Workplace health

C3 helps to develop fresh approaches to promoting health in the workplace.

Promoting health in the workplace is an effective way of tackling the risk factors and can benefit employees and employers:

• Employees: Many adults spend a significant proportion of their lives in the workplace, making it a crucial place in which to encourage healthy behaviour – such as healthier eating and physical activity, in a smoke-free environment. This can to better long-term health for individual employees.
• Employers: The diseases caused by unhealthy lifestyles are responsible for significant absenteeism and reduced productivity. Investing in employee health can improve financial performance (through improved productivity), and improves the reputation of organisations with their workforce and beyond.

Working with businesses

In all cases, C3 encourages organisations carefully to tailor their workplace health programmes to the specific needs and wishes of their workforces. Examples of workplace health programmes could include help for employees to give up smoking, providing healthy-eating options, stress-management courses or encouraging cycle-to-work schemes.

• C3 is running a series of workshops on aspects of workplace health. Click here >> for more information.
• For more information on C3’s approach to helping companies to improve their workplace health, please [email us].

Working with government

C3 is involved with the Health at Work network of the Public Health Responsibility Deal (click here >> for more on the Responsibility Deal).

As part of work on this group, C3 co-ordinated the Health and Well-being Local Businesses Partnership pilots >> This project involved three large companies – Mars, Unilever and Novo Nordisk – who committed to engaging with small businesses in their locality to extend their workplace health programme to the employees of the businesses who agree to take part. The project was evaluated by C3 in September 2012.

• For more information, click here >>

C3 has also held two workshops on Diabetes in the Workplace, chaired by Dame Carol Black with speakers including Rowan Hillson (National Clinical Director for Diabetes) and industry leaders in this area from the United States.

• Click here >> for more information.

Spreading the word

C3 regularly presents at high-level meetings and seminars on the importance of workplace health. For example, Christine Hancock  gave a presentation on ‘Obesity – engaging the workforce’ at Health and Wellbeing @ Work 2011 conference: click here >>

Who C3 works with

C3 is working with a variety of organisations and individuals including:

• Dame Carol Black (the English government’s director of health and work);
• the Fitness Industry Association’s Shift into Sports project
• Britvic
• Novo Nordisk
• PepsiCo UK
• Mars
• Unilever

C3 has also worked with, among others:

• the World Economic Forum’s Working towards Wellness initiative;
• Bupa’s Health at Work project (for Bupa’s latest report (June 2010), Healthy Work: Evidence into Action, in which C3 was a partner (with The Work Foundation and RAND Europe), click here >>)
• Business in the Community
• Nestlé