Yesterday I spent half a day at a Women in Tech conference on Allyship.
My biggest takeaway? Inclusion isn’t a distraction from delivery it’s what makes delivery stronger, smarter, and more sustainable.
One story that really stuck with me was about car safety. Women are 73% more likely to be seriously injured in car crashes. This shocking statistic isn’t about driving ability it’s about design failure. For over 50 years, crash test dummies were modelled exclusively on the average male body, treating women’s safety as an afterthought. The cost? Thousands of preventable female deaths annually, billions in healthcare expenses, and a stark reminder that when diverse perspectives are missing from decision-making, the consequences can be fatal.
And here’s the kicker: in 2022, Swedish engineer Dr. Astrid Linder finally created the world’s first proper female crash test dummy. Fifty years too late for the women who paid the price. It made me think, when you don’t make time for inclusion, you’re not saving time. You’re baking in risk, waste and failure that someone else will eventually pay for.
Why exclusion costs us
The same applies in the workplace. The gender pay gap is still 7% for full-time workers, and over 9% for women in their 40s just as menopause typically starts. Yet 90% of UK employers don’t offer menopause support, even though nearly 1 in 5 women have considered leaving work because of it.
That’s not “someone else’s issue.” That’s lost skills, lost delivery capacity, and lost value.
The crash test dummy example proves it: when you only design for part of the workforce, you put the whole organisation at risk.
Building better workplaces
And here’s the thing: the fixes aren’t complicated. Some of the best examples we heard were low-cost and rooted in basic awareness: desk fans, flexible hours, absence tracking that recognises menopause, and above all cultures where people can talk openly.
It can be as simple as noticing that the air con might be uncomfortably cold for some and adjusting it or giving people choice over where they sit near a window for fresh air, or away from draughts and hotspots. Providing cold drinking water, offering uniforms in lighter fabrics, or scheduling important meetings earlier in the day can all make a real difference. Even having a quiet breakout space where someone can take five minutes if symptoms flare up can be game-changing.
And crucially, managers need training. Not just awareness, but specific tools to recognise symptoms, start supportive conversations, and make proactive adjustments. That’s how you move from “we’ve got a policy somewhere” to “my manager’s got my back.”
HSBC UK has made menopause awareness part of its manager training and wellbeing strategy and is recognised as a Menopause Friendly Employer. Severn Trent Water requires managers to undergo menopause training as part of its inclusion strategy and was one of the first companies to receive Menopause Friendly Accreditation.
The point is: none of these things breaks delivery. In fact, they strengthen it.
Leading UK employers are already seeing results. Channel 4 offers counselling, flexible working, extra paid sick leave, and dedicated HR advisors trained in menopause support. Timpson covers all HRT prescription costs for female employees. The UK Government’s own menopause champion has been driving change across the civil service, with the NHS reporting that almost 8 out of 10 menopausal women are in work. The ROI is clear: organisations with menopause accommodations see an 80% boost in staff retention, while 20% of unsupported women consider leaving their jobs entirely, with 6% resigning.
And from 2026, large UK employers will have to publish Menopause Action Plans. The smart ones aren’t waiting for legislation they’ve already realised that inclusion is a delivery enabler, not a blocker.
The role of allyship
We also talked about allyship. Many men worry diversity programmes “forget” them, but in fact, when men are engaged as allies, culture shifts fastest.
Research by Change Catalyst identified five distinct stages people move through on their allyship journey, each requiring different engagement strategies. Deniers (most people start here) aren’t hostile—97% are simply passive, unaware of the need for allyship. Forcing mandatory training on this group often backfires. What works? Storytelling. A remarkable 70% of people learn about the need for allyship through hearing others’ stories in psychologically safe environments, compared to only 10% through training.
And those teams? They deliver better. Every time.
What I left with
Walking away, I thought about the challenge I’d been given: why prioritise this over delivery?
The answer is simple. Because inclusion is delivery. Because the strongest outcomes don’t come from burning people out or pretending barriers don’t exist, they come from building environments where everyone can contribute fully.
And here’s the uncomfortable truth: ignoring inclusion is what undermines delivery. Pretending it doesn’t matter is how you end up with wasted talent, high turnover, and designs that literally put lives at risk.
For me, this comes back to my values: trust, loyalty, and prioritising people. When we trust enough to have open conversations, when we’re loyal enough to support each other through life’s ups and downs, and when we prioritise people as well as outputs that’s when delivery doesn’t just happen, it thrives.
By James Tyreman
James Tyreman is Head of Product Delivery at Skewb. To speak with him about this topic in more detail, you can connect with him on LinkedIn.
