Unipart Group, one of Oxfordshire’s largest employers, is to host a major event promoting employee wellbeing and featuring demonstrations by some of Oxfordshire’s leading practitioners.
The Employee Wellbeing Expo – which is in support of Business in the Community’s Responsible Business Week (20-26 April 2015)* – will be held on Wednesday, 22 April 2015 from 9.30am – 2.00pm. It is free of charge to local companies and will discuss some of the practical steps to create a wellbeing strategy for organisations of any size.
Organisations participating will include the NHS, British Safety Council, Macmillan, and Carers Oxfordshire, as well as specialists in areas such as smoking cessation, personal resilience, relaxation and Pilates. Unipart clients, Kimberly Clark, will be attending to talk about their Healthy Workplace Project and provide some samples of their workplace health packs.
The growing interest in company-led wellbeing programmes has been driven by the increasing cost of illness or injury in the workplace. Research indicates that more than 2.5 million people claim health-related benefits costing the government some £12 billion a year. The CBI reports that employers pay an annual bill of around £9 billion for sick pay and associated costs.
Company-led wellbeing programmes can have a significant impact on healthcare. Evidence shows that 90% of people with common health conditions can be helped back to work following a few basic principles of good healthcare and workplace management.
Unipart has run health and wellbeing programmes for many years through education sessions in the company’s in-house university, The Unipart U, fitness sessions in Unipart’s employee health and fitness club, The Lean Machine, and healthy eating options in the company’s restaurant, The Art Room. Unipart is also one of the safest companies in Europe and is one of only four organisations worldwide to have won both the British Safety Council’s prestigious Sword of Honour and the Globe of Honour in 2014.
Visitors will also be invited to Unipart’s Workwell Centre, part of The Unipart U, which will be dedicated to spreading best practice in employee wellbeing. A cornerstone of the programme is Unipart Cares, a free service to employees that enables them to use phone and website facilities to get expert advice on health, financial and legal matters.