Tag Archives: workplace health

Returning to work support: COVID-19

We’re starting to move towards a relaxation of the lockdown rules surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, therefore many businesses are returning to work. At Amalgamate, we’ve been working to develop health, safety and wellbeing strategies for the reoccupation of workplaces across all different industries.

We have been working closely with our clients throughout the current outbreak to support them in managing the health, safety and wellbeing implications of COVID-19. Our team has built a recovery ready toolkit that allows our clients to fulfil their compliance needs and ensure they are protecting their employees.

These include:

Enhanced H&S Policy and arrangements;
Tailored COVID-19 secure and task specific risk assessments;
Safe operating procedures for the reoccupation of construction sites, small and medium sized offices and large multi-location organisations;
Site inductions and toolbox talks for re-opening;
Online and blended learning courses for First Aid & Fire Safety
Developing audits and re-opening checklists; and
Providing guidance and support

Our teams are also able to provide:

Updates to fire risk assessments to account for revised building operating models
Updates to First Aid risk assessments and systems
Legionella and asbestos surveys
Employee health and wellbeing programmes to ensure that you have a happy and healthy workforce

This a challenging and unique situation so if you need support in your business returning to work amidst COVID-19, please contact us on t: +44 (0)141 244 0181 or email us on info@amagamalgamate-safety.com.

Our experienced consultants will be more than happy to discuss your needs and provide practical health, safety and well-being advice to ensure that your buildings are safe to re-open and it is safe for your employees to return.

We’re also able to provide environmental cleaning services through our network of specialist suppliers, for more information on this please click here.

For guidance published from the Government on reopening businesses safely, click here.

Mental Health in the Workplace

Introduction

Before COVID-19, there was a crisis in mental health in the workplace, costing the UK economy almost £35 billion. COVID-19 has highlighted these problems, with mental health collectively suffering and deteriorating across the UK. Here is what we think workplaces should be encouraging to help support their employees and colleagues.

How can you make wellbeing a priority?

Doing 2 of these 5 things each week is said to make a huge difference to mental wellbeing.

Connect
Be active
Take notice
Learn
Give

Developing a routine that works for you:

Plan how you will spend each day including when you will take breaks and finish working.
Try to get as much sunlight as possible, work with the window open, and spend some time each day outside if it’s safe to do so.
Keep active, build physical activity time into your routine.
Eat well and stay hydrated.
Keep taking any medication you’re on.
Don’t overload yourself with information, take breaks from the news and try to stick with reputable sources.

Understanding your mental wellbeing

What keeps you well? – Think what helps you to balance your day and lift your mood. Is there a particular way of working that makes things easier for you?

What are some triggers and early warning signs? – What things create a negative environment and how can you work around this? If you can think of things that trigger your mental health then you can begin to eliminate these from your day or work on how to manage these triggers better.

Impacts of mental wellbeing on performance – How is your mental health affecting your work life and personal life and are you able to separate these two?

Negative coping strategies – Are you using healthy coping strategies and if not, how can you change these strategies for the better?

It’s important that you’re asking yourself these questions but also relating this to the people you work with and discussing it. This way, you can better understand yourself and others, therefore helping to promote mental health wellbeing in the workplace.

Resources

Here you can find more information on how to work well from home during lockdown. This can be used to develop your wellness strategy or as an individuals guide.
Here is a great source of information that gives advice for staying at home, looking after mental wellbeing, support for work and checklists for staying at home.
Do you and your employees/colleagues know what mindfulness is and how to use it to your collective advantage? Find out more about what mindfulness is here.
You can also read our other article on taking care of employee and colleague wellbeing here.

If you have any further questions or require any further support, please do not hesitate to contact us by t: +44 (0)141 244 0181 or email: info@amalgamate-safety.com

Helping Great Britain to work well

It’s great that 2016 starts with a big focus on Health and Safety, and to see the HSE’s new GB Health and Safety strategy being launched this month.

Have you been engaged yet?

We can all influence the discussion. The HSE has started to engage with the people and organisations that can help Great Britain work well.

We think that if sucessfully implemented, this could enhance how we all approach safety management in this country for many years to come. The 6 key themes are:

Promoting broader ownership of workplace health and safety
Highlighting and tackling the burden of work-related ill-health
Supporting small firms
Enabling productivity through proportionate risk management
Anticipating and tackling the challenges of new technology and ways of working
Sharing the benefits of Great Britain’s approach

Further details can be found by visiting the HSE website

We’re always interested in hearing your thoughts, so why not tell us what you think about the six themes?

If you would like to know more about how Amalgamate can help your organisation lead the way in Health and Safety, contact Annette McKie on e: annette@amalgamate-safety.com or call +44 (0)7808 381228

Inactivity – We can’t keep sitting still

We have become an immobile nation. On average, workers in the UK spend 60% of their waking hours sitting down – and if they’re office-based, this can rise to as much as 75%.

Official government data shows that 29% of people in England are classed as physically inactive, meaning that they do less than 30 minutes of moderate intensity activity in total per week, even though that can be split into three 10 minute sets. And sadly the statistics are likely to be similar throughout the whole of the UK. We really are sitting still – and the effects of this inactivity are huge, and include an increased risk of diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease and premature death. It is the fourth largest cause of disease and disability, and directly contributes to one in six deaths in the UK – making it as dangerous as smoking.

The health repercussions of this are felt throughout the business world – sickness absence is estimated to cost UK businesses the vast sum of £27 billion per year – and inactivity is a large and combatable contributor to this.

It is vital that business leaders take a more pro-active role in providing opportunities and encouragement for their employees to be more active at work. Employee wellbeing needs to become a fundamental part of business, with a strong focus on increasing activity levels and improving health.

Progressive companies are introducing a wide range of incentives, including lunch-time yoga classes, increased use of standing workstations, balance boards, or exercise balls available to use instead of chairs, personalised activity plans, and even offering vouchers for shoes for people who walk to work. There are plenty of changes, small and large, that can be made – you just need to figure out what will work best for your team. These types of preventative actions lead to increased wellbeing and therefore reduced absence rates, and studies have also shown that they can also improve work productivity, efficiency, and satisfaction.

We can help you to take care of your team by providing:

DSE assessments to ensure that workstations allow staff to move dynamically
a range of sports and remedial assessments
on-site massages
advice on developing strategies to increase opportunities for movement

For help with creating or developing your company’s employee wellbeing programs and moving towards a healthier future, , click here to read further details of our Health and Wellbeing services and contact us on 0141 244 0181 or email info@amalgamate-safety.com.