Without their employees, most companies would become worthless. That’s why it’s so important to devote serious time and resources to your duty of care of employees.
Occupational health is a crucial part of ensuring the health and wellbeing of your workers as well as helpful in promoting general workplace wellness. With 1.4 million UK workers suffering from work-related ill health, there’s never been a better time to review your occupational health practices.
But what exactly does the term occupational health mean? And how can better protection of your employees’ health help to benefit your company’s bottom line?
What is Occupational Health?
Occupational health (OH) is a general term to describe how work interacts with our health. Whether that’s your work having a bearing on your health, on your health having a bearing on your work.
It deals primarily with the physical, mental and social health and safety of a workplace.
Broadly speaking, that may include items such as developing safe working practices, improving the ergonomics (how you physically work) of a workplace, and monitoring employee sickness.
How Do Occupational Health Services Work?
The overall objective of OH is to ensure that the workplace doesn’t have a detrimental effect on your employees’ health. Therefore, when working with OH service providers, you can expect to receive health and safety support in a wide variety of business areas.
For instance, you will receive support to implement healthy working practices which comply with health and safety standards. This helps to ensure the continued safety of your employees who work in potentially hazardous environments.
Equally, when an employee is signed off work due to illness or injury, OH services support them throughout their journey of returning to work.
Regular health assessments, health education programs, advice and counselling, and reasonable adjustments to working environments all come within an OH provider’s expertise.
These are delivered with specialists such as: physiotherapists, mental health counsellors, ergonomic experts, hygienists, and specialist occupational doctors.
What Are the Benefits of Using Occupational Health Services?
There are numerous benefits to using OH services to help maintain your employees’ health and safety.
It has been demonstrated on numerous occasions that companies with the best performing stock prices have excellent staff well-being programs.
This is because these services help to reduce sickness absence, prevent and remove health risks within the workplace, and promote wellbeing services that improve employee performance.
But perhaps the chief benefit of using OH services is that they can help to spot health problems early through regular health screening.
Whether that’s a physiotherapist alerting you to the physical sickness symptoms of an employee who is exhibiting the onset of a musculoskeletal disorder, or a mental health counsellor reporting that a staff member is having stress management difficulties.
By spotting issues early, you, as the employer, can take the necessary action to ensure employees can stay healthy and in work for longer, increasing productivity and reducing levels of both presenteeism and absenteeism.
How Is Occupational Health Provided?
Often, these types of services are provided within a workplace as part of an employee benefits package. However, many small, medium, and in some cases, large companies do not have the resources to employ a full team of occupational staff.
In these cases, they use outside providers such as DocHQ to help deliver crucial OH services that ensure the health and safety of their employees.
Not only can we provide employee health assessments, screening and monitoring, but we can also provide services such as pre employment checks, fitness to work and other key safety services.
We have a range of different plans to suit your business’ budget, so why not take a look to see which is the best fit for your company.
Alternatively, speak with us if you would like an all-in-one OH package that covers all of your specific needs.
DocHQ Ltd is a Health Tech company improving choices. We help you connect efficiently to health support and advice whether you are at home, work or travelling. See our website for our services or call us on 0330 088 0645.
