Staff at ASEE Ltd. have put in place a Health and Wellbeing Action Plan to prioritise the health of their staff.
The electrical and mechanical engineering specialists based in Newry has trained a number of qualified ‘Health Champions’ to roll out the strategy through the free programme ‘Work Well Live Well’ which is available to workplaces across Northern Ireland in all industries.
The programme which is delivered by leading local charity Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke (NICHS) and funded by the Public Health Agency (PHA) aims to help workplaces improve their employees' health and wellbeing through personalised support. NICHS support organisations with carrying out a health and wellbeing survey, developing a bespoke 3-year action plan and strategy for their team as well as providing access to training, webinars, resources and networking opportunities, all completely free of charge.
Heather McCracken, Human Resources Manager at ASEE Ltd., says, “We attended an event back at the end of 2021, where Emma from the Health Promotion team at NICHS spoke about the Work Well Live Well programme. At that time, we didn’t really have a structured well-being strategy in place and thought that our workplace could really benefit from the support of this programme. We wanted to support and improve our employees’ health and wellbeing and employee engagement. We wanted to promote a good work life balance and allow our employees to have a say in their workplace health and wellbeing priorities. Plus, the support was completely free of charge, which was amazing!”
“Since participating in the programme, we have been supported to survey our employees to gain an understanding of their health and well-being priorities. We have been able to develop a structured well-being strategy for the future to meet the needs of our employees through using the data and feedback from the wellbeing survey.”
“We established a wellbeing committee, who then attended the 2-day health champion training. We were also able to avail of the mental health first aid training course, and now have an in-house team of trained mental health first aiders. On top of that, in the past year we have also been able to run many initiatives such as health awareness sessions, NICHS individual health checks for staff, Strava challenges, marathon teams, free monthly breakfast, team outings, social clubs, and raised thousands for various charities. We have achieved so much with the support of the Work Well Live Well programme, and look forward to what else is to come.’
“We have been able to put in place a well-established well-being strategy and initiatives based on data and employee needs, to support both the mental and physical well-being of our employees. We want to maintain this successful strategy for the future and to continue to support our employees’ health and wellbeing.”
To other businesses considering signing up, Heather says, “Do it! You will have no regrets! The NICHS Health Promotion team are very knowledgeable, patient, and supportive and only on the other end of the phone or email! We have benefited greatly from taking part in this programme. The best part about it, is that it is completely free of charge, which is unbelievable.”
Emma McCrudden, Work Well Live Well Programme Manager at Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke says; “As a local charity, our mission is to prevent chest, heart and stroke conditions and support people affected and our vision is a healthy Northern Ireland free from chest, heart and stroke illnesses. We recognise that the workplace is a priority setting for influencing the physical and mental wellbeing of employees and the PHA funded Work Well Live Well programme which we deliver, helps to promote good health in workplaces across Northern Ireland to prevent serious illness in the long term.”
“ASEE Ltd. is a great example of a workplace which wanted to make a positive change and put staff health first. The initiatives put in place by ASEE Ltd.staff have been a great success and have made a real difference to the health and wellbeing of the team.”
“We are now recruiting new workplaces to take part in the programme and would encourage organisations of all types and sizes to get in touch to find out how Work Well Live Well can help them.”
For more information and to register for Work Well Live Well, visit nichs.org.uk/workwelllivewell
