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Menopause management in the company is becoming a crucial HR factor. While organizations in the United Kingdom have established targeted measures to support and retain experienced female employees, a systematic approach is often still missing in Germany. Christina Nußbeck from BG prevent explains why companies have to rethink now – and how HR can actually take action.
Executive Summary
Menopause management in the company: Strategic lever for employee loyalty and productivity
- The challenge: Many companies underestimate menopause as a relevant factor in the work context. A lack of awareness, taboos and a lack of structures lead to experienced employees losing performance or leaving the workforce altogether. This creates a double risk for HR: loss of knowledge and increasing costs due to fluctuation and absenteeism.
- The solution: International examples – particularly from the UK – show that structured menopause management is effective. Clear guidelines, trained managers, internal contact persons and simple work organizational adjustments create a supportive environment. It is crucial to systematically integrate the topic into HR strategies and health management.
- Your benefit: Christina Nußbeck shows how companies can retain experienced skilled workers, ensure productivity and strengthen their attractiveness as employers through targeted measures. The article provides concrete starting points on how HR takes the topic out of the taboo zone and translates it into effective action.
- Focus: Menopause management in the company, employee retention, women’s health, HR strategy, work ability, company culture
For a long time we in the German economy acted as if menopause didn’t exist. And this is exactly how we are ignoring huge potential: While companies in the UK have long been using the topic as a strategic lever to retain talent and remain productive, we are still hesitant in this country. Now is the time for HR professionals to move from managing to creating. Because one thing is clear: we simply can no longer afford to look away from an economic and human perspective.
Menopause management: What a look across the English Channel teaches us
In Great Britain, the topic of menopause has long since arrived where it belongs: in the middle of the business world. It is no longer a niche topic when you consider that around 13 million people there – around a third of the female population – are currently perimenopausal or menopausal. Landmark government guidance and clear judgments have ensured that companies no longer label menopause as a private fate. They see it as an important key figure for the company.
And for good reason: ignoring it costs the UK economy an estimated 14 million working days every year. Almost a million women have already temporarily or completely given up their jobs there because of the symptoms. In order to stop this massive loss of knowledge, British politicians have reacted and adopted the first “Women’s Health Strategy” in 2022.
A real success project is the Menopause Workplace Pledge, in which more than 2,500 employers – from the BBC to the NHS – have already publicly committed to creating a supportive environment. Particularly committed companies can even be officially certified as “Menopause Friendly Employers” and use this as a strong argument in recruiting.
British companies rely on clear guidelines to retain experienced professionals between the ages of 45 and 55 in their teams. For example, they train “menopause champions” as internal confidants or offer specialized health apps as an additional service. While the taboo is breaking there, there is often still a lack of speech in Germany.
We lose valuable know-how every year because we misinterpret symptoms or don’t react flexibly enough in everyday work. The “UK Standard” proves to us: Those who make things visible create security – for the employees and for the entire company.
When experience suddenly becomes quiet: An example from everyday life
To understand what it’s really about, we just have to look at a typical situation in a medium-sized company:
Imagine a project manager, 51 years old, who has confidently led international teams for years. Suddenly she finds it difficult to concentrate, she hardly sleeps and breaks out in a sweat in the middle of important presentations. Out of shame, she withdraws more and more, cancels client appointments and even thinks about reducing her hours or quitting work altogether. Your manager mistakenly thinks that she is no longer motivated or overwhelmed with the work.
In companies that keep quiet about this topic, a top performer leaves the team. In an environment that deals openly with menopause, we find simple solutions: an honest conversation, more flexible working hours after a sleepless night or a better ventilated workplace keep the expert on board. This secures potential instead of losing it through silence.
Silence is expensive
The damage to our economy is measurable if we ignore menopausal symptoms. It arises from absenteeism, falling productivity and – most painfully – when experienced women leave the workforce completely.
It is economically worthwhile if we look closely here. Filling a management position often costs one and a half times an annual salary. A few clever adjustments to everyday life, on the other hand, cost us almost nothing. If we create jobs that fit the needs of these important experts, we will ensure our success in global competition.
And HR professionals and human resources departments in particular are now in demand as designers. We need a culture in which we can speak openly to one another. True to the motto: “Look. Make it an issue.” Menopause is not an illness, but a completely normal part of working life – just like parenthood or desk ergonomics.
Your roadmap for a modern working environment
To help you make the leap from theory to practice, you can follow exactly the initiatives that have already been successfully implemented and tested in Great Britain:
- Talk about it: Start internal webinars or distribute information material. Knowledge takes away uncertainty – among those affected, but also among male colleagues and managers.
- Customize the frame: Check where you can be more flexible. It often helps if women are allowed to work from home on days with severe symptoms or are given simple aids such as fans.
- Use expertise: Promote exchange. External service providers for occupational medicine, occupational safety and health management know the world of work inside out and bring the right people together to advance the topic of healthy work.
- Train managers: Help managers correctly interpret initial signals. They should learn to react empathetically and professionally instead of seeing a temporary challenge as a weakness.
Together we will shape the working world of tomorrow
We are at a real turning point. If we integrate gender-sensitive medicine into everyday work across the board, we give all employees the chance to achieve their full potential in every phase of life. Menopause is a phase that we can – and must – accompany with empathy and smart decisions.
Anyone who adapts the conditions in the company does much more than just ensure the well-being of the most experienced specialists. You prevent valuable knowledge from leaving the company early and at the same time strengthen your position as an attractive employer with a healthy team, less absenteeism and a culture that doesn’t just write inclusion on posters, but actually practices it.
This turns a taboo topic into a real asset for your employee retention and recruiting. A strong economy needs women who feel healthy, understood and valued.
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