BEL Engineering has been awarded the Better Health at Work Bronze Award, supported by Public Health England and in partnership with the Northern TUC.
Unique to the North East of England, The Better Health at Work Award (BHAW) project was established to take health and wellbeing into the workplace to improve the lives of employees within the region.
BEL Engineering set out to achieve the Better Health at Work Award to improve communication and engagement with the workforce by breaking down boundaries and giving employees skills and habits to apply in their home life.
A ‘Health Needs Assessment Survey’ was completed by employees at BEL Engineering to determine three health campaigns to feature across the year. The campaigns were organised by seven employees who volunteered to be health advocates.
Mental Health Awareness
To address mental health awareness, Andy’s Man Club was invited to the BEL Engineering facilities to run sessions and give colleagues a safe place to talk.
Andy’s Man Club is a UK charitable organisation and talking group for men to come together in a safe environment to talk about mental health.
Employees took part in the 10k Manufacturer’s Ramble to raise finds for Andy’s Man Club whilst discussing their experiences to help break the stigma of talking about mental health.
We’d like to give special thanks to Michael Chaplow from Andy’s Man Club for his personal insight into men’s mental health and signposting the support available.
Cancer Awareness
Time to Talk and Coffee and Cake sessions were held to help raise cancer awareness, thanks to the Gateshead Branch of Macmillan for providing support and resources for the sessions. BEL Engineering also took part in Macmillan’s Coffee Morning, raising money for the charity and offering support to employees who may have had previous experience with cancer, or were currently experiencing its effects, personally or amongst their friends and family.
Healthy Eating and Exercise
Across the year, healthy eating and exercise was promoted through challenges such as the British Engines Groupwide Mission to the Moon Challenge. This encouraged employees to race to the moon by completing 72 hours of physical activity across four months with the chance to win prizes along the way.
Wellbeing Wednesday was introduced to encourage employees to eat healthier and enjoy free fruit, which has since become a permanent event. A hydration challenge was also created to encourage employees to drink more water and record how they feel across four weeks.
Michael Fenton, HS&E Manager, said: “In my opinion the BHAWA is the perfect driver for health and wellbeing campaigns in the workplace.
“It allows us to provide employees with the tools and awareness skills to improve the health and wellbeing of everyone, both at work and home, by improving communication mechanisms and signposting so they can make informed decisions to support their needs.
“The process is strong and leads the business and our employees through a series of campaigns to provide a real benefit to ensuring health and wellbeing is at the heart of our business.”
Following the bronze award success, mini health checks will be conducted on-site, while this year’s health advocates are planning four campaigns to achieve the Better Health at Work Silver Award. The 2024 campaigns will be focussed on stress, men’s health, mental health and work-life balance.
