Award structure

The award is free and supports all types of employer: public, private or voluntary sector; small, medium or large organisation. You can gain recognition for your efforts and be awarded a certificate, allowing for progression through bronze, silver to gold certification. Once awarded, the certificate is valid for two years. If you decide to progress to the next level before the end of the two year period, you can request to be reassessed.

By considering the award, you will find out what you are already doing well, and where you can make improvements. You may already meet many of the award criteria and be able to achieve recognition for this by achieving award accreditation. The award scheme criteria will also give you ideas and targets to work towards, which you can include within a plan of action.

How to join the award scheme

For more information on the criteria and how you can achieve accreditation with the award, contact your workplace health officer.

Helpful resources

For a range of model policies and guidelines to help businesses working for the Be Well @ Work Award, see our workplace health resources.

XPO Logistics

XPO Logistics (Asos Site) is based in the east of the Borough at Parks Springs Grimethorpe and is the largest private-sector employer in the South Yorkshire region employing in excess of 4000 colleagues on site.  Grimethorpe is based in one of the most deprived areas of Barnsley, an area that was economically dependant on the mining industry resulting in high levels of unemployment when the mines closed.

What has been the impact of introducing a health and wellbeing programme?

Introducing a health and wellbeing programme and achieving the National Charter has allowed XPO to build on its absence, attrition and engagement plans and offer more as an employer. Sickness absence has reduced from 10% in 2013/14 to 5% in 2014/15. Employee engagement has improved on-site by 50% year on year and is the main focus across the site and off-site. Attrition rates continue to fall in line with expectation and are tracking approximately 50% improvement year on year.

Why did XPO Logistics implement a health and wellbeing programme?

XPO Logistics wanted to play a key role in enhancing employee health and wellbeing. Sickness levels were high and retention rates low which needed to be addressed. XPO recognised the business benefits of investing in the health and wellbeing of their staff and decided to implement a health and wellbeing programme to improve staff morale and provide a healthier workplace.

What action did XPO Logistics take?

Sickness absence levels were high and employee engagement low. An Occupational Health Nurse was appointed to support the management of sickness absence. A member of staff was seconded as an engagement coordinator to look at ways of engaging with staff. XPO Logistics used the framework of the local workplace health award scheme to develop their health and wellbeing programme. Due to the size of the organisation, a steering group was set up that met weekly to progress the implementation of the programme.

A health needs assessment was undertaken with a random sample of staff to establish priorities but also to find out what health promotion activities employees would be interested in engaging in. Over the last two years, a plethora of measures have been introduced to improve employee health and wellbeing, through a comprehensive training programme for managers, increased communication and consultation with employees, reward schemes and incentives (such as employees being given annual leave on their birthday), occupational health support and a range of health promotion activities to encourage employees to look after their own health and wellbeing. Some of the healthy workplace promotions included flu jabs, free fruit, occupational health drop-in sessions, on-site physiotherapist, diabetes clinics and sexual health promotions.

Some of the physical activities supported within the community were cycling events, football tournaments, runs and walks. This has culminated with Asos achieving ‘The Workplace Wellbeing Charter National award
for England’ in October 2015 achieving excellence in 6 out of 8 of the subject areas.

Dearne Advanced Learning Centre

Dearne Advanced learning Centre is an educational establishment for students aged 11-19 based in Goldthorpe. Goldthorpe is in one of the Boroughs most deprived areas with rates of long term unemployment and those of working age claiming benefits higher than the rest of Barnsley and England. In respect of the health of its resident's life expectancy is below the national average with smoking being the largest risk factor. Cardiovascular disease, cancer and respiratory disease are the main causes of mortality. In respect of child poverty, 37.2% of Dearne North and 29.2% of Dearne South pupils are eligible for free school meals

Why did the ALC implement a health and wellbeing programme?

The ALC is outcome-focused with the ultimate aim of improving student examination results. Financially the ALC is like many schools stretched in terms of its budget and needed to invest in the health and wellbeing of staff without any additional funding.

What action did the ALC take?

A health and wellbeing programme was developed following the framework of the local workplace health scheme for which the ALC achieved the silver award level. A health and wellbeing survey was undertaken with employees. This helped with prioritising any interventions and actions to be implemented. The key elements of the wellbeing programme can be split into 4 categories:

• Health management: working with NHS to deliver employee blood pressure and weight checks, flu jabs, working with organisations such as Fit Reds and Diabetes UK. 
• Prevention and care: absence management and support to return to work, occupational health support, KIT meetings, free bus pass, yoga class, Zumba class, cycle schemes and counselling. 
• Wider Support: car valeting on-site, ironing/dry cleaning services, mobile car mechanic, discounted therapies and charity fundraising.
• Structures Leadership and Management –flexible working, compassionate leave, line managers in place

What has been the impact?

Attendance to work has increased significantly for teaching staff with a reduction in sickness absence from 3.4% for long term sickness in 2012/13 to 0.9% in 2014/15. In respect of short term sickness absence there has been a reduction from 2.3% in 2012/13 to 2% in 2014/15. In total a reduction in days lost from 752.2 days in 2012/2103 to 341.8 days in 2014/15. This has also resulted in savings due to the teaching staff cover costs being an average cost of £100 per day. Attendance at work has also increased for associate staff with a reduction in the number of days absence from 438.9 days in 2012/2013 to 225.8 in 2014/2015. This is a reduction in short term absence from 1.9% to 1.7% and long term absence from 2.3% in 2012/2103 to 0.5% in 2014/2015.

What has been the real impact?

• Student attendance up by over 3% in 2 years.
• Exclusions down including both days lost and number of incidents.
• NEETs down 2%.
• GCSE results up by 8% bucking the national 2% drop.
• Narrowing gaps and all groups improving performance against national data.

Barnsley Hospice 

Barnsley Hospice is a charity that provides specialist palliative care services to the local community in a warm, friendly, relaxed environment where the patients and their family’s needs come first. Barnsley Hospice is located just outside Barnsley town centre and is registered with the Care Quality Commission. In total we supported 695 patients through over 6100 contacts during the 12 months up to 31 March 2015.

As a specialist care provider, the range of treatments we provide include pain and symptom management, emotional support and end of life care. It costs over £10,000 a day to run the Hospice, some of which we receive as a grant from the local Clinical Commissioning Group, but we still need to raise over £2m per year through donations and fundraising and the generosity of the Barnsley people in order to stay open. We currently employ 120 permanent staff, with a further 50 ‘bank’ (or as & when) staff on our books. The Hospice also has a team of 222 volunteers working across all areas of the organisation.

Why did Barnsley Hospice implement a health and wellbeing programme?

Barnsley Hospice wanted to focus on being able to provide the best possible services to its patients and their families and we realised that staff retention and reducing the level of sickness played a great part in this. Investing time and effort into the health and wellbeing of our workforce has encouraged us all to be healthier and has also helped to foster improved working relationships between colleagues.

What action did Barnsley Hospice take?

The Hospice developed a health and wellbeing programme earlier in 2015 which is ongoing. As a starting point in May, a health & wellbeing survey was undertaken with all employees, which helped us to understand more about our colleagues. As part of the survey, we asked what improvements staff would like to see in the workplace which would have a positive effect on their health & wellbeing – these included suggestions such as health & fitness classes on-site, complementary therapy, advice & tips regarding stress at work.

As a result of this, the Hospice has provided a programme of fitness classes after work free of charge which was attended by approximately 10% of our workforce. We are also working with Rotherham College who have been providing free complementary therapy treatments to our staff and volunteers since October 2015, and this will continue into 2016. We also have an ongoing weekly pilates class for staff & volunteers to attend, which again will continue into 2016. We have recently introduced a fortnightly meditation session after work for colleagues which is helping them to cope with stress and providing some ‘me time’ for those who attend. 

We reviewed all our HR policies & procedures and as part of this, we are now supporting the sickness absence of colleagues more closely, with regular welfare meetings held with any colleagues who are on longer-term sick. We have regular interventions and welfare meetings with any colleague who highlights an issue within their workplace or with their work-life balance, and flexible working is now available as an option to Hospice colleagues. Since commencing with the health & wellbeing programme, we have received many positive comments from colleagues who feel that a real effort is being by the Hospice and they can feel & see the difference, compared to pre-wellbeing programme.

What has been the impact?

Barnsley Hospice achieved the Workplace Health & Wellbeing Charter in July 2015. Since achieving the charter we have seen:

• A more positive attitude of colleagues.
• Colleague engagement in the health & fitness programmes and treatments provided on-site.
• Staff feel more appreciated and valued.

TLC Care Home

Town and Local Carehome (TLC) is part of the OptimoCare group of companies, and specialise in providing home care to allow people to remain in their own homes across South & West Yorkshire. TLC employs more than 350 staff across the Yorkshire region and has a sister company WarrenCare who operate in the North West.

Why did TLC HomeCare implement a health and wellbeing programme?

TLC Homecare wanted to raise awareness of the importance of health and wellbeing throughout an organisation and wanted to utilise the information instilled to assist promoting this within their business and to help support employee engagement and a further reduction in staff turnover.

What action did TLC HomeCare take?

TLC initially introduced simple measures to assist visibility of all health and wellbeing related information, this included health and wellbeing boards. They have also created newsletters, adding a health & wellbeing page to the website, attending several focus days to build on our understanding of this subject. This started with the simple stuff first in order to give a good understanding.

TLC found it daunting applying for the award but was guided by us and their assessor. TLC raised awareness of subjects such as stopping smoking, healthy eating, physical activity, various health conditions, mental health issues and much more and made obtaining information on subjects such as these easier for our staff to access. TLC now have stringent policies and processes in place to support employees appropriately as and when required.

What has been the impact of introducing a health and wellbeing programme?

The Workplace Wellbeing Charter is helping TLC to instil the principles of health and wellbeing further into our culture and will assist us to build on employee engagement and satisfaction even further in the coming months and years. Its benefits will support TLC to continue to reduce staff turnover and have now introduced various projects and plans. TLC said working towards the award genuinely helped them to raise awareness around health and wellbeing and assisted them to support employees more efficiently when dealing with enquiries, issues and more general day to day tasks.