About the Award

Award Criteria

There are 6 levels to the Award – Foundation, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Continuing Excellence and Maintaining Excellence, with appropriate criteria at each stage to build into an Award Portfolio. Organisations are given up to a year per level, but there is flexibility for those who need it.

Evidence indicates that it takes a period of time to effectively establish the infrastructure that will engage employees in adopting behaviours / lifestyle changes.

This is why ALL employers are required to begin at Bronze and progress systematically upwards through the levels (It is not mandatory to complete the Foundation level before signing up to complete Bronze level - see below). Every employer/ organisation who signs-up to participate in the Award scheme is supported by a dedicated Health Improvement Specialist.

Foundation - a discrete “pre-Bronze” level for any organisations who are new to workplace health and wellbeing or have limited capacity and feel they would benefit from a lighter-touch introduction. It is not mandatory to undertake this before signing up to Bronze.

Bronze - The Bronze level lays a firm foundation to build a healthier workplace.

Silver - The Silver level of the Award builds upon the basics of the Bronze level and rewards organisations that take a more holistic view of the workplace.

Gold - This level builds upon the Silver level and requires companies to look outside their own organisation and promote health within the wider community.

Continuing Excellence - This recognises the importance of organisations sustaining the progress they have made during their participation in the Award and encourages them to use their experience to support others.

Maintaining Excellence - Achieved by employers who have been engaged with the Award for long enough to have achieved a pass at all levels via the completion of a criteria document, portfolio and full workplace assessment.

Ambassador Status - Organisations are eligible for Ambassador Status on achievement of Maintaining Excellence and with the recommendation of their designated Workplace Health Improvement Specialist. This is then passed through to the BHAWA Verification Panel for endorsement.

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

We participated to provide a further structure, focus and sustainable framework to our wellbeing programme.

The Award offers full support in terms of co-ordinator and resource information including best practice ideas and structured targets to aim for – it feels like we’re working together rather than in a silo!

- Northern Housing Consortium Limited, Sunderland

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

At the time of enrolling on the BHAWA SUEZ did not have any health strategies in place. We started off on a blank canvas and were given the freedom by the plant manager to run our first campaigns. The wider business soon caught on and we now have an amazing wellness for all charter and Wellbeing and Inclusion Manager.

It gave us the starting point to a wider company movement and now wellness is a hot topic for the whole business. Enrolling every year onto a new level gives the site its focus and an end aim of achieving the award. The award recognises good work we do, and we also received the special recognition award in 2022.

- SUEZ TeesValley, Stockton

At the plant, we really wanted to support our Employees Health and Wellbeing as we transitioned back to normal business, following the Global Pandemic. This award provided us with the structure we needed to develop and launch the Health and Wellbeing plant wide strategy.

Not only does the award provide us with a criteria and structure to follow, it also allows us to focus on topics which we may not have considered previously. In addition, it provides us a network with other local businesses to allow us to benchmark and share best practices.

- Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd, Sunderland

As a top tier COMAH site our organisation prioritises the health and safety of our people. By equally investing in Health and Wellbeing we can further safeguard our workforce. BHAWA was the obvious choice for us to build on and strengthen our offering in line with our company values.

The framework has provided our business with the tools to understand the wellbeing needs of our rapidly expanding workforce. Through the support of our local coordinator, and collaborating with others, we have been able to develop a more robust health and wellbeing agenda and embed this into our culture.

- Sterling Pharmaceutical Solutions Limited , North Tyneside