Health awareness for Brighton contact centre

Five organisations joined forces to improve health education among employees at a large Brighton contact centre.

Advice workers from CRI, Albion in the Community, Employee Advice Programme, Claude Nicol and NHS Stop Smoking set up on-site stalls and drop-in clinics for Domestic & General employees to access throughout the day.

Over 200 people were offered free chlamydia screening, stop smoking kits and stress management packs and were asked to fill in questionnaires. As well as assisting individuals, the captured data will be used to better inform the NHS of local people’s lifestyle and drinking habits.

Nicki Perry, HR Manager at Domestic & General, has built an extensive health and wellbeing programme within the business, which currently employs over 700 people in Brighton. She said:

“We don’t want to put people off healthier living by telling them what they can and can’t do. Instead we want to give our employees the information they need to make their own informed decisions. The organisations involved in Health Awareness Day all have a friendly, non-preachy approach which really resonates well.

“It’s good to know that by working with these groups, not only do our employees benefit but we’re also helping to inform decision making that affects the community in which we operate.”

In two years Domestic & General’s range of wellbeing initiatives resulted in a 50 per cent staff sickness reduction and a 35 per cent improvement in employee retention. The company recently won the Healthiest Workplace Award at the Sussex Business Awards for the second year running.