“We believe everyone should be able to achieve their full potential and enjoy working for us.”
Channel 4 was one of the first companies to sign up to the Menopause Workplace Pledge and support our campaign for greater menopause support in the workplace.
In 2019, it launched the UK media industry’s first Menopause Policy, to make sure colleagues feel empowered and supported before, during and after menopause.
Alex Mahon, Chief Executive Officer of Channel 4, explains how the policy has improved people’s working lives and inspired other businesses.
Channel 4 has always been committed to creating a supportive and inclusive work culture both in the office and working from home. We believe everyone should be able to achieve their full potential and enjoy working for us.
The symptoms of menopause affect women physically and psychologically and can be severely debilitating. Recent research has also shown that the effects of menopause have become more serious as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Empowering and supporting staff
Our Menopause policy was developed by 4Women, Channel 4’s gender equality staff network, to provide our women with vital tools and support before, during and after menopause. It has also created guidance for managers.
The policy empowers our staff to ask for adjustments so that they can continue to carry out their daily roles safely and without embarrassment, in a caring and kind environment. The policy covers both material adjustment in their work environment as well as employee assistance, health and wellbeing support.
Since we launched our policy, over three-quarters of our staff have told us that they feel better about Channel 4 as a place to work. More importantly, we know that our staff are using the policy to support their symptoms and enable them to continue to do their very best work.
We have since devised other progressive workplace policies with 4Women, including a pregnancy loss policy last year.
Motivating others to support employees going through menopause
We are also pleased that our policy has inspired other companies to support their own staff during menopause. By sharing our policy not only in our own industry but across other sectors including finance, consulting and recruitment, we hope to make it even easier for companies to benefit from the retention of expert women in their industries.
Since we shared our menopause policy on our corporate website so that other companies could do something similar, it’s had more than 2,000 downloads.
Wellbeing for Women is calling on more employers to sign the Menopause Workplace Pledge and support their staff going through the menopause. Find out more about the campaign and how you can get involved.