COVENTRY and Warwickshire’s businesses have been praised for their efforts in improving the health and well being of their employees.
Around 60 delegates from 18 organisations attended Coventry City Council’s Workplace Wellbeing Charter Awards at the Jaguar Cars Sports and Social Club to celebrate achieving the Workplace Wellbeing Charter.
The charter requires businesses to fulfil requirements and procedures across areas such as leadership, attendance, health and safety, mental health, smoking, physical activity, healthy eating and alcohol and substance misuse.
Since its launch five years ago 37 companies have achieved charter status – including 11 new firms at this year’s awards.
Companies have shown their commitment to the award by introducing employee forums, wellbeing intranet platforms, digital healthcare apps, on-site health checks and teams dedicated to employee wellbeing.
Funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) has also played a key role in the charter’s success, helping to train 120 health champions to deliver workplace health activities.
The awards gave local support services the opportunity to connect with businesses.
David Frost CBE also made presentations about health at work, while Sean Russell from the West Midlands Mental Health Commission spoke about the West Midlands Wellbeing Premium – a tax incentive for employers demonstrating their commitment to employee wellbeing.
Cllr Kamran Caan presented the awards.
He said: “Wellbeing in the workplace is key to the long-term success of businesses and the development of people’s careers, and the council is committed to assisting employers to create environments that improve employee welfare, and in turn, business performance.
“So far more than 26,000 employees have been given the tools to lead a healthier lifestyle – which is a fantastic effort from the business community – and it was encouraging to hear businesses sharing best practice with each other at the awards.”
He added raising awareness of mental health and making places of work smoke-free zones will continue to be high on the agenda in the coming months.
For more information about signing up to the Workplace Charter visit www.coventry.gov.uk/charter
