Why Menopause Belongs in the Workplace: AIA NZ’s Story
AIA New Zealand has been leading the way in openly discussing the impacts of perimenopause and menopause on the workforce. Here AIA NZ shares with us its journey, in the hope that if others can take learnings and expediate the same work in their organisations, then everyone benefits.
In 2021, AIA NZ’s data revealed that 61% of its workforce were women, with half of this group over 40 years of age, and women over 50 were the fastest growing demographic. They wanted to explore how they could bring to life their purpose of Healthier, Longer, Better Lives for their employees in this group. It took them on a journey of discovery, with twists and turns along the way – but at its heart, the work was about listening, understanding and supporting its people better. AIA NZ very proudly launched a Menopause Toolkit in October 2021 to coincide with World Menopause Day and the business has continued to openly discuss perimenopause and menopause in the workplace ever since
Photographed here: Brynlea Hunter-Morpeth; Chief People Officer, Natalie Butler; Organisational Development Lead and Faye Sanderson; Head of Organisational Development & Talent at AIA New Zealand.
You were one of the first organisations to look at the impact of perimenopause/menopause. What was going on at the time?
International research was released showing that people going through perimenopause and menopause were likely to experience negative symptoms such as:
· lower engagement,
· impacted self confidence
· and were more likely to leave their role
When we overlaid these findings on our female population of 61% we asked ourselves the question; how can we ensure that our people have the environment to thrive when going through perimenopause and menopause? And that's really where the journey began. We were curious about what the data told us, we wanted to understand what the environment felt like and we wanted to involve our people to craft an even better environment for that time, but also for the future
How did this work fit in with your strategy?
Very well! As New Zealand’s largest life insurer, our work on menopause demonstrates that we live and breathe our purpose every day.
It's important for us to foster a diverse and inclusive workplace where all our people feel that they belong, where they can bring their whole, unique selves to work, and where they can be their best every day. So, this work and much of the work we do in the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging space aligns well with many of our strategies.
Did you have support from the top?
We sure did. We have an exceptionally great CEO, Chief People Officer and Executive team. They are open to ideas, being involved, and driving initiatives -especially if the outcomes are a positive people experience. Our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Strategy, under the Culture pillar, has six focus areas each of which has an Executive Sponsor, so our Executive team are very involved with initiatives.
What was the role of the Menopause Toolkit?
Initially, it was a guide for leaders to support people who might be experiencing perimenopause/menopause symptoms, but we soon found out it was something for everyone.
With the support of the Gender Equity Network (an employee-led network group) we ran a number of focus groups with our employees to understand AIA NZ’s current state and what an improved future state could look like. The learnings from those focus groups gave us two workstreams:
1. Address stigma.
At that time menopause wasn't talked about openly, so our challenge was to help our people feel confident and comfortable in having those conversations with their peers and their managers. We choose to do this through the sharing of experiences. Using both external speakers and our own people we were able to make it real for people. It also allowed people to develop a sense of understanding and people could empathise because it was being talked about openly and normalised.
2. Support Mechanisms.
We wanted to make life easier for those going through perimenopause or menopause. And not just women, but men who might be supporting women in their lives going through this transition. When we understood what people might need, we used our existing policies to deliver this. Supporting people experiencing menopause shouldn’t be a bolt-on, it's part of everyday life. So having these mechanisms available in existing policies was intentional. For example, if you weren't able to sleep well, you could use our ‘flex your day your way’ policy to maybe have a sleep in that morning, when it’s cooler. Or if you are experiencing hot flushes, you can email our Wellbeing, Health & Safety team and get a USB desk fan and attach it to your laptop. This doesn't require a request through your manager, so we removed the barrier of having to have that conversation with your leader. And it's been a very popular request.
Any Success Stories from the toolkit?
Collecting data on this work is tricky, but it’s the anecdotal feedback that we get that validates why this work is so important.
A story that always makes our heart sing is of a male leader who, through using the toolkit was able to recognise what might be going on for someone and have a comfortable and confident conversation with that individual.
Any tips or insights to share?
Here are our top three learnings
1. You don’t have to establish a specific menopause policy; you can utilise existing policies. You might need to change or update them, but your leaders already know how to use the existing policies. Don't create barriers, reduce them.
2. Communication is key. Be transparent about what you are doing and why and then keep communicating. Our toolkit isn't a ‘one and done’ - we talk about it often, at all levels of our organisation and externally as well.
3. Our toolkit comes from three personas/perspectives;
o If you’re a leader, it’s about how can you help. What are the policies you can use depending on what’s happening?
o If you’re going through it as an individual, it’s about, where is the help?
o And if a colleague is going through it then it’s about how might you help them. The toolkit has also been used for family members, and we have shared it with other businesses. It’s available to everyone on our website.
How do you keep the conversation going to keep addressing stigma?
We take every opportunity to talk about menopause and remind people of our toolkit. That might be on International Women’s Day or International Menopause Day, or through the initiatives that our Gender Equity Network deliver throughout the year. It’s an everyday topic for the people of AIA NZ.
Now, we’re looking at version two based on a survey and feedback on improvements.
Are you seeing other organisations coming on board?
Absolutely, there has been a lot of movement in the corporate and not for profit space in the last 5 years, which is fantastic to see but there is always more to be done. We do get asked on occasion about the business case for this work which for us is simple; the data for us was compelling. In an organisation with a large percentage of women who are going or will go through this transition, we want to retain our people and support Healthier, Longer Better Lives. This is a time of transition, it's not forever and we can make it easier, so why wouldn't we?