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 give an equal focus on the health of our staff as well as the safety and we have seen a massive improvement in staff’s wellbeing because of our work with the award.

It has helped us formalise our Health & Wellbeing Strategy and we now have a clear plan, with clear key campaigns identified by our staff to focus on. The information and guidance available online and the support available and networking opportunities is fantastic.

- Age UK North Tyneside, Maintaining Excellence

We wanted to be able to share wellbeing initiatives we were proud of but at the same time receive feedback on anything that was missing or could be enhanced.

Love being part of the Award process - gives structure to our wellbeing plans for the year and showcases the amazing work our people do to support each other and our teams.

- EDF Energy, Sunderland

The award is a declaration of our commitment to building a healthy and happy workplace culture for every employee. Designing a positive and engaging health and wellbeing offer where health inequalities are reduced is so important to us and we know we will achieve this with the support of BHAWA.

The award process provides structure for Better Health at Work. It provides support, guidance and networking opportunities to learn and improve. The opportunity to collaborate and hear about others practice across the region is always inspiring, we always come away buzzing with ideas.

- Sunderland City Council, Maintaining Excellence level

To continue to embed Health and Wellbeing in our workforce and to promote and support them to lead healthy lifestyles at work and also at home with their families.

The award gives us structure to assist us in our Health & Wellbeing meetings, giving us the resources and knowledge to lead different campaigns and events to help support our workplace. The award supports our Health & Wellbeing Strategy.

- The Banks Group Ltd, Durham

We wanted a structured approach to improving the health of employees tapping into the support available and taking the opportunity to benchmark with other organisations to help us improve the health and wellbeing of our people.

The award has been successful in helping us organise dedicated teams and resources as we work through the criteria. So far the campaigns have been very well received by our people and our new Wellbeing strategy has helped us to bring this all together in a framework all our staff understand.

- END. Clothing, Sunderland

We started the award in 2020 as we were keen to help improve the wellbeing of our employees, particularly post covid. One of our values is putting people first, and we felt like this was a step in the right direction to achieve this.

We now have a team of 10 passionate health advocates to help improve the wellbeing in the office. It’s a great feeling when the office looks forward to the health campaigns and want to be involved. It feels as though the work we’re doing is benefiting our employees.

- Tritility Business Energy Consultants, Sunderland