Each school presents a unique environment in terms of size, staff demographics and environment. But what all have in common is a range of busy and demanding roles. Introducing some simple and cost-effective support for those struggling with menopause symptoms or menstrual health issues can be a great way to keep colleagues engaged, happy and motivated.
Britain’s teaching staff are amongst the youngest in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) with an average age of 39. In a young and disproportionately female profession, it’s important to ensure that the careers of menstruating, perimenopausal & menopausal school staff are not set back by their experiences. There has been a huge increase in awareness about menopause in particular, with more and more organisations introducing policies, training, guidance and support.
And, increasingly, schools are becoming part of this traction. Hardly surprising when we look at the figures:
- 625, 520 full-time teachers in England
- 281,100 full-time teaching assistants
- 69.5% of the teacher workforce is female
- One in six is likely to be in the menopause transition and even more than that will experience menstruation
Some aspects of school life can make the experience of menstruation, menstrual health & menopause challenging. It can be difficult to manage the unpredictable physical symptoms within the structured life of a school.
Unpredictable periods for example don’t go hand in hand with low flexibility to use toilets due to timetables defining when and where teachers are in classrooms. Problems with memory (especially verbal) and concentration aren’t conducive to the daily demands of excellent communication skills and the focus required by teaching and support staff. Fatigue can pose a huge challenge; school life includes daily stressful situations and long hours – not easily managed when teachers aren’t feeling at their best.
Just as schools make reasonable adjustments for those with disabilities or medical issues, adjustments may also need to be made to support employees’ specific experiences of menstrual health & menopause.
Why is it important to think about menopause and menstruation at work?
Menopausal women are the fastest-growing workforce demographic in the UK. Of the 33m people employed in the UK, 5.87m of these are of menopausal age. And this number is only going to keep going up.
Symptoms of perimenopause – the time leading up to menopause – usually start in our 40s, with the average age of menopause being 51. For some, however, it can be earlier or later than this. With the average retirement age at 66, more women will be working through their menopause transition. They should be able to do so in a supportive environment where reasonable adjustments are made to accommodate symptoms.
There are also an estimated 15m people in the UK who menstruate, 72% of them are in work and 40% of women experience symptoms which are severe enough to affect or disrupt their lives.
Your school’s demographics
The statistics start to speak for themselves. A good place to start is by looking at the demographics in your own school and start to build a picture of how many people could be impacted first hand by menopause and menstruation.
Then think about how this could impact on wider aspects of your school, such as budgets, and those who may be supporting someone struggling with menopause or menstrual issues.
The benefits of introducing the right support
These are many and varied. But some of the key benefits include:
Increasing employee retention
We’re now an ageing population, which means that employers are often all fishing from the same talent pool. Retaining employees is significantly cheaper than recruiting. We know that one in four women have considered leaving work due to menopause, and one in ten actually have.
For others, they could start to dial down their ambitions, going part time or taking a lower-paid job elsewhere with less responsibility. Many still have children at home, other caring responsibilities and big demands from a career perspective. Along comes menopause, and something often has to give. But we know it’s absolutely key for employers to retain staff.
The direct cost of recruitment is £5.7k for one employee. But there are other costs. Oxford Economics statistics tell us it costs on average £25k: this is for leadership time, recruitment costs, bringing them up to the same level of capability and embedding them into your org. Really, if you can prevent just one person from leaving you’ll be easily recouping any investment.
Reducing staff absence
UK schools spend millions of pounds annually on supply teacher cover and this is a good opportunity to look at reducing your staff absence rates and reducing these costs. In any team, absences can be hard to manage. In smaller teams, just having one person down can cause chaos, especially in schools where each absence has to be covered.
Consider that 79% of women experience symptoms relating to menstruation. Putting the right support in place could be the difference in preventing this translating into absences.
Improving productivity
Menopause symptoms are often portrayed in stereotypes, with hot flushes being the main one which most people know about. But survey after survey tells us that most women can handle these. The psychological symptoms are the ones which can really impact in the workplace, with 72% saying that poor concentration is an issue and 70% saying the same for stress. These symptoms can really start to erode confidence, and it’s easy to appreciate how someone might feel standing up in front of a classroom with these symptoms at play.
There is something of a culture of fear with disclosing symptoms: 46% say they don’t as they don’t want to be perceived negatively.
This is where good education, training and awareness can help to break barriers and enable greater support and understanding.
Menstruation can impact productivity too. 79% say they feel more tired, 61% have worked when they didn’t feel well enough to and 63% felt less able to concentrate. The Teacher Wellbeing Index 2023 from Education Support found that 78% of all staff are stressed and 46% say their organisations do not support employees well who have mental health and wellbeing problems.
Enhancing employee engagement
When we invest in people they notice. When we work in a place we feel we fit in and are appreciated we give more of ourselves. Employee engagement is rooted in trust, communication and commitment. An engaged employee is more likely to be enthusiastic about both their own work and the fortunes of the school overall.
The Teacher Wellbeing Index showed a 6% increase in teachers reporting exhaustion and a 9% increase in those reporting signs of burnout compared with previous year. When we’re consistently trying to create diverse, equitable workplaces where people are thriving, we really must consider the menopause and menstruation journeys as a key factor in extending support to our schools and to turn these statistics around.
Anecdotally, we’ve heard so many times the difference that support and awareness can make in schools. Just offering one session for staff welfare and wellbeing shows that you care: often these sessions are the first time people start joining the dots of what symptoms they could be experiencing and realise what support they might need.
Boosting employer reputation
Is your school somewhere your employees would say is a great place to work and recommend you to others? Reputation goes a long way. There’s always some natural attrition, but constantly trying to fill vacancies is a thankless task. Being a place people want to work will open up new talent pools for you to fish from.
We’re noticing a significant trend in the number of tribunals brought around menopause, and there have now been some regarding menstruation, too. As more people realise their employer has a legal obligation to support them we will start to see this trend increase. And nobody wants that. It’s terrible for reputation and costly in terms of both expense and brand.
So on balance, introducing menopause and menstruation support not only brings a host of benefits, it significantly reduces that chance you’ll be taken to tribunal.
How to be menopause and menstruation friendly
Every school is different in terms of size, culture and values. But there are some key areas of focus that you can adapt to what’s right for your organisation:
Policy, guidance document or toolkit. Put in writing what support is available and communicate this widely. Here, you could include why your school considers this important, some key facts, and ways you can offer support. Make this a live document, constantly updated and easy for people to access.
Engagement. Have you created a culture where menopause and menstruation can be talked about openly as just another subject?
Training. The big impact here is often with managers. These are inclusive subjects, not ‘women’s issues’. Once managers understand the key facts and how they can offer support, they often feel much more confident having conversations. This isn’t about clinical advice or diagnosis, but to signpost to support and discuss reasonable adjustments.
Most of these initiatives and interventions are easy to implement and very low cost – bringing a range of benefits which far outweigh the small investment needed.
