With a predominantly female workforce, around 75%, we launched a women’s health policy in June 2023 to demonstrate our commitment to ensuring the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees.
This policy focuses on two of the most common issues affecting women’s health: endometriosis and osteoporosis, and it supports those who are affected in any way by these issues. It also assists managers so that employees reporting issues are treated fairly, without judgement and given appropriate support.
Endometriosis symptoms tend to emerge during a woman’s most active working years, and it is not unreasonable to assume that a significant number of our workforce may be affected by these conditions.
We were keen to demonstrate our commitment to developing an environment and culture which enables employees with endometriosis to thrive at work and signing up to the Endometriosis Friendly Employer Scheme provided a visible and meaningful way to do this.
To boost awareness of the policy and the scheme across the organisation, we recruited a group of Endometriosis Champions from our workforce and we are in the process of arranging drop-in information sessions for employees which will give them the chance to meet the champions, see some of the resources available, and ask questions.
We have also created a dedicated intranet page which contains resources, signposts and advice together with Endometriosis at Work guides for managers and employees, in the hope that we can tackle stigma and change the culture and communication around this topic.
With the champions now in place, we expect to see more of an impact in terms of increased awareness and understanding across the workplace.
We have secured the support from the local endometriosis support group as well as senior management and local councillors. Our chief executive highlighted the new women’s health policy in his weekly blog when this was launched.
The scheme is a good way to show employees that the organisation is committed to supporting those with endometriosis and, judging by the reaction of the new endometriosis champions, it is something that many employees will feel the benefit of: being able to open up about their condition and feel they are supported and not alone.
Amanda Lowe is head of people and culture at East Ayrshire Council