Workplace Menopause Policy Design & Education
A systems-based approach to designing effective menopause and lifestyle support in the workplace.
Be ahead of the curve
In the UK, under The Employment Rights Act 2025, it will soon become mandatory for employers with more than 250 employees to publish menopause action plans. This is a huge step forward for midlife women in the UK.
While no such requirement exists in Australia, more and more employers are developing menopause policies with 65 employers (out of 532) reporting menopause policies to WGEA, Workplace Gender Equality Agency Australia.
Be a leader! Offer menopause education to your employees and design a menopause action plan with your employees through effective co-design.
Simply Midlife Dietitian has designed and developed large scale public health initiatives through co-design and brings that experience to workplace menopause policy design.
Workplace Menopause Audit
Most workplace menopause strategies focus on awareness building or wellbeing initiatives. You may have even see menopause education delivered as a standard offering in your workplace. But menopause is not an isolated issue. Education alone will not support workplace engagement and retention for women experiencing symptoms of perimenopause and menopause.
Menopause impacts each woman differently, with up to 34 different recognised symptoms. Factors, like stress, uniforms, environment, layout and design and even organisational structure can contribute to a woman’s experience of menopause in the workplace.
When these factors are not considered together, even well-intentioned policies fall short.
This is where a different approach is needed.
What this is
The Workplace Menopause Audit is a structured evidence-based review of how menopause is currently experienced by women in your organisation - and how policies and systems can better support women.
This approach goes beyond policy checklists and looks at how your organisation functions in practice.
Using a co-design approach, the audit identifies:
Which policies are working
Where gaps exist
How workload, culture and environment shape outcomes
Where risk, disengagement or workforce impact is emerging
What high-impact changes would create the greatest improvement
Why this matters
Menopause is increasingly being recognised in workplace policy - but recognition alone does not create impact.
Without co-design and alignment across your organisation, a policy may result in:
Inconsistent application, depending on a manager’s response
Uneven access
Stigma
Preventable workforce attrition or disengagement
How this is different
This Audit is grounded in systems thinking and co-design methodology. Most menopause workplace solutions are education focused, with a strong focus on medical education. While this is key to understanding menopause, education is only one component of menopause awareness in the workplace. Co-design and system level thinking is required to support your employees and facilitating lifestyle improvements may also support employees with ongoing healthy ageing. This approach takes menopause education and operationalises it for your workplace.
We take a whole-of-organisation approach and work with you to design a better strategy that can support your organisation and employees’ wellbeing.
We examine:
Organisational structure
Psychosocial risk factors
Workplace culture and norms
Operational realities and flexibility
Interaction between health, performance and environment
Lifestyle support and improvement
What the Audit includes
Your organisation may opt for a full Audit or a more tailored approach to support the needs of your organisation and employees. We can customise a program to fit your business needs. Contact us today to discuss your workplace needs.
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A review of existing policies, practices and supports related to menopause and midlife, including workplace wellbeing and flexible work arrangements.
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Consultation with key stakeholders to understand experiences, barriers, promoters and gaps in existing policy and practice.
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Identification of structural gaps, barriers and inconsistencies.
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A practical, implementation-focused output, including recommendations, integration with existing HR and wellbeing systems, suggested accountability structures and measurement considerations.
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We can provide lifestyle education focused on the needs of women in midlife, with evidence-based strategies to support health and ageing and midlife symptom management.
Meet Kate Gudorf, APD
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Kate Gudorf
Accredited Practising Dietitian & Founder Simply Midlife Dietitian
Kate is a dietitian with nearly two decades of experience spanning direct clinical care, national program leadership, research translation and health system strategy and policy design. Kate has worked in population and public health for employers like Diabetes Australia and Diabetes Australia - NSW & ACT, designing, building and implementing programs delivered nationally within the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS) to over 1.5 million Australians living with diabetes and leading programs delivered at the state level, like the DiRECT-Aus program delivered in 25 general practices across NSW. She has trained in co-design methodology and has worked with organisations to co-design and implement new programs and policies.Kate is an experienced facilitator, who has conducted hundreds of group programs to thousands of people across her career. She brings deep expertise in facilitation, has undergone extensive facilitator training, and is able to support groups to elicit key insights and recommendations.
Kate founded Simply Midlife Dietitian in 2025 to support women through midlife, offering clinical lifestyle support and education and by improving systems and policies for midlife women including strengthening workforce and health policies.
Kate brings a rare combination of clinical depth and strategic insight in delivering practical workplace support, informed by system-level expertise, public health systems design, co-design methodology and real-world outcomes.
Send me a message today and see how I can support your organisation to design better policies for women in midlife.
Who is this for?
The Audit is designed for organisations:
developing menopause workplace support
reviewing or updating existing policies
seeking to align wellbeing and workforce retention strategies
Responding to emerging policy and workforce expectations
Aiming to be an employer of choice and move beyond awareness into structured policy
Typical stakeholders include:
People & Culture/ HR
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion leads
Workplace health and wellbeing teams
Occupational health and safety
Leadership
Employees