Staying Healthy at Work is a partnership programme between NHS East of England and Business in the Community to improve the health of employees and businesses across the region. The Exchange was an idea of Staying Healthy at Work’s Practitioner Network, who felt that whilst sharing best practice was valuable, sharing practical interventions could be even more so. It was decided to pilot the scheme in Norwich thanks to the support of City College Norwich, who built this website and the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, as well as the enthusiasm of a range of employers from the city. It is also supported by NHS Norfolk.
How it works: You can post on the website something that you would like to access or to let others know that you have something to offer up. After you've signed up to this site you can place a request or respond to something being advertised on the site. You can also start or join in a discussion on a relevant topic to get help and advice – you don’t just have to swap products and services; advice from colleagues or examples of model policies so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, can be invaluable.
Why join us? We make it easier for you to improve your health and wellbeing provision at little or no cost by enabling the sharing and swapping of resources by employers across the city. Here’s just some of the kind of things we’re thinking about:
- Services that large organisations buy into and may have spare capacity, but smaller ones may not be able to readily access eg Occupational Health services, flu vaccinations, health checks
- Specialist advice eg Smoking Cessation, financial advice, entrepreneurial expertise
- Training where an organisation’s own demand may not justify running its own in-house course, eg pre-retirement, outplacement, stress management, etc.
- Joint wellbeing events to maximise the number of initiatives that can be offered, as well as the numbers of staff who can attend, together with opportunities for networking and building partnerships
As well as benefitting from access to services and resources, taking part in the Exchange also has benefits in terms of external reputation, building relationships with other businesses and across the supply chain, and positioning yourself as an employer of choice. The more people use it the more successful and valuable the Exchange will be, so register now and tell your friends!
