Menopause Policy and Guidance Workshop
Workplaces are failing menopausal women, change is urgently needed.
Time: 0930 - 1300
Price: £250 + VAT per attendee
Over 51% of the population will directly experience symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. A recent poll found that a shocking 99% of women felt their perimenopausal or menopausal symptoms led to a negative impact on their careers with a third describing the impact as significant.
Around 59% took time off work due to symptoms and 18% were off for more than eight weeks. Half of those who took over eight weeks off work resigned or took early retirement. Lack of workplace menopausal support was cited by over 60% of those surveyed.
Why having an inclusive menopause policy should be part of your employee offering
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 or working life
- A recent study by the Fawcett Society uncovered the stigma many women face:
- 41% say they have seen menopause or menopause symptoms treated as a joke by people at work
- 39% had cited anxiety or depression as a reason to take time off rather than share their menopause status
Organisations need to do more to ensure their workplaces support employees who are going through the menopause by adopting managerial styles that make those with symptoms feel comfortable when requesting support.
Can you afford to alienate such a crucial demographic?
Why train with us
We have trained hundreds of managers in organisations across the country on the symptoms of menopause and educated some forward-thinking companies on the best ways to start a difficult conversations and consult their menopausal workforce and employees on the best ways to formulate and implement effective menopause policies. This half-day workshop will give you the tools you need to formulate your own policy and help facilitate open conversations around menopause in the workplace.
Delegate feedback
"Very informative - great to be able to have such a positive conversation"
"I have found the training content extremely useful and I feel really positive that as an organisation we will make great progress with this."
"Great training! Very helpful for me supporting staff, its relatable, engaging, enjoyed the group work. Got lots if beneficial ideas and will be implementing them - thank you"
"I've gained more awareness and understanding on a subject that's been rarely spoken about in my personal life. I am grateful for the opportunity to utilise what we have learnt today to better support my staff and customers. Its nice to be a part of the conversation that my organisation is having around this area. Thank you"
"As a male manager, I was dreading this training. In fact it was incredibly helpful. The discussions were relaxed and warm and I feel ready to share conversations about menopause with my team."
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
Welcome address
Introduction, learning objectives and outcomes
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.
Menopause at work: myths and realities
- Why support menopausal women? The business and moral case?
- Quantifying the positives: productivity, reduced absence, loyalty, building your brand as an inclusive employer, reducing recruitment costs, minimizing the risks of workplace tribunals
- What is menopause and how does it affect your female employees?
- Physical, psychological and other symptoms and how they affect women both in and out of the workplace
- What are the symptoms and their effects inside and outside work?
- Self-care
- The impact of menopause on the body: sleep, diet, symptom management
- HRT, alternative medications, natural treatments, lifestyle and workplace changes, self-help alternatives hypnotherapy, CBT
- Exercise, stress relief, mindfulness and meditation, networks, making information available to all
- Managing stress, brain fog: how do you support female colleagues?
- Myths and misconceptions
Comfort break
Menopause policy and the workplace: legal imperatives to minimise risk
Richard Devall
Partner , IBB Law LLP
Richard advises on the full range of employment law. He acts for employers, senior executives , consultants, and partners from a wide variety of sectors including financial, media, professional services, retail, and technology. Richard works closely with HR Directors, in-house counsel, and senior leaders to provide support and advice to assist them in the management of business-critical issues, often of a sensitive nature. He advises clients on employee engagement and talent management; the employment and immigration aspects of business transfers, mergers and acquisitions and outsourcing arrangements; governance, compliance, and board reviews; international employee transfers; whistleblowing and discrimination and high-level litigation involving the enforcement of restrictive covenants and risk management. Richard has advised clients, including his own firm, on their legal requirements to supports menopausal staff and assisted them in writing and implementing a menopause-specific policy.
- Why have a menopause policy? legal and business imperatives
- Quantifying the potential risks
- What other benefits are there?
- Understanding and meeting your legal requirements to support menopausal staff
- Your legal duties to avoid age and gender discrimination
- Potential areas of discrimination to avoid
- Government recommendations
- Risk assessment of the workplace under Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992
- Equality Act 2010 and workplace menopause policy: a checklist
- Writing and implementing a menopause-specific policy
- What should be included
- How do you ensure its implemented and understood company-wide?
- Case histories and lessons learned
- A blueprint
- Case studies and war stories
- Q&A
Workplace culture and support
Alison Martin-Campbell
Founder & Chair of EY Menopause Community /Executive Assistant
Ernst Young
Alison Martin-Campbell
Founder & Chair of EY Menopause Community /Executive Assistant , Ernst Young
Alison Martin-Campbell, 56, is an Executive Assistant at the professional services firm EY. After experiencing hot flushes, insomnia, anxiety, depression and cystitis, the last of these so badly she ended up in hospital, she started to share her research and tips for how to cope with menopause symptoms leading her to setting up the EY Menopause Community which supports employees and their families going through menopause and peri-menopause. One of Alison’s key passions is making people – men and women – feel comfortable talking about menopause, and thinks menopause should be spoken about as openly as any other stage in a man or woman’s life. Alison also feels that it is really important that we create menopause-friendly workplaces, given menopause affects half the working population and for many, they are going to be working for up to a third of their life when they're going through what can be incredibly debilitating symptoms of menopause. In light of this, Alison was part of a team who worked on establishing Menopause Guidelines for Staff and Managers at EY. Alison has appeared in The Financial Times, contributed to Still Hot: 42 Brilliantly Honest Menopause Stories, spoken at This Can Happen 2021: Menopause and mental health - learnings from the UK workforce, given dozens of presentations on menopause to colleagues and external clients, most recently on Menopause & Neurodiversity, and written an article for COO Magazine entitled Why Menopause Matters, Especially In The Workforce.
- How can you make it easy for women to ask for help?
- Helping strategies: what really works
- Workplace adaptions and adjustments
- Communicating your strategy: symptoms and workplace adjustments
- Sickness absence procedures
- Flexible working arrangements
- Frequency of breaks
- Building your culture: essential elements of inclusion for peri and menopausal women
- "I'm a male manager - what the hell can I say?" - key messages and demystifying
Comfort break
Breakouts: Issues and potential solutions
Working in small teams, delegates will workshop key issues. Findings will be shared to all delegates to maximise learn and valuable takeaways
- GROUP 1: Self-care and coping strategies for peri and menopausal women
- GROUP 2: Guidance documentation – what could be included
- GROUP 3: Adapting existing sickness and flexible working policies
- Uniform polices
- Evidence-based interventions: Self-help for women and line manager training
- Champion and allies - setting up, terms of reference, training and awareness raising
- GROUP 4:
- Communication and talking about menopause at work
- Workplace culture and occupational health awareness campaigns
- Ensuring you are sending positive messages
Feedback
Wrap and outstanding questions
End of workshop
Contact us to book or discuss our events & services
01983 861133
info@bfi.co.uk