HR Magazine - HR Excellence Awards 2010: Health and Wellbeing Award

For the 1,200 employees at British Gas's Cardiff call centre, absence sickness absence was a stubborn problem; at the end of 2008 employees were off sick on average one day a month, and 30 people were on long-term sickness each week. HR magazine's Health and Wellbeing award recognises the efforts of its 2009 SMILE campaign, a research-focused initiative, (finding, for example, that stress and depression accounted for two-thirds of long-term illness), which devised bespoke solutions to these results.

Using the five drivers of wellbeing recommended by the World Health Organisation (psychological, physical, financial, social and environmental), British Gas developed the concept of SMILE based on five characters, each representing the different area, and predicated on the fact everyone is different. Initiatives for each of the five pillars were developed, including free health checks, free fruit and discounted gym membership under the 'physical' banner, through to emotional resilience seminars, chill-out rooms with TVs and Nintendo Wiis for 'psychological' and five-a-side football and concierge services for 'social'. These were communicated through buzz sessions with team managers.

The judges were impressed with the results and integrated nature of the approach. Since the project has been introduced the number of people at the Cardiff call centre taking four weeks' sickness at any one time has fallen from 30 to nine at the start of 2010. Its Net Promoter Score is now +35, which is 25 points above the utilities sector average. Employee engagement has improved by 7%. The scheme's success is further validated by the fact SMILE is to be integrated into the wider British Gas business. The group has already had success with the Global Corporate Challenge, where it was last year runner up to Nestle as the most active (in terms of pedometer-recorded footsteps) company in the UK, helping staff lose an average of 5kg each.

HIGHLY COMMENDED: LEWISHAM BOROUGH COUNCIL

Lewisham Council has long had its own 'absence and wellbeing champions' but in 2007 employees still took an average of 26.5 days off. In 2009, it sought to reduce its huge health-related illness costs by launching walk-to-work challenges, health awareness days, wellbeing-at-work fairs as well as offering on-site relaxation therapies, leisure facilities and smoking cessation support. Together, they have cut absence down to four days per employee and saved hundreds of thousands of pounds. The council has also seen a six-point rise in staff satisfaction on work-life balance issues.

FINALIST

Metropolitan Police