About the Award

 

For too long, the North East has had a reputation for being of being an ‘unhealthy’ place to live and work; unfortunately borne out by our fairly shocking life expectancy rate and high long-term sickness and disability figures.

To help combat this, a partnership project unique to the North East was created and the Better Health at Work Award was established to take health and wellbeing into the workplace.

This partnership has now been taken forward by the Northern TUC, with the support and endorsement from Public Health England.

Workplace Health is an important and integral part of the regional public health strategy and is even more relevant in these challenging times, when companies need to use every tool available to ensure their productivity and competitiveness.

With more than 400 regional employers participating in the scheme so far, as well as the very favourable findings of at least two independent evaluations, both the need for and effectiveness of the Award for all concerned is clear.

Individuals benefit from increased access to health information and interventions where they wouldn't normally - in more than one instance, workplace activity generated by the Award has potentially saved lives - identifying dangerously high cholesterol levels and early stage cancers.

At the same time, employers benefit from improved morale, dramatically lower levels of absenteeism and increased productivity.  There are few more apparent win-win situations.

 

You can download and view the Better Health at Work Award Employer Guide below, to read more on the award process, the structure of the award and find out about the role of health advocates.

 Employer Guide

We wanted to improve employee engagement in health and wellbeing as it’s the right thing to do as a business and may also contribute to improvement in morale, a better people culture, and reduction in sickness absence levels in the long term.

As a business running this award, it shows we are committed to employee health and wellbeing and it improves employee engagement.

- Port of Tyne , North and South Tyneside

We wanted to be able to share wellbeing initiatives we were proud of but at the same time receive feedback on anything that was missing or could be enhanced.

Love being part of the Award process - gives structure to our wellbeing plans for the year and showcases the amazing work our people do to support each other and our teams.

- EDF Energy, Sunderland

We chose to participate in the award programme as it is providing us with a structured and planned schedule of events and initiatives that supports our overarching health and wellbeing strategy and objectives. It is a key strand to use providing a holistic approach to our employees’ health and wellbeing.

The award programme has provided us with key benefits including pointers in data gathering, event planning and networking opportunities. The monthly health advocate meetings are invaluable in providing information on what local support is available to enable us to build up our calendar of events and provide relevant and engaging content to our employees on a variety of health topics.

We are excited to be part of this programme and look forward to progressing through the differing levels to provide real benefit to our workforce. This will ensure we continue to put health at the heart of Hitachi.

- Hitachi Construction Machinery Ltd, Bronze

We wanted a structured approach to improving the health of employees tapping into the support available and taking the opportunity to benchmark with other organisations to help us improve the health and wellbeing of our people.

The award has been successful in helping us organise dedicated teams and resources as we work through the criteria. So far the campaigns have been very well received by our people and our new Wellbeing strategy has helped us to bring this all together in a framework all our staff understand.

- END. Clothing, Sunderland

A healthy workforce is a happy workforce.  Grundfos puts its people first and we want to ensure all of our employees are healthy and well which is why the award is an ideal opportunity to drive this ambition and show the recognition for this drive to the workforce, our customers and the general public.

The award has provided a perfect driver for our health and wellbeing campaigns and ensures we are always kept on the right track and up to date with the latest strategies and wider community initiatives.  The award website provides lots of extremely useful resource material to support our campaigns.

- Grundfos manufacturing, Sunderland

Our Hospice values the health and wellbeing of our staff and volunteers and the award is a fantastic way to be able to formalise our approach and provide a structure and focus to delivering health and wellbeing campaigns to our workforce.

The award has helped us to plan and focus more strategically on our priorities for campaigns and events with regards to health and wellbeing, following the structure provided by the award and with support from our workplace health lead.

- St Cuthbert’s Hospice, Durham
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