Supporting Your Team Through Menopause Practical Support for SMEs
Menopause is a health and wellbeing issue that touches almost every workplace, whatever its size. Symptoms can start years before most people expect — sometimes in someone's twenties — and can affect confidence, performance and day-to-day wellbeing if they go unsupported. Handling this well isn't just the right thing to do; it's increasingly a legal and commercial necessity.
You may have seen that the government has introduced Menopause Action Plans, becoming voluntary for large employers (250+ staff) from April 2026 and mandatory for that group from spring 2027. That specific scheme doesn't apply to smaller businesses — but the underlying legal exposure does. The Equality Act 2010 and the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 apply to every employer regardless of size, and menopause-related discrimination and reasonable adjustment claims are already being brought against employers of all sizes. Getting ahead of this isn't about ticking a box that doesn't yet apply to you — it's about managing real legal risk and protecting the people and experience you've invested in retaining.
Menopause affects roughly half the population directly, but it isn't a \\\"women's issue\\\" to be managed quietly on the side. Male colleagues, managers and peers all need the confidence to talk about it sensitively and without stigma — because avoidance, not menopause itself, is usually what drives good people out of a business.
Guidance comes with a practical, fillable workbook to help you build your own Menopause Action Plan step by step — no legal jargon, no guesswork, just a clear framework you can put into practice straight away.
Start your business journey today
Take the first step to successfully starting and growing your business.