Between 2021 and 2022, 914,000 workers in Britain reported they were suffering from new or long-standing work-related stress, depression and anxiety. And it’s unsurprising – with all the events in the past few years, and the current cost-of-living crisis, you might start noticing your own employees struggling with their mental wellbeing. It’s a common misconception that mental health problems are solely caused by problems outside work, meaning a lot of employers might think it’s not their responsibility to step in and help – but in reality, mental health issues are more often than not a combin ..read more

Employee wellbeing and mental health support for employees was one of the top five concerns faced by employers in the last year, according to recent research by iHASCO – something almost certainly impacted by the changes brought by the pandemic and widespread remote working. It’s impossible to pinpoint just one or two reasons that wellbeing is becoming such a hot topic. But one thing is for sure – the UK is seeing the demand from employees for proper wellbeing support continue to grow. Westfield Health have found that 66% of employees want more wellbeing support from their employer. And t ..read more

Attracting new employees can be tough if you don’t know what they’re looking for and it’s more important now than ever to get it right. The latest figures by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that although employment rates have risen to 75.6% in the past three months, job vacancies are at a record high of 1.3 million putting serious pressure on the recruitment process for businesses. At a time when the recovery of employment is being driven by full-time employment, it’s key your business is at the forefront of people’s minds when deciding where to apply to work. Workplace bene ..read more

The government is making changes to the NHS influenza immunisation programme, meaning that those aged 50 to 64 years and secondary school children in years 7 to 11 (between 11 and 15 years of age on 31 August 2022) are no longer eligible. Flu (or influenza) is almost always an uncomfortable, unpleasant illness, but isn’t usually serious. However, some people are more likely to develop serious complications of flu, like bronchitis and pneumonia. Vaccination has been recommended in the UK since the late 1960s. In 2000, the policy was extended to include all people aged 65 years and over, and in ..read more

The importation, supply and use of asbestos was completely banned in the UK over 20 years ago but it’s still in around 300,000 non-domestic buildings and many more homes. Asbestos is the single greatest cause of work-related deaths in the UK, with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has reporting that there were over 5,000 asbestos-related deaths in 2019, including from cancers like mesothelioma. As well as this, the HSE has reported that there were 2,369 lung cancer deaths linked to past exposures to asbestos in 2020/21. In general, asbestos kills people than road accidents do, and around ..read more

Occupational health is a large and varied specialism that aims to prevent work-related ill health and promote physical and mental wellbeing. Putting in place a positive occupational health culture can improve staff morale and employee engagement, increase productivity, and reduce absence levels. The most successful companies recognise that ensuring employee health, wellbeing, and engagement is key to their success and business performance. A healthier, happier workforce can lead to reduced absence levels, lower recruitment and training costs, higher retention rates, more engaged staff, and les ..read more

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) estimate that over two million people in the UK are exposed to unacceptable levels of noise within the workplace every year. Because of this, between 2018/19 and 2020/21 there were 14,000 workers with work-related hearing problems – with 95 of those cases emerging in 2019 alone. This problem doesn’t only damage the health of your workers and cause higher staff turnover – noise-induced hearing loss is the second-most common reason for employer’s liability insurance claims for occupational health. But can you prevent workplace hearing loss? In short, yes. Th ..read more

According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), occupational lung diseases account for around 12,000 of the 13,000 total deaths linked to exposures at work every year, and they’re mainly caused by contact with chemicals or dust. Over the last three years, there were around 17,000 estimated new cases of breathing or lung problems caused or made worse by work each year. These statistics prove that employers can and should be doing more to protect their employees from occupational lung diseases and breathing or lung problems, and that includes occupational asthma. Before the coronavirus pande ..read more

An estimated 1.5 million people (2.4% of the UK population) were experiencing self-reported long COVID-19 as of the end of January 2022. The impact of long COVID is something we’re still only just beginning to understand, but one thing is clear: it’s having a big effect on the workplace. In a recent report of 3,765 respondents with long COVID, 45% reported that they were working reduced work schedules and 22% were not working due to their health condition. Similarly, in a TUC survey of 3,557 workers with long COVID, only 57% had returned to work fully, with 16% returning to reduced hours. So ..read more

From 6 April 2022, changes to the Personal Protective Equipment Regulations 1992 (PPER) will come into force, becoming the Personal Protective Equipment Regulations 2022. The idea of these PPE changes is to extend the Health & Safety responsibilities of employers when it comes to PPE to take into account a broader definition of ‘worker’ and require employers to provide PPE free of charge to these workers. As a result, the regulations now take into account those workers who: Have a contract of employment – These are ‘employees’ who are covered by Section 2 of the Health and Safety At ..read more