Award Criteria

There are 5 levels to the Award – Bronze, Silver, Gold, Continuing Excellence and Maintaining Excellence, with appropriate criteria at each stage to build into an Award Portfolio.  Organisations are given up to a year per level, but there is flexibility for those who need it.

Evidence indicates that it takes a period of time to effectively establish the infrastructure that will engage employees in adopting behaviours / lifestyle changes.


This is why ALL employers are required to begin at Bronze and progress systematically upwards through the levels.  Every employer/ organisation who signs-up to participate in the Award scheme is supported by a dedicated Health Improvement Specialist.

 

     

 

 Bronze - The Bronze level lays a firm foundation to build a healthier workplace. 

 

 Silver - The Silver level of the Award builds upon the basics of the Bronze level and rewards organisations that take a more holistic view of the workplace.

 

 Gold - This level builds upon the Silver level and requires companies to look outside their own organisation and promote health within the wider community.

 

 Continuing Excellence - This recognises the importance of organisations sustaining the progress they have made during their participation in the Award and encourages them to use their experience to support others.

 

 Maintaining Excellence - Achieved by employers who have been engaged with the Award for long enough to have achieved a pass at all levels via the completion of a criteria document, portfolio and full workplace assessment.   

 

 Ambassador Status - Organisations are eligible for Ambassador Status on achievement of Maintaining Excellence and with the recommendation of their designated Workplace Health Improvement Specialist. This is then passed through to the BHAWA Verification Panel for endorsement.

 

 

 

The BHAW network provides an excellent forum to engage with other local businesses and organisations sharing best practices, knowledge and resources to improve colleague wellbeing.

Access to knowledgeable workplace support advisors and supportive community of members is hugely beneficial,  assessment framework helps us measure our progress, and enjoy learning from other businesses and services as we support each other.

- Durham Constabulary, Durham

At the time of enrolling on the BHAWA SUEZ did not have any health strategies in place. We started off on a blank canvas and were given the freedom by the plant manager to run our first campaigns. The wider business soon caught on and we now have an amazing wellness for all charter and Wellbeing and Inclusion Manager.

It gave us the starting point to a wider company movement and now wellness is a hot topic for the whole business. Enrolling every year onto a new level gives the site its focus and an end aim of achieving the award. The award recognises good work we do, and we also received the special recognition award in 2022.

- SUEZ TeesValley, Stockton

We wanted a structured approach to improving the health of employees tapping into the support available and taking the opportunity to benchmark with other organisations to help us improve the health and wellbeing of our people.

The award has been successful in helping us organise dedicated teams and resources as we work through the criteria. So far the campaigns have been very well received by our people and our new Wellbeing strategy has helped us to bring this all together in a framework all our staff understand.

- END. Clothing, Sunderland

The award is a declaration of our commitment to building a healthy and happy workplace culture for every employee. Designing a positive and engaging health and wellbeing offer where health inequalities are reduced is so important to us and we know we will achieve this with the support of BHAWA.

The award process provides structure for Better Health at Work. It provides support, guidance and networking opportunities to learn and improve. The opportunity to collaborate and hear about others practice across the region is always inspiring, we always come away buzzing with ideas.

- Sunderland City Council, Maintaining Excellence level

The wellbeing of our colleagues is incredibly important to us. As an organisation we understand the impact and benefit a good wellbeing strategy brings. We also believe that wellbeing has to be an ongoing campaign, the focus has to be constant not just something you write about in a policy or the provision of good flexible benefits. The award provided structure for us to formulate that strategy and annual activities plans force us to think about a variety of offerings and initiatives.

It provides structure, idea and something to work towards. It helps us to think about better ways to engage people in what we do.

- Aioi Nissay Dowa Europe, North Tyneside

At the plant, we really wanted to support our Employees Health and Wellbeing as we transitioned back to normal business, following the Global Pandemic. This award provided us with the structure we needed to develop and launch the Health and Wellbeing plant wide strategy.

Not only does the award provide us with a criteria and structure to follow, it also allows us to focus on topics which we may not have considered previously. In addition, it provides us a network with other local businesses to allow us to benchmark and share best practices.  

 

- Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd, Sunderland
Partner logos