Employee health & benefits Health & benefits

How we can support menopause action planning - what do you need to know?

Menopause has been one of those workplace topics often whispered about in corridors, briefly acknowledged in diversity slides, and then left for individuals to manage alone. That has begun to change — driven by a growing body of evidence on the impact of menopause on working life, a broader shift in employer attitudes, and now concrete legislative requirements flowing from the Employment Rights Act 2025^{1, 2}. Employers are increasingly recognising menopause as a business issue, not simply a personal one. The question is no longer whether to act, but how to act wisely and in compliance within a changing legal landscape.

The next wave of workplace menopause support will move beyond symbolic gestures and toward clinically grounded, measurable and legally defensible programmes — centered on workplace culture, evidence-based lifestyle interventions, and structured menopause action plans.

Why employers should care

Menopause affects each individual differently — some people may experience only one or two mild symptoms, while others face more severe and distressing effects. As a business priority, this calls for an adaptable, person-centered approach that can be tailored to individual needs.

The research clearly indicates that individuals going through the menopause experience hampered progress and engagement in the workplace⁴. Research from the CIPD found that two thirds of women (aged 40-60 in employment) experiencing menopause symptoms say it has a negative impact on them at work.³

Many employers already invest in prevention through gym memberships, employee assistance programmes (EAP), occupational health and private medical cover, so extending that investment to targeted menopause support is a logical and cost-effective next step.

Retaining experienced employees through the menopause transition is far less costly than managing long-term absence or losing talent entirely.⁵

The role of lifestyle interventions

Many individuals go through menopause without requiring clinical treatment, while others benefit significantly from medical and lifestyle support. Lifestyle medicine can play an important and evidence-based role in helping to manage symptoms effectively⁷ and employers are well placed to facilitate access to these approaches.

A recent literature review highlighted the value of embracing the six pillars of lifestyle medicine⁷:

Healthy eating
Physical activity
Mental wellbeing
Avoidance of risky substances
Restorative sleep
Healthy relationships

Importantly, these interventions were associated with reductions in vasomotor symptoms — such as hot flushes, chills and sweating — as well as improvements in sleep quality, mental wellbeing and weight management, alongside lower cardiometabolic and osteoporosis risk.⁷ This is significant for employers, because many of the benefits ecosystem investments already in place — physical activity support, mental health resources, flexible working, nutritional guidance — are also the interventions that matter most for employees experiencing menopause.

Therefore, the focus should be on integration rather than addition: menopause support should not sit as a separate column in the benefits budget, but should be woven into the existing fabric of health and wellbeing provision. A multidisciplinary, person-centered approach — connecting healthcare providers, line managers, HR teams and occupational health is key.

Culture is where the gap most often lies

Effective menopause support goes beyond policy — it requires cultural change, and this is where many organisations currently fall short. Having a policy on paper is not the same as creating an environment where employees feel safe to disclose symptoms, ask for adjustments or have an honest conversation with their line manager. Research consistently finds that lack of knowledge, embarrassment and stigma remain big barriers to support.⁵

The organisations seeing the most meaningful impact are those treating menopause not as a standalone initiative, but as part of a broader commitment to inclusion and health. Manager confidence in handling disclosures sensitively, peer support mechanisms, and genuine leadership visibility on the topic all play a role that formal policy alone cannot replicate. Reasonable workplace adjustments — whether that is temperature flexibility, hybrid working or altered workloads during acute symptom periods — are straightforward in principle, but they require managers who know how to initiate that conversation and employees who trust that raising the issue will not disadvantage them.³

This is not a gap that can be closed by publishing a policy. It requires sustained investment in awareness, communication and capability — and that is where specialist support from occupational health, digital health platforms and menopause-focused benefits providers increasingly adds value.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 and Menopause Action Plans

The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces a significant regulatory shift. Employers with 250 or more employees will be required to publish a menopause action plan, with the obligation becoming mandatory in 2027. This places menopause firmly within the broader regulatory landscape around equality and fair work — and transforms what was previously regarded as good practice into a legal duty for larger organisations.¹

Employers that treat menopause action plans as a voluntary 'nice to have' in 2026 risk falling behind. Those building structured programmes now are more likely to meet the 2027 threshold with confidence, while simultaneously gaining a competitive advantage in talent retention and demonstrating stronger governance to stakeholders, investors and regulators.

The guidance emerging from ACAS, the EHRC and government consultation signals that an effective action plan will need to go beyond a statement of intent^{1, 9, 10}. It should address the practical dimensions of support — from how absence related to symptoms is managed, to how the benefits and occupational health ecosystem connects with employees' day-to-day experience. Critically, it will need to demonstrate accountability: who owns it, how progress is reviewed, and how it will be updated as evidence and expectations evolve.

What the legislation does not do is prescribe a single model. This matters, because the right approach will vary considerably between organisations — by sector, workforce demographics, existing benefits infrastructure and culture. The organisations likely to build the most effective action plans are those that treat this as a genuine strategic exercise, not a compliance task to be delegated to HR and filed away.

The broader legal framework

The Employment Rights Act 2025 sits alongside existing legal protections that create real exposure for employers who do not act. Under the Equality Act 2010, menopause-related symptoms can engage protected characteristics including sex and age — and where symptoms are substantial and long-term, disability protections may also apply, making reasonable adjustments a legal duty rather than a discretionary option.¹¹ The Employment Rights Act 1996 governs unfair dismissal, absence management and procedural fairness: mishandled capability or absence processes linked to menopause symptoms have already given rise to tribunal claims, and that trend is likely to accelerate as regulatory attention on the issue grows¹².

Employment tribunals have increasingly considered menopause-related claims in recent years. The introduction of mandatory action plan requirements will raise both awareness among employees of their rights and scrutiny of employer practice. For organisations yet to take this seriously, the legal risk is no longer theoretical.

What insurers and benefit providers are doing

Insurers and group risk providers have started to respond to the growing demand for menopause support, though the market remains focused on clinical access and coaching. Vitality has partnered with Peppy to include menopause support in member offerings, while Bupa and AXA Health now offer menopause support services or paid add-ons.^13,14,15 These offerings tend to centre on clinician access, symptom coaching, education and referral pathways.

As demand grows and the regulatory environment tightens, the market is likely to develop further. The more interesting question for employers is not which individual product to add, but how menopause support connects coherently across the existing benefits ecosystem — EAP, occupational health, private medical and group risk — rather than sitting as an isolated add-on that employees may not know how to access or trust.

Final thoughts

Menopause action plans will soon be mandatory for large employers. That regulatory shift changes the expectations placed on organisations: stakeholders will look for not only policies and training, but also demonstrable, measurable support rooted in clinical evidence and sound governance.

The organisations that will navigate this well are those that move early — not to tick a compliance box, but because they recognise that supporting employees through menopause is both the right thing to do and a sound business decision. Experienced employees, particularly women in senior roles, represent significant accumulated human capital. The cost of losing them — in recruitment, knowledge transfer and reduced team performance — is far higher than the cost of the support that might have kept them engaged and performing well.

Building an effective menopause action plan requires bringing together the clinical, cultural and structural dimensions of support in a way that is coherent, credible and specific to your organisation. That is not a simple task — and it is one where specialist advice, benchmarking and a clear-eyed view of what the evidence actually supports will make the difference between a plan that works and one that simply satisfies the letter of the law.

Ready to build your menopause action plan?

Our quick-start guides on menopause action plans, equality action plans and the wider implications of the Employment Rights Act 2025 can be found on TAAP — a digital gateway to smarter, faster workforce decisions through unlimited access to global research, workforce policy insights and more.

To speak to a Marsh consultant of this topic, please get in touch

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