Member Article

Apprentice Star Fires up Workplaces to Get Healthy!

Former Apprentice star Katie Bulmer-Cooke was the guest of honour at the Better Health at Work Awards ceremony last night, which celebrates Sunderland’s healthiest workforces.

Held at the George Washington Hotel in Washington, the Better Health at Work Awards reward companies who place the health and wellbeing of their employees at the heart of their business practice. Innovative health improvement activities from the award winners included a mini Olympics, an entire workforce giving up chocolate for a month; and weight management sessions with one employee losing 5 stones.

Katie, who starred in the 2014 series of the BBC’s ‘ultimate job interview’, entertained the guests with her motivational speech ‘Are you Fit for Business?’

Katie said “I’m really excited to be part of the Better Health at Work Awards. Having worked in health and fitness for the last 13 years, it’s fantastic to see so many employers embracing and actively promoting health and fitness in the workplace as opposed to keeping it purely as a leisure activity or outside of the workplace. Spreading the message of health in the work place will certainly serve to create a fitter, healthier more productive and energised work force”

The event was sponsored by Collingwood Legal and Equality North East.

The event is funded by Public Health Sunderland and organised by Amacus who have been contracted to run the Better Health at Work Awards for Sunderland since 2008.

One company was so inspired they confirmed they would be taking part in 2016: Gill Usher from Rocket Medical said “Rocket Medical anticipates that by working towards the Better Health at Work award we will be able to build on our existing support for the health and wellbeing of our employees. We see that the award provides a great synergy with being an employer of choice who focus on employment engagement and a desire to support our workforce with positive informed choices on opportunities to improve the health of themselves and their wider families. We anticipate this will support the business in continuing to achieve business improvements such as the reduction of absenteeism rates and increased productivity and employee morale”.

Full list of companies collecting awards:

Bronze: Durham House Complaints Team (DWP), Foundation of Light and University of Sunderland.

Silver: Pentland Distribution, Sunderland College, Tyne and Wear Sport and Washington Mind.

Gold: Berghaus Limited, Compensation Recovery Unit (DWP) and ZF TRW.

Continuing Excellence: EDF Energy, Gentoo, Grundfos Manufacturing Limited, HMRC Waterside House, Signpost to Learning (HMRC), Sunderland BC (DWP) and Sunderland City Council.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Janet Cummings .