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 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

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

As a top tier COMAH site our organisation prioritises the health and safety of our people. By equally investing in Health and Wellbeing we can further safeguard our workforce. BHAWA was the obvious choice for us to build on and strengthen our offering in line with our company values.

The framework has provided our business with the tools to understand the wellbeing needs of our rapidly expanding workforce. Through the support of our local coordinator, and collaborating with others, we have been able to develop a more robust health and wellbeing agenda and embed this into our culture.

- Sterling Pharmaceutical Solutions Limited , North Tyneside

At the plant, we really wanted to support our Employees Health and Wellbeing as we transitioned back to normal business, following the Global Pandemic. This award provided us with the structure we needed to develop and launch the Health and Wellbeing plant wide strategy.

Not only does the award provide us with a criteria and structure to follow, it also allows us to focus on topics which we may not have considered previously. In addition, it provides us a network with other local businesses to allow us to benchmark and share best practices.  

 

- Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd, Sunderland

The award is beneficial to the organisation as it prompts us to think outside the box, extend our health and wellbeing support into new and important areas that we might not necessarily touch upon usually; and it also holds us to account for conducting high quality, meaningful campaigns.

We joined the Award to ensure that our health and wellbeing work goes above and beyond the requirements outlined by the NHS health and wellbeing framework, helping to ensure that we support our colleagues across a variety of areas and that we can demonstrate excellence in doing so.

- Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, Bronze 2021

The wellbeing of our colleagues is incredibly important to us. As an organisation we understand the impact and benefit a good wellbeing strategy brings. We also believe that wellbeing has to be an ongoing campaign, the focus has to be constant not just something you write about in a policy or the provision of good flexible benefits. The award provided structure for us to formulate that strategy and annual activities plans force us to think about a variety of offerings and initiatives.

It provides structure, idea and something to work towards. It helps us to think about better ways to engage people in what we do.

- Aioi Nissay Dowa Europe, North Tyneside
Partner logos