We continue to offer a comprehensive range of health services for employees at all levels, ranging from health surveillance of all employees on the occupational risk register, to voluntary Fit for Life health checks, physiotherapy and confidential counselling.
During the last two years various measures have been introduced to support employee attendance, including “attendance academies” and rehabilitation programmes, often involving interventions such as physiotherapy, to help employees return to work after illness of injury.
Our sickness absence performance is published in the Health, Safety and Reliability section.
During 2010 Occupational Health commenced a Wellbeing pilot at two sites Warrington and Kirkintilloch. Each had a wellbeing kiosk on site for 2 months to allow employees to check their blood pressure, height, weight and body mass index. This enabled employees to access wellbeing tests outside office hours allowing flexibility and access to all on site.
A new employee Wellbeing programme was launched in 2010, following a company-wide analysis of health needs.
Our Wellbeing programme is managed by our Wellbeing Steering Group, which is led by Occupational Health & Safety and includes representatives from each of our businesses.
Key elements of the long-term programme include: healthy eating, fitness and weight loss, supporting staff attendance, mental wellbeing, avoiding accidents in the workplace and health and the environment. We have also implemented a number of innovative staff challenges including walking and weight loss challenges aimed at improving health and staff engagement.
During the year we continued to promote specific health initiatives to coincide with national health campaigns such as Stop Smoking Day and Breast Cancer Awareness Week. The objective of these events is to inform and educate employees using internal and external expertise.
To support each health theme, we publish information in the Group magazine, Connection, company Intranet sites, our quarterly Wellbeing Matters magazine and distribute posters and leaflets. In addition, we hold special clinics to support men and women’s health weeks.
If an employee has any health concerns, they can refer themselves to a member of the Occupational Health team for advice. In addition, a confidential telephone helpline is available to all staff for counselling and information on personal, family and legal matters.
Employees can also request voluntary “Fit for Life” assessments, which include checks on body mass index, blood pressure, body fat, cholesterol, and urinalysis.
Health surveillance is routinely undertaken for employees who may be exposed to potential health hazards in the workplace, including noise, hand-arm vibration, substances which can cause skin or respiratory sensitivity, or where there are specific vocational fitness requirements such as driving or working at height. During the consultation employees have the opportunity to discuss any health concerns they may have.
During the first few months of 2010 the Occupational Health team worked closely with the businesses to prevent the spread of swine flu among employees, visitors and field staff, during the pandemic. This involved advising employees, excluding staff who had caught the virus from the workplace, as well as improving general education and awareness of the disease.
Once again during 2010, we retained our Gold Award in Scotland’s Healthy Working Lives programme. The awards are given at Bronze, Silver and Gold levels to organisations that demonstrate a long-term commitment to improving health and safety in the workplace by supporting healthy eating, staff attendance, mental wellbeing, avoiding accidents at work and other health related matters.