In addition to playing an active role in improving consumer health, food and drink manufacturers have long recognised the importance of ensuring the wellbeing of their workforce. The food and drink manufacturing industry is a major employer in the UK, employing up to 400,000 people and as many as 1.2 million in ancillary services.
As part of the Government's Public Health Responsibility Deal, the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) and many of its members pledged to take action to improve public health. In many cases this included a commitment to improve employee health. Furthermore, members have shown they are committed to acting as an exemplar to other industries by creating and sharing resources describing their own initiatives and learnings. Today FDF launched a new, free toolkit for employers, occupational health professionals and those involved in workplace wellbeing, which provides guidance on how to enhance staff wellness programmes.
Within this toolkit we have created an eight-step guide for employers which we believe will help develop tailored and effective programmes for staff.
Step 1: Decide what you want to achieve
Step 2: Determine what your team needs
Step 3: Find out what resources you have access to
Step 4: Create a project team
Step 5: Develop a programme
Step 6: Communicate!
Step 7: Launch the programme
Step 8: Evaluate
The development of any workplace wellbeing scheme must stem from the business objectives, be it to support staff recruitment and retention, drive integration in the team, or reduce staff illness and absence. Every person and team is different so to make the most of the time and resources that you plan to invest in the programme, you need to make sure it is right for your work environment. To do this, start by asking colleagues what potential health issues they perceive in the workplace and how they think a workplace wellbeing programme could help them personally.
Workplace wellbeing schemes don't need to be expensive but they do need to be cost effective. Find out what resources you can make use of, be it a meeting room cum Pilates 'studio', or local sports facilities available for free or at a discounted price. As in business, in the development of your programme people will be your best resource; collectively they will know the local area and have the creativity needed to develop and roll out an engaging programme.
To launch and maintain a successful campaign in the long-term, you will need a committed team of 'champions' to undertake the programme development, activity planning and communication of the event. A mix of departmental representation, seniority and personalities will encourage diversity and will also help spread the word. With an eye on the overall objectives and identified staff needs, plot out what achievable activity can take place throughout the year, while bearing in mind that ad hoc staff activities are also important and effective at boosting staff morale.
Having set out what you are going to do, be sure to make the most of every communication method available, be it staff meetings, intranet, bulletin boards or email. If employees don't know about events or initiatives, they will not make use of them. A specially designed intranet page or notice board will keep colleagues up to date with upcoming activities and can also encourage honest feedback and suggestions. When launching a new workplace wellbeing programme or when initiating a new phase of an existing programme, make sure that all staff are aware of the programme's intended aims and are encouraged to feed in ideas and comments. Constant dialogue with staff is essential.
And lastly, it is essential to evaluate the success of your workplace wellbeing regularly - what worked or didn't work and why? Equally, it is important to capture activity for future reference and promotional activity. Establishing what the return on your investment has been, and where the real benefits were delivered, to staff and to the company as a whole, is key to continually improve your staff offering.
These 8-steps provide the framework for employers to deliver an effective workplace wellbeing programme. We hope that, by sharing our collective experience and learnings via this new toolkit, our sector can support other businesses in Britain and contribute towards improved public health.
Barbara Gallani, director of food safety and science at the Food and Drink Federation
Download a free copy of the new Workplace Wellbeing booklet and other free resources.
