In Conversation with Sarah and Helen Tomlinson

Menopause is still a topic that is not widely spoken about in organisations, and certainly not frequently. Why is it necessary to discuss menopause across organisations and take action on that? During our conversation with Helen Tomlinson, Head of Talent Development, we discussed how to address menopause in organisations and why it is so important.

80% of women who are going through menopause are in the workplace,” says Helen Tomlinson, Head of Talent Development. “That has changed over time and generations because we have to be economically active for a lot longer than we did in previous generations.”

Women also indicated that menopause has negatively impacted their workplace experiences in six out of ten cases. About one in five women have left their jobs due to menopause, while empirical evidence indicates that these women are in senior roles. “So, the more senior role you're in, the more likely is that the symptoms of menopause will impact your ability to do your job.”

Tomlinson explained that last year when only 10% of UK organisations had menopause policies, they felt that as a large organisation they needed their own policy. Therefore, they launched one. Over the last year, that 10% has only grown incrementally to about 17% of large organisations.

The key is how you launch the policy into the business, and then how you embed it.

Here are a few things we did to ensure the success of our policy initiatives that other organisations might find useful:

The starting point is getting the conversation going.

“I did a number of podcasts with some senior people across the organisation talking about their experiences and what that did was open up the floodgates, if you like, for other people to think, ‘if others feel comfortable talking about it, I can start to talk about it as well,’” Tomlinson said. “And we have used that technique and strategy for other topics since then. But that really got the conversation going.”

Another thing organisations can do is promote informal meetings, like Tomlinson’s inclusion coffee mornings. “I set one up last October called Hot Topics, with reference, obviously to one of the key symptoms of menopause being the hot flushes,” explains Tomlinson. They opened up hot topics and people came and started to talk about their lived experiences. “We had people coming on talking about it from a male perspective about how it impacted on their relationships, and even people who, in their culture, don’t have the words to talk about it.” In some cultures, menopause isn't a subject, and it was the first time people ever felt comfortable talking about it.

Tomlinson’s organisation kicked the policy initiative off with a launch on world menopause day last year. This was a celebration of the fact that they had created a menopause policy. And then they did a series of manager workshops after that. These gave managers the tools to open up that conversation with their colleagues to be able to talk about menopause, the symptoms, and how it impacts their work life. They also gave managers the tools to support that, and just make it a more comfortable place for people transitioning through menopause to work.

“One of the key things that we've introduced is the symptom checker, a really good tool to start off the conversation,” Tomlinson said. “People came up to me all the time and say, ‘I've got this symptom, do you think I'm in menopause?’” The symptom checker is an excellent tool to start the conversation, same as the colleague sessions, giving employees the tools to be able to start the conversation.

Having someone externally kick off the conversation makes it much more open and easier. “I've been really lucky that I've delivered the menopause policy workshop to over 125 clients since we launched the policy,” says Tomlinson. “From an internal perspective, in terms of our clients, I've had amazing opportunities to go out and help our clients to embed their policy, and get the conversation moving in their organisation.”

Tomlinson believes that often in SMEs, the HR community doesn't feel comfortable having that conversation, so getting someone externally to talk about that and help get the conversation underway is a helpful starting point.

“I am actively lobbying the government to adopt menopause policies and legal requirements in workplaces with over 250 employees. We hosted a roundtable with governments in March of this year. And it was Carolyn Harris, who took the HRT bill to Parliament. That was our guest speaker on that. And we invited clients to come and watch the roundtable where we talked about having menopause allies, mineral mates, a bit like Mental Health First Aiders. And so we’re hosting another roundtable because that went so well.”

Having a group of supportive people in the organisation to listen to people's challenges and issues and be able to share the tools and techniques with them to really support them through the menopause and other life issues is very important. “I think the internal piece is to keep that conversation going: the more open we are as an organisation, the more supportive of people through various life stages, that makes us more inclusive and a better place to work.”

Menopause in the Workplace

In this episode, Ms. Tomlinson speaks with Sarah Cheyne, Global Head of Talent Experience, Inclusion & Wellbeing and People Analytics, The Adecco Group and Helen Tomlinson, Head of Talent Development, The Adecco group with a brewing discussion about the importance of menopause discussions in the workplace, how it impacts a worker’s experience in the workplace, and how to implement a menopause policy in your workplace..