Staff Health & Wellbeing
In 2003 I set up the Health 4 Work initiative at the University of Chester. An initiative that looks at improving health
and well being among the university staff by offering different health & wellbeing events for the staff, and any students
that were interested. It was a huge success and quickly expanded from offering monthly sessions to weekly ones across
many different areas of health! To date, the initiative is still running at the university!
When I left the university in 2006 to focus on bonematters I decided too offer a similar, yet scaled down, service to small, medium and large businesses across the UK!
But why? What is the point of offering this service to your staff?
In 2014, UK employees missed 131m days of work. That equated to an average cost to business of £554 per employee.
In 2017 it was reported that this figure had continued to rise year on year and was now costing the UK economy
£18 billion in lost productivity.
Companies and businesses that actively promote health in the work place, are actually making an investment not only in their employees, but in turn, in their companies productivity and bottom line.
There are 5 ways in which looking after your employees will actually save you money in the long run:
1.
Increased Productivity and Employee Loyalty.
The saying “you get back what you give” is not just relevant for employees but also for employers.
When employees know that their company cares about them, they care about their company. An employee that
genuinely cares about the success of your company will work harder and be more invested.
2.
Stronger Customer Relationships.
If your employees are unhappy, your customers will notice. Maintaining happy employees
will increase the level of customer service. Employees who are willing take an extra step will definitely make a
good impression.
3.
Less Stress = Fewer Sick Days.
Treating employees well is bound to reduce stress in the workplace, which will improve their health.
4.
Higher Employee Retention.
Employees that are dissatisfied with their place of work usually don’t stick around long. Treating
employees well will reduce the likeliness of quitting, which can save the time and money you would spend on turnover.
5.
Greater Talent. More Selection.
If a company is well-known for mistreating employees, would you have a desire to work there?
Companies with a good reputation for taking care of their employees attract top talent and give the opportunity
to be selective.
Not only do healthy and happy workers do better at their jobs, but workplaces with some form of health and wellbeing programme have ahigher percentage of employees who should up to work every day.
So what areas of health should you tackle?
The short answer is……all of them……or as many as you can anyway!
But lets look at the most frequent causes of lost days and start there!
Biggest causes of absenteeism in the UK (source LFS):
1) Stress, depression & anxiety
2) Musculoskeletal issues
3) Long term medical issues (including blood pressure & weight related issues)
4) Back pain
5) Orthopedic issues
In order to address all of this above, which is by no means an exhaustive list, I put together a series of ‘days’ that
companies can host for their staff.
The days can be run as stand alone or one off days, they can be repeated throughout the year, or I can put together a 12 month plan if you want to run multiple days throughout the year.
I like to think of it as a ‘Pick & Mix’ of health events!
You can literally pick whatever you want from what I offer in whatever multiples you want and I will put a programme together for you!
Once you have made your choice of sessions I send you everything you need to advertise the day. I always take bookings
for every event as it ensures it runs smoother so I can either send you a booking sheet or I can
take the bookings to save you the work!
All I need you to do is send out/put up the advert I send, book a room for the day and make sure I can park in your
carpark (if you don’t have one im sure we can sort something out!).
Have a look at the services we offer or contact us if you have questions