Renfrewshire Council

Looking after our employees' wellbeing and helping everyone to be happy, healthy and productive at work will always be my top priority and my team are working hard to make sure we continue to have the right support place for you when you need it.

Since October is World Menopause Awareness month, I'd like to focus on that topic and share our plans for raising awareness of the menopause, the impact it can have on people and how we want to support anyone going through this at work.

One of the first things we want to do as an organisation is make it easier to talk openly about menopause. To nurture a positive, friendly, inclusive culture and working environment where you feel confident about sharing your experience, or asking for some advice for yourself, for a colleague, a friend or a family member.

We have more than 8,500 people working here at the council and nearly two thirds of employees could be going through the menopause at any one time.  With that in mind, it is important to remember that our personal experience of menopause may vary greatly. 

It's vital we do as much as we can to help everyone understand what happens during the stages of menopause and be better informed about the impact.

Key to our support will be education and training.

Training for managers about the stages and symptoms of menopause, their role in supporting colleagues, in signposting to trusted information and advice from health professionals such as NHS Inform, and the flexible, practical adjustments which can make a huge difference to the working day.

For colleagues, we will run interactive RenTalks Menopause sessions which are a great way to learn and share experiences, if you feel comfortable of course, and we know there's interest in starting informal peer catch ups - in person or online - too.

Our Supporting Menopause at Work policy should be approved by board in November and we're working on information to share with you on the staff info pages of the council website.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts on supporting menopause at work and would be grateful if you could take five minutes to complete a short pulse survey.

Please fill in our survey at https://forms.office.com/r/LJpDGTHQFJ.

Thanks very much for your time, speak to you soon.