Menopause Action Plans: turning commitment into practical workplace support
For many organisations, menopause support has started with awareness.
Policies have been introduced, conversations have become more visible and employees are more likely to recognise that menopause can affect working life.
The next question is more practical:
What actually changes for an employee who needs support?
A Menopause Action Plan can help employers turn good intentions into practical action by connecting education, manager confidence, workplace support, clear routes to help and accountability.
A changing landscape for employers
The UK Government has published guidance to help employers create workplace action plans alongside gender pay gap reporting.
The Employment Rights Act 2025 provides for mandatory equality action plans for employers with 250 or more employees. The requirement is currently voluntary and is expected to become mandatory from spring 2027, subject to the necessary secondary legislation.
Under the guidance, employers creating an action plan are asked to select at least two actions: at least one addressing their gender pay gap and at least one supporting employees experiencing menopause. The Government encourages employers to choose specific, evidence-informed actions that reflect their organisation and can be measured over time.
Importantly, the guidance also recognises that some actions may benefit employees experiencing other hormone health conditions, including endometriosis, fibroids and PMOS/PCOS.
For employers, this creates an opportunity to think beyond compliance.
A useful question is:
If someone in our organisation is struggling at work because of menopause, what support will they actually experience?
Why action matters
Balance@Work’s 2026 Hormone Health at Work survey of 5,592 respondents highlighted the gap that can exist between awareness and employees’ experiences at work.
These findings show why awareness alone is not enough.
A webinar or awareness day can start an important conversation. But employees also need to know where to go for support internally and externally, managers need to know how to respond and workplace processes need to work in practice.
Read the Balance@Work Hormone Health at Work research
What can action look like in practice?
A good action plan should be practical, specific and relevant to the way people actually work.
Manager confidence
Managers do not need to become menopause specialists or clinicians.
They do need enough understanding to listen, respond appropriately, understand how work is being affected and know where to signpost someone for further support.
A useful question can be:
“What is making work harder at the moment, and what might help?”
This keeps the conversation focused on the employee’s experience rather than asking a manager to interpret symptoms.
Practical workplace support
Support should reflect the role and working environment.
For a desk-based employee, this might involve flexibility around hours, travel or the working environment.
For someone in healthcare, retail, hospitality or another frontline role, practical needs may include access to breaks, toilets, water, privacy, uniform adjustments or healthcare appointments.
There is no single adjustment that will work for everyone.
Clear routes to help
Employees should know where to go if they need support.
That might include:
The route should be simple, visible and understood.
Connected workplace policies
Menopause support should not sit separately from the rest of working life.
A Menopause Action Plan may need to connect with:
This helps prevent a supportive policy on paper from being undermined by inconsistent practice.
Ownership and measurement
Each action should have an owner, a timescale and a clear outcome.
Employers should also consider how they will know whether their actions have been delivered and whether employees find them useful.
That could include manager confidence, awareness of available support, completion of agreed actions and employee feedback.
The aim is not to collect unnecessary health data. It is to understand whether the organisation is delivering what it has committed to.
What can this look like in practice?
One Balance@Work client in the pharmaceutical industry began by listening to its workforce.
An internal menopause survey identified the need for more visible support. The organisation then worked with Balance@Work to train 20 menopause champions from across the business.
The client said:
“Our internal employee menopause survey highlighted the need to create a culture where everyone felt valued and supported, so we collaborated with Sarah Davies to train 20 menopause champions from a diverse representation across the organisation.”
It is a simple example of moving from insight to action:
Employee feedback identified a need, training created a practical response and workplace champions helped make support more visible.
A policy is not the same as an action plan
Many organisations already have a menopause policy.
That can be an important foundation, but a policy and an action plan serve different purposes.
A menopause policy explains an organisation’s approach. A Menopause Action Plan sets out what will actually happen, who is responsible and how progress will be reviewed.
For employers that already have policies or employee networks in place, an action plan is an opportunity to ask whether that support is working in practice.
Menopause can be a starting point
Menopause deserves specific workplace attention.
But some of the foundations of good menopause support can also help organisations respond more effectively to wider hormone and menstrual health needs.
These include informed managers, appropriate flexibility, trusted information, clear support pathways and access to further expertise where needed.
For organisations already doing good work around menopause, the next question may be:
How can we build on what we already have to create a more joined-up approach to hormone health at work?
Read more about hormone health beyond menopause
Frequently asked questions
Are Menopause Action Plans mandatory?
Not yet. Employers with 250 or more employees can currently produce a voluntary action plan alongside gender pay gap reporting. Subject to legislation, action plans are expected to become mandatory from spring 2027.
Is a Menopause Action Plan the same as a menopause policy?
No. A policy sets out an organisation’s approach. An action plan identifies the practical steps that will be taken, who owns them and how progress will be reviewed.
How do employers know whether the plan is working?
Ask whether employees can find support, whether managers know how to respond, whether agreed actions are being delivered and whether employees say the support is useful.
From awareness to action
A Menopause Action Plan should do more than demonstrate commitment.
It should make it easier for employees to get support, easier for managers to know what to do and easier for organisations to understand whether their approach is working.
Balance@Work helps employers move from awareness to action through evidence-informed hormone-health education, manager training, workplace strategy and practical support.
Speak to the Balance@Work team
Encouraging people to speak about their mental health matters. But a supportive workplace also needs to know what to do when they do.
A menopause policy can be approved, published and technically complete without changing a single employee’s experience.
For employers, that has a clear connection to hormone health at work. Trust is not created by a policy or an awareness campaign alone. It develops when people can find credible information, understand what support is available and know what will happen if they ask for help.
