Kirsty Smith

I help housing associations and professional services within the construction industry create and maintain healthy and inclusive workplaces by taking a proactive approach to the impact of menstruation and menopause on the workplace.

I help housing associations and professional services within the construction industry who are committed to accelerating gender equality and creating inclusive places of work that consider menstrual and menopausal health and its impact on the workplace. 

Long-term sickness is a costly issue in the HA and professional services sector with stress, anxiety and chronic health conditions as the main contributing factors to these absence rates. Proactive employers acknowledge that for over 50% of their workforce menstruation and menopause could be drivers of some of these absence rates and lost productivity. Anxiety, changes to cognitive function and loss of confidence is the most common symptom for menopausal women and chronic health conditions like endometriosis impact 1 in 10 women in the workplace, yet menstruation and menopause is often overlooked when seeking to tackle high absence rates, lost productivity and low customer satisfaction scores. This is exemplified due to the fact that most managers feel ill-equipped to handle wellbeing conversations about menstrual or menopausal health.

I focus on upskilling managers so that they feel equipped to have confident conversations with staff around a variety of issues that impact their wellbeing and performance at work, such as mental health, menstruation and menopause, neurodiversity and physical health.  Confident managers can identify and address concerns earlier, putting suitable adjustments in place before issues escalate into a costly, long-term absence case. Our interventions focus on creating and maintaining an inclusive place of work so that staff feel genuinely supported by their managers and are able to have open, non-judgemental conversations about their health.

I also work directly with staff to help them better understand their health and how to support it. With one in four of the UK population now living with at least two chronic health conditions (and the incidence expected to rise) generic, reactive support fails to meet the needs of a modern workforce. Providing proactive, in-depth health and wellbeing support empowers staff with the knowledge and accountability necessary to form habits that actively improve their health. This support helps minimise sick days, which are estimated at 15.5 days per year for a person suffering with chronic health issues. We ensure employees are able to fulfil their potential in both their professional and personal lives.

With over 10 years of experience working directly in the construction industry across the UK and Australia, our approach blends empowering education with simple, implementable strategies and foundational coaching skills. The sessions are designed to be highly interactive, practical, and fully adaptable based on the specific needs of your organisation. Our workshops, training, and online resources have been delivered to a variety of organisations, specialising in helping people experiencing symptoms, their line managers, and the business as a whole to successfully and empathically navigate the various hormonal phases from menstruation to menopause and the health challenges these bring. 

A CEO said – 

“Kirsty supported us on our journey of bringing hormone awareness to our diverse team. This was something I felt important to champion in our business, but was unsure of how it would go as it can be a taboo subject in the work environment.

I was so impressed with the openness and sensitivity that Kirsty brought, both about her own journey, to make it relatable and to the diverse mix of people we have in our workplace”. 

A Learning & Development Manager said –

“I decided to work with Kirsty due to her expertise on hormonal health, and her ability to impart information in an inclusive and universal way. She really does cross barriers to make hormonal health universal and relatable to everyone. Everything was well thought out, considered and bespoke to our needs. Kirsty supported not just our menstrual and menopause projects but also widened our people’s understanding of how hormones are universal”.

If you’re responsible for staff wellbeing/ people development inside your organisation (including HR, People Management, ED&I or Learning & Development) and your managers are struggling to have proactive and confident wellbeing conversations which is resulting in increases in long-term absence rates, increased workload for HR and a decline in customer satisfaction, be sure to drop us a message through the contact form below.