Arriva has been rewarded with an official accreditation recognising their excellent approach to the health and wellbeing of their staff.
All six of Arriva’s Merseyside bus depots have received their accreditation from the Workplace Wellbeing Charter, working alongside local workplace health specialists, Health@Work. All six depots received ‘Excellence’ in all eight areas of the Workplace Wellbeing Charter; with the rest of North West bus depots now working towards the same.
The Workplace Wellbeing Charter is a national accreditation scheme that was developed and piloted on Merseyside by Liverpool Public Health and Health@Work. The Charter is designed to provide employers with ways of working that actively improve the health and wellbeing of businesses.
Staff working at Arriva’s sites have been working with Health@Work to co-create a health-focussed culture that has led to them receiving this award. Arriva has shown commitment to The Charter from the top down; some of the initiatives that Arriva has implemented as a result include walking clubs, health checks, healthy eating advice and smoking cessation services. These changes in culture have had a direct impact on Arriva staff sickness percentage which is now amongst the lowest in Merseyside.
Howard Farrall, Area Managing Director at Arriva Merseyside said: “We have been working for many years to develop a health focused culture in the workplace, which in turn improves the wellbeing of our employees. It’s fantastic to receive this recognition from Health@Work to reward the hard work our staff put in arranging events and initiatives at Arriva depots across Merseyside.
“Employee health and wellbeing is really important to us and the Excellence award is a real boost which will help us to continue to improve and develop further. Many thanks to the Health@Work team for their support.”
James Dunningham, Operations Director for Health@Work, said: “We rarely come across an organisation that has been doing so much for so many years. Arriva demonstrates its commitment to the health and wellbeing of its staff in so many ways and the staff are really engaged. Everyone from every level plays a proactive role in contributing to this health focussed culture, so it is no surprise Arriva was awarded with an Excellence Award.
“Over the last two years we have seen hundreds of businesses sign up to the Workplace Wellbeing Charter scheme, and through these businesses, the benefits of the Charter have been felt by more than 30,000 people in Liverpool. Our success means that the Workplace Wellbeing Charter is now going to be rolled out on a national level, and as a city we should be proud that we’ve pioneered this health initiative.”
