Providing free period products in the workplace is good for employee morale, a new US report has shown. 

The report, published in June by global not-for-profit Days for Girls (DfG), revealed 87 percent of managers in workplaces where menstrual products had been made available to employees had noticed improved employee satisfaction. About75 percent felt this initiative had also improved public perception of their organisation.

The companies surveyed all took part in the Period Positive Workplace (PPW) initiative, a worldwide program that encourages workplaces and facilities to provide free access to period care products for employees.

PPW is a collaborative effort between charities, not-for-profits and associations including DfG, ISSA and Australian charity Share the Dignity. The organisation has so far recruited 173 workplaces across 40 countries, including Australia, to provide free period care products to their employees.

The report revealed more than half of all employees at those businesses had previously “experienced productivity challenges” at work due to menstruation. Alongside increased productivity, workplaces who have signed up for the initiative are now reporting reduced absenteeism and “higher collaboration among employees who menstruate”. 

ISSA government affairs intern Anaya Andre said the results demonstrated the importance of providing free access to menstrual products, and noted  that workplaces that had not  signed up to the initiative continued to face issues around retention rates, absenteeism and gender equality.

“This survey shows that having a period positive workplace boosts employee productivity, morale, and is necessary to overcome the stigma associated with menstruation in a professional setting,” Andre said.

“ISSA is proud to be a member of the Period Positive Workplace coalition and currently sits on its steering committee to help support this initiative’s expansion.”

Rochelle Courtenay, founder and managing director of Share the Dignity, said the report’s findings aligned with data from her organisation’s soon-to-be-released “Bloody Big Survey”. 

“We know that 55% of women have missed work due to their period,” Courtenay said. “And more than 30% have missed work because of their fear of leaking.”

One worrying data point was that cost of living pressures seemed to be driving more women into period poverty, with the survey revealing an increase in Australians who cannot afford period products.

“We’re hearing stories about people cutting pads in half and using tampons for too long. We have to assume some of those people will be people with jobs, what we call now the working poor,” Courtenay said

She said offering free period care products was a low cost way for companies to ensure they were more inclusive of half of the population’s needs and to achieve better outcomes for staff and business alike.

“We’re always trying to find ways to get  better outcomes out of our staff and team and putting period products in your bathroom is a pretty easy one.”

While there have been some promising Australian initiatives, such as the Victorian government making menstrual products available for free at a number of public locations and the Queensland government making them freely available at government schools, more education was needed to make spaces — including workspaces — more welcoming to women.

“Men have never been educated around menstruation,” Courtenay said. 

“So unless we start to educate little boys who end up being somebody’s boss, father or husband, we’re not really going to get people who are making the decisions to understand menstruation and how it affects half the population.”

Andre said ISSA was offering ongoing surveys to analyse how “period friendly” workplaces operate and she encouraged companies to join ISSA in destigmatising periods and globalising menstruation-friendly work environments.

“ISSA’s support of initiatives such as the Period Positive Workplace is aimed at helping to  end period poverty, increasing education and advocating for menstrual equity,” she said.

For more information about ISSA’s End Period Poverty campaign, contact Anaya Andre at anayaa@issa.com.

Photo by Annika Gordon on Unsplash.