Well being within the office isn’t only a private subject – it’s a enterprise one too. Whereas sick depart is a given when managing a workforce, the dearth of help for workers can result in greater issues down the road.
Lengthy-term illness absence is changing into a rising concern throughout industries, and employers that fail to handle the problem threat elevated employees turnover, burnout, and rising prices from misplaced productiveness.
The difficulty may be gendered. Analysis from UK Med has revealed that extra girls than males within the office really feel that their employers don’t supply sufficient help in the case of health-related points.
Whereas progress has been made in selling basic wellbeing, there’s evidently nonetheless a protracted solution to go in making girls’s well being a significant a part of that dialog.
Girls really feel unsupported at work over their well being
Whereas the necessity to help worker psychological well being and wellbeing has grow to be extra extensively recognised by employers, the UK Med analysis reveals that many feminine workers nonetheless face challenges in the case of managing their well being at work.
In accordance with UK Med’s Office Well being and Wellbeing 2025 Survey, girls are 63% extra more likely to really feel unsupported at work for well being points than males.
Moreover, girls are extra hesitant to request sick depart, with 27% saying doing so would make them nervous about how their workforce will understand them.
There additionally appears to be gender disparity in office advantages, because the research discovered that males are twice as more likely to obtain personal medical insurance coverage as a part of their advantages bundle.
Seemingly, that is as a result of kind of roles that males dominate. Males are sometimes overrepresented in senior administration and govt roles, which generally include extra intensive advantages.
Nonetheless, there’s a optimistic takeaway in that ladies are 31% extra more likely to really feel comfy speaking about well being issues with their colleagues – suggesting a shift towards extra open and supportive office conversations.
Femtech startups are tackling the stigma round girls’s well being
However whereas colleagues might supply a listening ear, the overall taboo round girls’s well being remains to be current, making it tough for a lot of to get the help they want.
General, 60% of ladies within the UK — together with these inside the office — imagine that their well being points aren’t taken severely.
This ongoing downside has sparked inspiration for femtech startups. Femtech is an trade time period for software program and providers that use expertise to deal with women-specific well being points resembling menopause, menstruation, and being pregnant.
New femtechs are cropping up with options to assist girls take cost of their well being and bridge the gaps in help and care; together with our personal Startups 100 alumni.
They embody Hormona, which helps girls handle their hormonal well being. Founder Karolina Löfqvist established the enterprise after being repeatedly dismissed by docs over her personal well being points. She now seeks to repair the “damaged” system in girls’s healthcare.
In the meantime, Katy Cottam, founding father of Luna Each day, is preventing the stigma by means of its microbiome-friendly skincare merchandise and its mission to normalise conversations on girls’s intimate well being.
What ought to companies do to assist?
Authorities information reveals that 7% of working-age individuals have been inactive between December 2023 to February 2024 as a result of long-term illness; highlighting the significance of supporting worker well being and wellbeing.
In opposition to this backdrop, the truth that many ladies really feel unsupported of their well being issues presents a major downside for SMEs, which are sometimes significantly weak when confronted with employees absences and difficulties in attracting expertise in an already tight labour market.
With an evident must put money into worker wellbeing, listed here are 5 ways in which small companies can guarantee they’re addressing all well being points in a good and inclusive method:
- Create an open, supportive tradition: foster a firm tradition that encourages conversations about well being and wellbeing, together with subjects like menstrual well being, menopause and psychological well being.
- Provide versatile working: versatile working preparations or providing distant work could make a optimistic distinction, significantly for these managing current well being situations or anybody who has common medical appointments.
- Evaluate your advantages: even fundamental profit packages may be tailor-made for feminine workers, resembling paid maternity depart, prolonged sick depart for reproductive well being or entry to psychological well being assets.
- Enhance training: host workshops or share assets that elevate consciousness about widespread girls’s well being points, each for affected workers and their colleagues.
- Hearken to your workers: recurrently ask for suggestions by means of nameless surveys or check-ins, and make it possible for feminine employees have the possibility to be actively concerned in discussions round office insurance policies that have an effect on them.
Commenting on the UK Med analysis, Common Practitioner Dr Alexis Missick, says that open conversations about well being are “important for making a supportive and productive setting”, and that companies ought to make sure that their workers can prioritise their wellbeing with out concern of judgement or penalisation.
“Encouraging sincere discussions, normalising sick depart, and guaranteeing entry to correct help may also help break down dangerous stigmas,” Missick feedback. “A wholesome workforce isn’t simply helpful for people — it additionally results in stronger, extra resilient organisations.”
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