A Health Advocate is someone who is passionate about health and wellbeing, wants to help raise awareness of health topics, and contribute to developing a positive wellbeing culture in the workplace - and even beyond. This can be anyone in the organisation, regardless of role or experience. The Health Advocate role is voluntary, and can be a great addition to a CV. It is a good opportunity to develop and practice skills such as communication, persuasion and motivating others.
The award is beneficial to the organisation as it prompts us to think outside the box, extend our health and wellbeing support into new and important areas that we might not necessarily touch upon usually; and it also holds us to account for conducting high quality, meaningful campaigns.
We joined the Award to ensure that our health and wellbeing work goes above and beyond the requirements outlined by the NHS health and wellbeing framework, helping to ensure that we support our colleagues across a variety of areas and that we can demonstrate excellence in doing so.
As we work in an office, we wanted to take part in the award to help our staff become more healthy and to live a healthier lifestyle, with the hope that it would improve staff morale and productivity.
We’ve received fantastic feedback from staff about how much they’re enjoying the campaigns we are running for the award and noticed that staff are more motivated and there’s a positive atmosphere in the office. We are also enjoying being creative with our campaigns, learning more information about health and wellbeing!
We started the award in 2020 as we were keen to help improve the wellbeing of our employees, particularly post covid. One of our values is putting people first, and we felt like this was a step in the right direction to achieve this.
We now have a team of 10 passionate health advocates to help improve the wellbeing in the office. It’s a great feeling when the office looks forward to the health campaigns and want to be involved. It feels as though the work we’re doing is benefiting our employees.
We wanted to help and support our employees by giving them access to tools, resources and information to improve their health – physically and mentally, both in the workplace and in their personal lives.
We have really enjoyed participating in the award over the years. It allows the team of Health Advocates to show our creative side and brings people across both sites together, fostering a sense of community within the organisation. It also shows our employees that we care for their wellbeing by focusing on the topics that matter to them most.
Firstly, and most importantly, we recognise the benefits of supporting the wellbeing of our staff and secondly, as a charity it’s great to get some recognition for what we do.
The process is strong as it leads the organisation through a series of logical steps to the award. Staff have really engaged in the process and it’s a great motivator for staff.
We joined the scheme to help us improve the health & wellbeing of our workforce not only at work but also at home. The campaigns and areas that we cover are varied and we try to include the workforces family and friends wherever possible.
The award is very well structured there is lots of information on the BHAWA website and we have lots of help at support. It has ensured that our organisations' Health & Wellbeing agenda is structured and well thought out.
