Irish employers urged to introduce menopause policies or pay price

Irish workplaces need to catch up and implement menopause policies to avoid potential damage to businesses and an exodus of female staff who are not being offered support.

That is a warning given by the former director of public prosecutions Claire Loftus, who is due to address the second National Menopause Workplace Excellence awards in Dublin.

The event was founded to recognise businesses’ efforts to support female staff who are dealing with symptoms such as hormonal fluctuations, anxiety, sleep difficulties, poor concentration and memory lapses.

Ms Loftus told Irish broadcaster, RTE: “Any scenario where such enormous assets are at risk, as the data shows, of exiting the workforce or curtailing their hours, purely because of menopause symptoms, is potentially damaging to an organisation and to business.”

It is estimated that women of menopausal age account for 11 % of the workforce in the G7, the group of the seven biggest economies in the world. As European and global populations are ageing, this trend is expected to continue and further increase.

Meanwhile, in the UK alone, one in 20 women who have gone through the menopause stopped working as a result and one in 25 said they had reduced their hours due to related difficulties, according to a recent study from online investment platform AJ Bell.

Workplace health provider Simplyhealth presented similar figures in their research in 2023, finding that almost a quarter (23%) of women in the UK have considered quitting due to the symptoms.

What can companies do to support staff?

In 2023, the London-based Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) surveyed more than 2,000 women aged 40-60, and found that businesses implemented written policies and support networks, but actually what the staff needed the most were flexible working and the ability to control their body temperature in the workplace.

Almost one-fifth of working women wanted menstrual (20%) and menopause (18%) leave.

In 2023, just a quarter of employers had a menopause policy in place in the UK, but only 9% of the women in need had access to leave due to menopause.

Planned flexible working was available at almost half of the employers (44%) as part of their menopause support, found another report, ‘Health and Wellbeing at Work’* by CIPD and Simplyhealth.

What is the potential loss businesses are facing?

If women have to leave employment or cut their hours due to these symptoms, the potential damage to businesses could be significant.

Harvard Business Review cited a report made in 2022 by the UK menopause support app Balance, which estimated an astounding £10bn (€12bn) in menopause-related business losses in the UK alone.

A similar estimation by Mayo Clinic put the same cost for US companies to $26bn (€23.8bn) annually. Bloomberg reported in 2021 that global menopause productivity losses could reach up to $150bn (€137.2bn) a year.