Local employers have been recognised for the work they do to support their employees’ health and wellbeing at the inaugural Healthy Workplaces Gloucestershire celebration last week (December 2).

The ceremony, held at The Growth Hub on the University of Gloucestershire's Oxstalls campus, brought together business leaders and representatives from business support groups to recognise fifteen businesses who have achieved accreditation in the past year.  

Liggy Webb was guest speaker on the evening. Liggy is recognised as a thought leader on resilience and behavioural agility and works with a wide range of businesses helping people to be more resilient, agile and healthy in a highly complex world.

The Workplace Award is a county standard of good practice and a quality mark of health and wellbeing in the workplace. Organisations are assessed through a series of online standards and commitments in a range of health areas from healthy eating to personal safety. 

Siobhan Farmer, deputy director of public health for Gloucestershire, who commissions the award said ‘There are clear public health benefits to having a healthy workforce both from an employer and employee perspective. We know that good people management practices can have benefits for organisational performance and employee wellbeing. A key driver to this is senior leadership commitment to establishing a culture that supports health at work.”

The Gloucestershire businesses and organisations that have earned the accreditation include NHS Gloucestershire CCG, Hope for Tomorrow, Invista and HR People Support. Recognition was also given to many of our councils across Gloucestershire, as well as Stagecoach West who were the first to receive the enhanced level of the Healthy Workplaces award.

Mary Hutton, accountable officer of NHS Gloucestershire CCG, talked about the importance of health and wellbeing within the CCG and the need to understand the impact of wellbeing on staff and through to patient care.

She said: "To deliver an effective service we need healthy, motivated, well trained and engaged staff.  The CCG understands that meeting the wellbeing needs of our staff will make an important contribution to the quality of their working day and working life. The impact shows in our staff sickness, engagement, retention and incredible flexibility and resilience during Covid. It is our intention to continuously improve and aim to also achieve the Enhanced level of the Healthy Workplaces Gloucestershire Award.”

The businesses who received their awards have been working through the Healthy Workplaces accreditation for the past two years to implement health and wellbeing measures in their workplace to support staff wellness and health, increase productivity and reduce sickness absence.

Victoria Lukins, Project Manager for the awards, added: “We look at the workplace as a community where people are spending a lot of time. It's about raising awareness when people are struggling with their mental health, promoting healthy behaviours and physical activity to create an environment that is supportive and open to making small changes that have a big impact on employee morale and wellbeing. We are delighted to celebrate these businesses.”

If you would like to register your workplace or find out more information on the Healthy Workplaces scheme, please visit www.hwglos.org or call the team on 0800 122 3788.