Menopause Action Plans: What employers need to know & start acting on

Last week, Peppy hosted a live webinar with Mariella Frostrup - journalist, broadcaster, Chair of Menopause Mandate, and the UK Government's Women’s Employment Ambassador - to talk about one of the most pressing challenges currently facing HR and Benefits leaders: building a credible Menopause Action Plan ahead of the Employment Rights Act 2025.

The conversation was frank, practical, and at times surprising. Here are the key takeaways.

The legislation has raised the bar, permanently

From now, employers with 250 or more employees are expected to begin publishing menopause action plans, ahead of what is widely anticipated to become a legal requirement in 2027.

But as Peppy CEO and Co-Founder Dr Mridula Pore opened the session by making clear, this is more than a compliance exercise.

"It's no longer a question of whether organisations should act. It's a question of whether they can evidence that they have."

One in 10 women leave the workforce due to unmanaged menopause symptoms. Women aged 45–55 (the group most likely to be experiencing menopause) now represent 11% of all people in employment in the UK. That's 3.5 million workers. The cost to UK businesses in absenteeism alone runs to over £10.5 billion annually.

A policy is not an action plan

One of the most important distinctions to come out of the session was the difference between having a menopause policy and building a menopause action plan.

Mariella put it plainly:

"A policy states intent. An action plan requires proof. The most sensible organisations will listen to the women in their organisation and listen to what they feel their needs are."

Under the ERA, employers must select a minimum of two actions, at least one addressing the gender pay gap, and at least one supporting employees experiencing menopause, from a set of 18 evidence-informed options published by the Government. Critically, each action must be categorised as new, in progress, or already embedded.

This isn't box-ticking. It's a framework designed to create accountability and drive continuous improvement.

What 'reasonable support' looks like

Mariella was quick to point out that meaningful support doesn't have to be expensive.

"Most of the actions are cost-negative. They're about environment and discussion and changing the way in which you judge certain processes."

Practical starting points she recommended included: creating a dedicated information portal, designating a menopause champion, ensuring line managers can hold an empathetic conversation and signpost to specialist support, and reviewing policies that might inadvertently disadvantage women - from flexible working through to uniform choices.

She also made the case for normalising the conversation more broadly:

"It's about creating more caring environments. And the benefit of that is that it's not just women whose working lives are improved, it's cross-company. It brings all of that stuff that's been hidden in the shadows into the forefront."

Making the case internally

For HR and Benefits leaders navigating internal pushback, Mariella's message to senior leadership was direct:

"This isn't a nice to do, it's an absolute economic imperative. To invest in an employee who is going to end up at the height of their professional powers and then lose them, is economic recklessness."

She pointed to the GEMS Report (Gender Equity Measures), an annual analysis of the UK's top 400 companies, as evidence that the highest-performing organisations are also those leading on gender equity. The correlation, she argued, is not a coincidence.

In conversation with Mariella Frostrup: Menopause Action Plans, how to set the new standard

Watch here

The window to act is now

For organisations still early in the journey, Mariella's advice was to start with the word itself.

"First and foremost, you have to start using the word. Creating some sort of portal for information and directing everybody in the company to it is incredibly important. Not only because it provides useful information for women going through menopause, but because it illustrates a culture that's changing and that's listening."

As Mridula closed the session, the message was: organisations that move early signal market leadership. Those that wait risk building reactive plans under time pressure in 2027.

Missed the live session? Watch it on demand and download our practical guide to building a menopause action plan that meets the ERA's requirements.

Watch on demand →