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 to help and support our employees by giving them access to tools, resources and information to improve their health – physically and mentally, both in the workplace and in their personal lives.

We have really enjoyed participating in the award over the years. It allows the team of Health Advocates to show our creative side and brings people across both sites together, fostering a sense of community within the organisation. It also shows our employees that we care for their wellbeing by focusing on the topics that matter to them most.

- Seqens Custom Specialties , Middlesbrough

Our Hospice values the health and wellbeing of our staff and volunteers and the award is a fantastic way to be able to formalise our approach and provide a structure and focus to delivering health and wellbeing campaigns to our workforce.

The award has helped us to plan and focus more strategically on our priorities for campaigns and events with regards to health and wellbeing, following the structure provided by the award and with support from our workplace health lead.

- St Cuthbert’s Hospice, Durham

Firstly, and most importantly, we recognise the benefits of supporting the wellbeing of our staff and secondly, as a charity it’s great to get some recognition for what we do.

The process is strong as it leads the organisation through a series of logical steps to the award. Staff have really engaged in the process and it’s a great motivator for staff.

- Willow Burn Hospice, Durham

The BHAW network provides an excellent forum to engage with other local businesses and organisations sharing best practices, knowledge and resources to improve colleague wellbeing.

Access to knowledgeable workplace support advisors and supportive community of members is hugely beneficial, assessment framework helps us measure our progress, and enjoy learning from other businesses and services as we support each other.

- Durham Constabulary, Durham

A healthy workforce is a happy workforce. Grundfos puts its people first and we want to ensure all of our employees are healthy and well which is why the award is an ideal opportunity to drive this ambition and show the recognition for this drive to the workforce, our customers and the general public.

The award has provided a perfect driver for our health and wellbeing campaigns and ensures we are always kept on the right track and up to date with the latest strategies and wider community initiatives. The award website provides lots of extremely useful resource material to support our campaigns.

- Grundfos manufacturing, Sunderland

We wanted to improve employee engagement in health and wellbeing as it’s the right thing to do as a business and may also contribute to improvement in morale, a better people culture, and reduction in sickness absence levels in the long term.

As a business running this award, it shows we are committed to employee health and wellbeing and it improves employee engagement.

- Port of Tyne , North and South Tyneside