring company-wide implementation and comprehension
- Case histories and lessons learned
- Examples of policies and guidance documents
Morning coffee and networking
CASE STUDY: GUIDANCE AND POLICY FRAMEWORKS: WHAT DO YOU NEED TO INCLUDE?
Claire Jepras
HR Director , Ipsos UK & Ireland
Claire Jepras is HR Director for Ipsos in the UK and Ireland. She joined Ipsos UK in 2016 with 20 years HR experience with major multinational companies including Marks and Spencer and Compass plc. Her focus at Ipsos UK is on creating an organisation where people can be themselves and reach their full potential. This has included working with the business to develop an Inclusion and Diversity strategy and this year sees Ipsos UK become the first market research company to report their ethnicity pay gap. She has also been responsible for the development and implementation of the employee value proposition and the launch of a global wellbeing strategy which resulted in Ipsos UK being awarded the coveted Grand Prix title at the Employee Benefits Awards 2020 for their approach to mental wellbeing and the overhaul of its defined contribution pension scheme strategy. Claire volunteers with the charity Pilot Light which offers strategic business support to charities and social enterprises to enable them to become more efficient, effective and sustainable. She also mentors the founder of a community enterprise organisation which provides food parcels to children and their families in Lewisham. Claire is an Economics graduate, has an MBA and is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD.
- Aims and scope of the policy
- Roles and responsibilities: line managers, Occupational Health, Human Resources, Employee Assistance
- Examples of policies and guidance documents
- Useful templates
- Confidential Discussions
- Managers’ Guidance
- Menopause Advice Sheet
- Reasonable Adjustment Requests
CASE STUDY: THE PRACTICALITIES OF ROBUST GUIDANCE
Marina Bolton
HR Director , Civil Service
Marina is an experienced Organisation Development and Design practitioner with over 38 years working in a variety of operational, corporate and strategy roles within the Civil Service. As a founder of the Civil Service Organisation Design & Development Expert Service, Marina has expertise in a wide range of organisation design and development methodologies including transformational change, organisation design, action research, systemic intervention, large-scale engagement methodologies, senior team and board development, group process consultation and culture and behaviour change. Marina has a Master of Science Degree in People and Organisational Development and is a member of the Institute of Personnel and Development and a Fellow of The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce). Marina is also a graduate of the National Training Laboratories for Applied Behavioural Science [NTL] and is studying for a Doctorate in Organisation Change, the theme of which is ‘Compassion’ Marina has recently become a menopause champion in the UK Civil Service and speaks openly about her personal experience. Her intent being, to influence policy makers to take both menstruation and menopause into account when considering health and well-being in the workplace.
- Overview: context and challenges
- Defining our audience: what needed to be included and who should have those conversations?
- Collating and communicating information: essentials of menopause guidance and tool boxes
- Quantifying success and next steps
INTERACTIVE SESSION: ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES
Elizabeth Smith
Director of Research , Business Forums International Ltd. (BFI)
Elizabeth is director of research and a founding co-director at Business Forums International. She is responsible for all programme content and writing, and researches current areas of interest for senior HR professionals in large organisations. BFI is the UK’s leading HR risk specialist conference and training provider, delivering key and timely information to over 3,000 delegates a year both through public and in-house training courses. Before founding BFI in 1996, Elizabeth specialised in researching corporate financial programmes in Asia and the Middle East, based in Dubai. She also worked in advertising and publishing in the Middle East and London. Elizabeth was educated in the West Indies, Saudi Arabia and Belgium before reading Modern Languages at Durham University. She is currently developing an online training course for line managers to raise awareness of menopause symptoms and ways that employers can work to make their workplaces more inclusive.
The aim of this informal session is to explore the wide range of alternative therapies, building a toolbox for delegates to use in their own organisations, as well as sharing experiences and ideas
- Context is all: what are menopausal women also dealing with?
- CBT/Hypnotherapy/talking therapies
- Yoga/walking
- Herbal remedies
- Self-care strategies and ideas
Lunch and networking
CASE STUDY: TESCO BANK – BUILDING AN EFFECTIVE AND WORKABLE APPROACH TO SUPPORTING MENOPAUSE IN THE WORKPLACE
Jacqui Mallin
People Director , Tesco Bank
Jacqui is the People Director at Tesco Bank and a member of the Tesco Bank Executive Committee. Jacqui has extensive Leadership experience and has spent her career working across a number of industries, including General Insurance, Life and Pensions, Telecoms and Banking. Jacqui spent five years at Aegon, a Scottish based Life and Pensions Business, where she was accountable for leading HR Operations while also leading the HR Transformation programme. Jacqui then moved on to take up a broader leadership role at Standard Life, leading the group people operations, while also leading a multi-million pound award winning group people transformation programme. While at Standard Life, Jacqui was awarded HR Director of the Year at the HR Network Awards in 2013 and also received the Customer Excellence Award from Oracle for the programme's Return on Investment. Prior to joining Tesco Bank, Jacqui led the people and transformation programme at the market-leading telecoms provider, Three UK.
- Understanding the scope of colleagues’ challenges: physical, emotional, intellectual, societal, professional
- Raising awareness: who should be included in the conversations
- Ensuring we are sending the right messages to the right people
- Stories and outcomes: where do we go next?
CASE STUDY: CAMPAIGNING IN A PREDOMINANTLY MALE ENVIRONMENT
Victoria Metz
Group Manager, Health & Safety & LFB Menopause Champion , London Fire Brigade
Victoria Metz is a fire officer in the London Fire brigade (LFB) with 31 years service. She joined in 1988 as an 18 year old young woman when there were only 30 other operational women firefighters throughout Great Britain (out of 37500 men) She has worked her way up through the ranks, serving at various fire stations in and around East London and now works in the health and safety department in head quarters as a Group Commander (5 ranks above a firefighter). Her main role up until recently was investigating serious accidents which could potentially cause significant injury or death to fire fighters. More recently Victoria has been leading the charge at the Brigade to get practical support in place to help women dealing with menopausal symptoms. She is motivated by helping people to better understand how Menopause can impact on personal wellbeing. Her own experience of the menopause over the past three years has inspired her to campaign to raise awareness in the fire service, availability of natural fibre clothing for unformed staff, organise a range of events including “world menopause day” event where over 150 people attended and more recently has founded the Menopause action (MAG) support group to help women struggling with their symptoms or to give advise to managers/colleagues on how to support those women. Victoria is retiring from the fire service in April 2020 so is spending most of her time giving presentations to various departments throughout LFB to encourage an open conversation and a better understanding of the effects that menopause can have, so that no one has to feel that they aren’t being supported at work. She is currently running “menopause champions” awareness sessions to staff, both men and women, so that the support continues beyond her retirement in April.
- Unique challenges of a male-dominated workplace: pros and cons and how I structured my approach
- Choose your battles: setting priorities and goals
- The role of HR and Unions
- Guidance and policy wins
- Practical changes and how we measure the benefits
Afternoon tea and roundtable discussion groups
Over tea, delegates will share observations, personal and professional experiences and collate ideas to feed back to the group. From a start point of ‘What I wish I’d known,’ the aim of the informal discussions will be to look at current workplace practice and brainstorm ideas to raise awareness of menopause in their own workplaces, strategies to engage and include male colleagues and debate ideas and innovations to maximise the effectiveness, confidence and performance of menopausal working women. The findings will be shared with the whole group after the event and will prove an invaluable resource for those delegates looking to raise debate and awareness within their own organisations.
DISCUSSION GROUP FEEDBACK
CASE STUDY: FROM AIMS TO ACTION
Hazel Robinson
Associate Director, Rewards, Recognition and Payroll , Brunel University
After joining Brunel University London in October 2016 as an HR Consultant to support with a business change project provision for the College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences, Hazel is currently an Associate Director in the Human Resources team, and heads up the Rewards, Recognition and Payroll functions. Hazel has worked in Higher Education in the UK and the Middle East over the last 10 years, and previously spent 25 years working and living in the sunny climes of South Africa. She has an MSc in Human Resources Management from Edinburgh Napier University, an HRMPR from the University of South Africa, and is both Member of the CIPD (MCIPD), and Associate of CIPP. Hazel takes the ‘people’ factor very seriously, in both her work and many interests, having undertaken counselling for victims of domestic abuse and violence as part of her earlier studies, which led to an inexhaustible interest in relationships and how people communicate. She completed a further course in psychotherapy to feed this interest and believes strongly in the value of exploring communication to gain positive results and developments in every aspect of work and home life. Not only does she have a passion for people, Hazel also supports a number of animal welfare initiatives, having started and run a charity in South Africa in the interests and protection of feral cats. She has an adoring greyhound and two cat furbabies, which she and her partner revolve their lives around.
- Where does menopause sit in our wellbeing strategy: are we happy with the profile and emphasis?
- Key elements of a guidance and awareness building strategy
- Effective communication across our organisation: ensuring the message is appropriate to the audience
- Targeting and recruiting champions and stakeholders
- War stories and lessons learned: what might we have done differently in hindsight?
MENOPAUSE AT WORK: CHALLENGES, ADJUSTMENTS & MYTH BUSTING
Julie Dennis (1)
Director and Trainer , Menopause at Work Ltd
Julie Dennis is a Menopause Trainer and partners with organisations across the UK to introduce menopause as an inclusive topic, educate leaders and improve the experience of people working through menopause. She is the leading provider for a range of clients across the public and private sector including Royal London Group, LionHeart and National Museum of Wales. Prior to entering the health and wellness field Julie was employed in a variety of corporate roles spanning executive search, management consultancy and the mining industry. The powerful combination of her personal experience of menopause and corporate background means she is ideally placed to meet both the needs of the individual and the demands of the business.
- Symptoms at work and the challenges they present to individuals and the business.
- Workplace adjustments and barriers to change
- The role of occupational health
- A Menopause workplace model for success – what works, what doesn’t and why
- Menopause myths & misconceptions in the workplace
END OF CONFERENCE
Event supported by
Launched back in 2004, Mindful Employer is a UK wide initiative run by Devon Partnership NHS Trust. Providing employers with easy access to professional workplace mental health training, information and advice; our goal is to help empower organisations – large or small – to take a lead in supporting the mental wellbeing of staff.
INvolve is a global membership organisation and consultancy championing diversity and inclusion in businesses. Through the delivery of events, programmes, thought leadership and advisory services, INvolve helps firms drive cultural change and create inclusive workplaces where any individual can succeed. We also publish annual role model lists recognising and celebrating business leaders and future leaders who are breaking down barriers at work and inspiring the next generation of diverse talent.
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