How To Create Period-Friendly Working Environment For Your Employees
Periods affect a large portion of people within the workforce, so it makes sense for so many reasons to accommodate them within the work environment. Enabling easy and confident period management at work should in 2023 be standard procedure, yet still many companies fall behind in this. You provide toilet rolls in the toilet right ? Great that’s No 2’s covered, periods are also a natural bodily function, so free tampons and pads are an essential provision , not a “nice to have”.
At FabLittleBag, our mission is to make periods less taboo and more sustainable and better for the environment. That is why helping large corporations and offices to come on board will help to reduce waste and polluting the oceans. In this article, we want to show you the different ways that you can create a period-friendly work environment for your employees and make disposing of waste products simple, easy and sustainable.
Do Workplaces Have To Provide Sanitary Products?
Short answer is No - The HSE ( health and Safety executive states that : a supply of toilet paper and, for female employees, somewhere to dispose of sanitary dressings. Access to free tampons and pads is not(yet) a legal requirement but frankly we think it should be as period products should be treated the same as toilet roll - both are needed to address a natural bodily function…
Women make up a large portion of a work force and approximately 26% of the global population of females are of reproductive age and therefore menstruate. Thankfully , many companies are choosing to address this and provide free period products in the loos.
Schools and 6th form colleges should provide free period products to all students.
How To Make A Period-Friendly Workplace
The good news is, it’s easy ! Having a period-friendly office does not mean that women suddenly want to discuss the length of their cycle over coffee in the break room. But rather that periods are seen as a normal part of working life.
3 Top Ways to create a Period Positive environment at work:
1. Provide Free Period Products
Offering period products such as sanitary towels and tampons in the loos - there are some fab new style dispensers out there and this makes for a welcoming and inclusive office environment sending the message to female employees that their basic needs have been thought about and positively addressed. because as a business all employees are being thought about. Offering these products opens up the conversation helping to normalise the topic and break down taboos.
2. Make it A Normal Subject In The Office
Make sure periods or not a taboo issue at work.Have a poster up in a general space so people know there are free products in the loos, have some hot water bottles in a draw in the kitchen, the first aid kit should have some paracetamol too…
3. Reduce pollution and blockage and make disposal a breeze
Larger Organisations must have sanitary bins in each cubicle, so that period waste is collected by professional companies and disposed of appropriately. Smaller companies can have normal waste bins if the waste is less than 7 kg in a waist cycle. However, the female world is divided into Flushers and Binners, so employers should also make efforts to educate that period we should not be flushed down the toilet.When it comes to tampons and period pads, in the UK for example 1.4m pads and 2.5m tampons are flushed every single day. By installing a FabLittleBag Dispenser, it helps to reduce this and allows for easy, smooth, and hygienic disposal of used products, Keeps the bins clean and the oceans clean too so a win win! . This makes it the perfect solution for offices and workplaces as our dispenser holds up to 40 FabLittleBags and can easily be placed on a toilet wall or cubicle door.
FabLittleBags are sustainably sourced, made from sugarcane waste and recycled material and vegan glue - they encourage binning and transform the experience of doing the right thing for your employees.