Workplace Health

Employees spend a lot at time at work.  What happens at work directly influences the physical, mental, economic and social well-being of workers and in turn their families and the wider community.

As well as create safe, healthy and happy places for staff employers are ideally placed to promote ways that staff can improve their health and prevent ill health.   This can bring benefits to your organisation as well as your staff members.

The Facts

• On average, the reported cost of absence per employee per year was £595
  
• The average level of employee absence is 7.6 days 
  
• 56 000 people suffered from work-related illness in the North East 
  
• 1.6 million working days were lost due to workplace injury and ill health in the North East 
  
• Work-related ill health was responsible for an estimated 22.7 million working days lost 
  
• The direct cost of sickness absence to the UK economy is around £14billion per year 
  
• It is estimated that mental ill health costs UK employers almost £1 million per year. Identifying problems early, or preventing them in the first place, could result in cost savings of 30%
• Physical activity programmes at work have been found to reduce absenteeism by up to 20%
• Job satisfaction can help to reduce staff turnover by between 10 and 25%
• Businesses taking part in the North East Better Health at Work Award have reported average reductions in sickness absence of between 0.26 and 2.0 days per employee, depending on the length and level of participation and sector of employment
  

What you can do! 

If your business is interested in raising awareness of Health and Wellbeing, engaging and motivating staff to promote productivity whilst gaining recognition in the form of an AWARD then the Better Health at Work Award is GOOD FOR YOU. 

The award is free and available to all businesses in Sunderland, supported by a dedicated workplace health team.  The award supports workplaces to deliver health activities that address key public health improvement priorities including (but not limited to); 

• Mental Health 
  
• Smoking Cessation 
  
• Disease Prevention 
• Weight Management and Healthy Eating 
• Sexual Health 
• Physical Activity 
• Cancer Awareness 
• Financial Wellbeing 
• Alcohol, Drug and Harm Prevention
  

The Award Levels 

Each level of the Award has a set of criteria businesses need to meet in order to be successful.  The different levels of the Award are: 

Bronze
Silver 
Gold 
Continuing Excellence 
Maintaining Excellence 

Next Steps 

To find out more about the Better Health at Work Award in Sunderland and to see what support could be given to your workplace, please get in touch with Grace Routledge our Workplace Health Coordinator. 

Grace.Routledge@sunderland.gov.uk

07827239018