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Support during health-related changes: Queensland Teachers' Union

Find out how the Queensland Teachers’ Union (QTU) supports their female workers through menopause.

  • Education and Training
  • QLD
A woman sitting on the couch using a laptop
  • QTU recognised it did not have any policies and practices supporting the menopause transition, a significant gap for an organisation where 80% of workers are women.  
  • To address the gap, QTU worked with a workplace wellbeing advisor to create and implement a strategy to become a menopause-friendly organisation.  
  • The menopause project included workshops for workers, education materials and training for all managers.  
  • The program helped normalise discussions about menopause in the workplace. Feedback from workers and managers was positive. 
  • 92% of staff thought the initiative was ‘great’ or ‘good.
  • Before the project only 7% of managers felt confident having a comfortable and constructive conversation with a female staff member about menopause. After the manager training, 100% felt confident to do so. 
  • By the end of the project twice as many people rated menopause as a pathway to an empowering life stage (from 29% to 59%). 

Around 12% of women leave their job dues to menopause - not only due to the symptoms but because it remains a taboo topic in workplaces. Queensland Teachers’ Union (QTU) recognised this could be a problem in its workplace, with 80% of its 110 workers being women.  

“Women could be suffering in silence and not receiving the supports that could increase their engagement and effectiveness, and the organisation could lose talented women.” 

To address the gap in its policies, practices and culture, QTU worked with a workplace wellbeing advisor to create and implement a menopause transition project. The project aimed to support the health, wellbeing and engagement of mid-life female workers as they transition through menopause, so they can continue to be successful in their roles. 

Key activities included: 

  • securing leadership support and briefing senior executives 
  • surveying all staff (at the beginning and end of project) 
  • training all managers and conducting workshops for staff 
  • creating a menopause-specific policy and a policy review  
  • creating education materials including posters, tip sheets and a self-care booklet for women.  

Feedback from workers and managers was positive. Participants reported increased access to information and knowledge about menopause. Women were more confident to keep working as long as they chose. And managers reported being more confident about having conversations about menopause.  

QTU identified several lessons from its experience: 

  • Women’s wellbeing and experience of work can be positively impacted by taking an organisational approach to becoming menopause-friendly, especially investing in managers’ wellbeing capability.  
  • Refresher sessions for managers and including menopause training in staff inductions could help ensure all women have a positive experience if they speak up at work.  
  • Providing women with access to independent support will help cater to women who do not want to talk about their experience of menopause at work.   

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