Landmark health initiative steams ahead | Incentive & Motivation

The first organisation formed specifically to be a one-stop-shop for workplace health has launched its digital platform with the support of key expert organisations.

The Better Health at Work Alliance (BHWA) is an industry led, one-stop resource designed to make finding expertise and services easy, so that implementing workplace health practice becomes a simple and obvious step for all employers, through their integrated digital platform and support services.

The BHWA is also the British workplace health industry’s first broadly inclusive membership body. In the past, distinct collections of experts were limited to their own professions and trade organisations in insular fashion. But the BHWA represents a significant step-change, radically transforming the landscape.

The wellness at work conversation is changing for the better. Employers are now increasingly inclined to take a more forward thinking approach to employee health and wellbeing. However, this risks the supply of services and solutions being outstripped by demand.

Addressing this challenge, the BHWA creates a shared environment in which enterprising partnerships can be forged between professions and specialist businesses of all sizes. This is a transformative step in the right direction for an industry that must now seek to maximise its working resources.

Through the BHWA, workplace health experts collaborate to provide an inclusive and straightforward platform offering free guidance to employers;  with its knowledge and insight taking in all specialisms, it will nurture the growing multi-disciplinary approach to service provision. BHWA brings together a wide range of leading workplace health specialists and already has the endorsement of over 15 key industry organisations, including Medigold Health, one of the UK’s leading occupational health and wellbeing consultancies.

Alex Goldsmith, CEO of Medigold said: “A forward-thinking initiative like this is long overdue in the health and wellbeing at work sector, which is sometimes guilty of being too inert. As pioneers in occupational health, we are excited to be part of an alliance which is at the forefront of developing our industry via the specialists, organisations and individuals that work within it. I believe that collaboration is the key to success as, ultimately, people learn from people.  This principle underpins many of the features of BHWA’s offering and this shared ethos is what first attracted us to contributing.”

Ross Tomkins, Clinical Director of Therapy Direct agreed that: “The Alliance has huge potential to simplify workplace health for employers and providers alike. We think the BHWA can be a game changer in our industry.”

The Better Health at Work Alliance is led by Charlotte Cross, previously instrumental in the set-up of the Commercial Occupational Health Providers Association in 2004 and the working group that formalised as the Council for Work and Health in 2009, both successful to this day.

She says of the industry support:

“It is unprecedented, to my knowledge, for an initiative to have such wide scale industry backing even before it has formally launched. To have such a great scope of experts behind us is testament to the strength and credibility of the Alliance.”

Offering access to solutions, information, and guidance via a simple one-stop website, users will be able to tap into expert knowledge through free resources including an ‘Ask the Expert’ forum, collaborative wikis, and guides, all of which will be subject to peer review.

For more information on the Better Health at Work Alliance please visit: http://www.bhwa.org.uk/