RIPH champions workplace health
The cost of employee sickness and absenteeism is high on the agenda of most businesses, together with confusion about how best to tackle it and whether investment in tackling it can be fully justified. The Royal Institute of Public Health (RIPH) is taking the lead in this arena, offering programmes of training and qualifications to forward thinking employers, with the business case now backed by a major case study.
As part of Dame Carol Black’s ‘Working for a Healthier Tomorrow’ review, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was commissioned to consider both the wider business case and the economic case for employers to invest in wellness programmes for their staff. The PwC report ‘Building the Case for Wellness’ offers practical guidance to implementing staff health and wellbeing programmes, including what part can be played by ‘wellness champion’ volunteers in the workplace.
Training for such staff is now available through RIPH’s newest qualification ‘Understanding Health Improvement’.
“Different organisations are using this qualification in different ways,” says Nicki Alvey, development manager at the RIPH. As this qualification does not involve giving any clinical guidance, it makes it suitable for volunteers at all levels to become champions of healthy living in their workplace. Some organisations have trained junior staff, while others see the importance of training line managers, particularly if it is integrated with sickness or staff absenteeism management training.
‘Understanding Health Improvement’ focuses on the behaviour change needed to make healthier lifestyle choices, the factors that go to make a healthy lifestyle, as well as giving some understanding of the psychological barriers to getting and staying fit. Health champions are encouraged to find out about what options are available locally, including any company related occupational health services, national health services, classes and clubs.
The qualification is available through a growing number of RIPH-approved training providers. See following pages for further information.
Since being originally developed with Department of Health support, in response to the government’s Choosing Health:
Making health choices White Paper, ‘Understanding Health Improvement’ has been used in many different settings as it supports the public health, health promotion/improvement and health inequalities agendas.
RIPH’s Nicki Alvey shares some of these with LGE: Employees and Employers of all types and sizes: The Dame Carol Black review states that employers should offer more support to staff, including healthy lifestyle promotion. The PwC report suggests that wellness programmes have a positive impact in areas such as staff turnover and productivity, and that programme costs quickly translate to financial benefits through cost savings or additional revenue generation.
Nicki Alvey says “Since RIPH launched its ‘Understanding Health Improvement’ qualification, employers large and small have been asking for evidence to take to their boards or leadership teams. It is great that an independent business case is now available.”
