Awareness is a starting point. But what happens after everyone has attended the session?
There's plenty of conversations about menopause awareness, support and workplace policies. And rightly so. They're important.
But I'm getting more and more interested in a different question.
What's happening in organisations every day that so few are questioning?
The conversations between managers and employees. The assumptions made about performance, capability and commitment. The decisions about recruitment, development, promotion and progression. The reasons experienced people disengage, leave or disappear from the talent pipeline. Because this is where some of the biggest organisational risks may be hiding.
It's not just about menopause. It's about how organisations manage people. With 30 years in recruitment and HR, I've seen the impact of everyday decisions and how powerfully they impact someone's career. A candidate is overlooked because of an assumption about their age. An experienced employee stops being considered for development opportunities. A manager misinterprets a change in performance without exploring what might be happening. Someone leaves, and the organisation never really understands why. None of these situations automatically means menopause is involved.
But how confident are organisations that they're asking the right questions before making decisions? And how consistently are managers equipped to have those conversations? Policies are important. But what happens in practice? An organisation might have a menopause policy or a smart Menopause Action plan. It might offer awareness sessions, flexible working and employee support. All positive steps. But a policy doesn't tell us whether a manager knows how to respond when an employee's circumstances change. Training attendance doesn't tell us whether assumptions are being challenged. And a supportive statement on a website doesn't tell us whether experienced employees are being fairly considered for promotion.
There's a difference between having support in place and knowing whether it's working. That's where leadership, culture and accountability come into the picture.
You cannot standardise an experience that isn't standard. Perimenopause and menopause can be unpredictable, fluctuating and very different from one person to another. Experiences also intersect with age, gender, race, disability, other health conditions and individual circumstances.
That's why I question whether standardised programmes and assessment tools, on their own, can ever capture the full picture. They can provide valuable structure. But they cannot replace curiosity, good judgement and the ability to have an appropriate conversation. And they certainly cannot compensate for poor management practices.
The risks never neatly inside an HR policy. Consider the wider employee lifecycle. Recruitment. Onboarding. Performance management. Development. Promotion. Retention. Exit. At every stage, decisions are being made about people. And at every stage, there are opportunities to get those decisions right, or to overlook something important. The consequences can extend well beyond an individual employee. They can affect performance, retention, organisational knowledge, management time, workplace culture and ultimately organisational reputation. Some situations may also create employment, health and safety or legal risks.
So why are we still treating menopause at work primarily as an awareness and support conversation?
From awareness to action. My work at Meno-Warriors starts with awareness and allyship, because understanding matters. But it doesn't stop there. I look at existing policies, workplace practices, management capability and more than 100 touchpoints across the employee lifecycle, from pre-hire to post-exit. Not because every touchpoint presents a menopause-related risk. But because organisations need to understand where their everyday practices, decisions and behaviours might be creating risks they haven't recognised. And then do something about them.