It’s likely many of your employees made a new year’s resolution to give up smoking/drinking/eating junk food/being lazy. It’s equally likely many of them have fallen off the wagon between then and now. Wayne Campbell, managing director, Healthy Performance, says employers can play a big role in supporting their staff to kick their unhealthy habits.
“Teamwork and support groups can really help,” he says. “Education and awareness are also really important. It takes 21 days to form a habit, so we encourage people to slowly reduce their habit rather than go cold turkey.” He advises that organisations consider offering one-to-one wellbeing clinics so employees can discuss their issues, and explore using tools like the NHS’s stop smoking programme, which is free of charge.
“In the extreme, you could link it to the performance review,” he continues. “Sickness absence obviously links to performance. But on the whole, it’s more valuable to be supportive.”
