Summary: With Equality Action Plan’s becoming mandatory from April 2027, here’s what meaningful menopause support looks like across three areas: internal policies and risk assessments, building a culture where employees feel safe speaking up and sustaining that support long-term.
Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, companies with over 250 employees will need to have an Equality Action Plan, which is voluntary from April 2026 but mandatory from April 2027. An important component of this is measures to support employees experiencing menopause.
These may include reviewing policies, manager training, workplace adjustments and considering menopause within health and safety risk assessments
How prepared is your company to meet this new regulation and more importantly, where do you actually start?
Evidence-based measures
Perimenopause can happen at any age after puberty, not just to those in their forties. It can also affect those who may not identify as female but were born with a uterus.
With one in 10 women leaving the workforce due to unmanaged symptoms, and a further one in four considering reducing their hours, the business case for support is impossible to ignore.
Think of the plan in three parts, like a house with foundations, walls and a roof.
The foundations: policies and procedure
Having a menopause policy is a start, but is it fit for purpose, do staff know where to find it and has it been updated recently?
Policies are there to guide staff and should not be a tick box exercise. Completing a menopause risk assessment will help you identify areas that need to be addressed to improve your menopausal employee support.
If you offer medical insurance for employees, does it cover menopause treatment? If it doesn’t, have you asked why or thought about changing providers?
When staff can access timely appropriate medical support, they could start to feel better in a much shorter timeframe.
Having a menopause policy is a start, but is it fit for purpose, do staff know where to find it and has it been updated recently?
The walls: Culture and environment
More than half (65 per cent) of sufferers will not share their challenges with their manager as they fear the repercussions.
Start the conversation about menopause, bring it into the open with training managers, give them the understanding of the complexities of this time in a woman’s life.
Managers need to be empathetic and not just brush off the employees’ concerns with brash comments like: “I don’t know what the issue was, I was fine”, or: “My wife didn’t complain”.
I strongly believe that menopause awareness for managers should be a mandatory annual training, so staff feel safe when reaching out for help, and managers feel confident when signposting them.
Offering awareness training to employees is also another way to help with the conversation. By understanding what may happen or is happening to them or a colleague, they can advocate for themselves.
Consider having Menopause Champions. Like mental health champions, they are somewhere else an employee can get help from.
Occupational Health reports are an informative tool; they can provide an updated picture of how the employee is, what treatment they are on and advise on reasonable adjustments that the employee or employer may not have thought of.
Reasonable adjustments need to be as individual as the person, so it’s crucial to have a conversation with the employee and ask what help they need.
The roof: ongoing support
Once you have started the conversation, it needs to keep going.
Consider running in-house menopause socials where employees can get together and support each other.
Going through menopause can be very isolating, so talking to others who understand helps to realise they are not alone or a unicorn.
Menopause Coaching is another way of supporting staff, whether it is offered as an individual or a group option. Coaching helps the individual start to better understand their body and how to manage their symptoms.
They learn lifestyle and mindset strategies to help them take control of their lives again, and rediscover themselves, regaining their confidence and reducing other symptoms.
Reasonable adjustments need to be as individual as the person
The real cost of doing nothing
When menopause is openly talked about in the workplace and employees feel comfortable accessing support, they become loyal and more likely to stay where they are.
Before putting off or deciding against investing in menopause support, consider how many employees are likely to be menopausal and calculate the potential financial impact of 10 per cent resigning.
Then compare the figures against the possible costings of appropriate effective support such as OH referrals, awareness training and coaching that deliver long-term benefits to both the company by costing a lot less than the average £30,000 to replace an experienced employee, plus the impact of improved health and support on the employee.
The voluntary window is open now. The question is whether your organisation will lead, or simply catch up.
Actionable insights
- Review or create your menopause policy (and ensure employees can actually find it).
- Complete a menopause workplace risk assessment: use it as the evidence base for your Equality Action Plan.
- Train your managers: make awareness training mandatory and annual.
- Check your medical insurance: does it cover menopause treatment? If not, ask why.
- Do the maths: one in 10 menopausal employees leaving costs an average of £30,000 each to replace. Support costs far less.
If you enjoyed this article, read: Rethinking menopause support: Moving beyond policy to deliver real workplace impact
