The innovators in workplace wellbeing

Coming off their success at the recent New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards, Frucor Beverages Limited have set their sights on being innovators in the health and wellbeing space.

The company won NZ Safety’s award for best initiative to encourage workplace engagement in health and safety.

“Now we’re working with Healthy Families Manukau, Manurewa-Papakura to understand how we can support the wellbeing of our workforce using design-led thinking and collaborative design”, says Andy Cook, National Health and Safety Manager at Frucor.

Workplaces are ideal settings for supporting and encouraging positive health behaviours. This is due to the significant amount of time people spend at work, and because colleagues and organisations can provide support for those trying to improve their health.

“Frucor is a large employer with a-500 strong workforce in South Auckland” says Ben Youdan, Co-Manager, Healthy Families Manukau, Manurewa-Papakura. “As a workplace, they have significant influence on their team’s health and wellbeing.

Healthy workplaces have a health and safety culture and work practices that support their people to stay well, both physically and mentally.

Andy’s quick to acknowledge the huge team effort that goes into health and safety across his organisation. Their success could not have been achieved without the support of the wider Frucor health and safety community, committees and leaders across the business.

“With the support of Healthy Families Manukau, Manurewa-Papakura, we are gaining a deeper understanding of wellbeing from our teams’ experiences and perspectives to create a wellbeing strategy that will take us into 2020 and beyond”, says Andy. “We’ve definitely got our sights on an award in 2017!”

Business benefits from health and wellbeing

  • Safer workers – A holistic approach to employee health and wellbeing delivers improved safety performance.
  • Productivity gains – Healthy workers are likely to be more motivated, productive and take less sick leave.
  • Resilient workers – Wellbeing includes our psychological state. Engagement without considering wellbeing can lead to a burnt out workforce.
  • Staff retention – A key driver for employee engagement is the extent people believe their senior management has a sincere interest in their wellbeing.
  • Enhance corporate image – Being known as an employer who values people’s health and wellbeing is attractive to employees.