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 to
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 a
higher 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)
Stress, depression & anxiety
Musculoskeletal issues
Long term medical issues (including blood pressure & weight related
issues)
Back pain
Orthopaedic 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
if you have questions!