Health and wellbeing
Your employees may be affected by health and wellbeing issues, and you have certain responsibilities to them, as an employer.
There is also a basic business case that attention to health and wellbeing boosts productivity and engagement.
Employee wellbeing
- Employees who work from home (IoD factsheet)
- Healthy Workplace, Healthy Workforce – Guidance for Managers (pdf) (Chartered Management Institute) The CMI seeks to raise awareness of health and well-being issues in the workplace, the effects on organisations, strategies for dealing with ill heath and suggests how a policy may be implemented.
- Well-being at work (CIPD)
- Health, Work and Wellbeing (pdf) (ACAS)
- Health and wellbeing (pdf) (The Work Foundation) A series of infographics on the relationship between health and work.
Health and Safety
Stress at work
- Stress Management (IoD factsheet)
Are your employees fit for work?
- Sickness issues and SSP (IoD factsheet)
- Managing attendence and employee turnover (ACAS)
- Health and the workplace (ACAS)
- Absence management annual survey (CIPD)
- Statutory Sick Pay (SSP): employer guide (GOV.UK)
- Fit for work (GOV.UK) – Free occupational health assessments for employees returning to work + access to online and telephone-based work-related health advice.
Employee health
- Managing upper limb disorders in the workplace (pdf) (HSE): This booklet is designed to help employers and managers in small businesses to understand Upper Limb Disorders (ULDs), which are often called ‘RSI’ (repetitive strain injury).
- Making it Work (pdf) (Macmillan Cancer Support) – How supporting people to work after cancer is good for business, good for the economy, good for people with cancer.
- Noise at work (HSE): Noise Regulations require each employer to manage the risk to their employees and, where possible, freelancers, and to control, reduce and monitor exposure to noise. This guidance from the HSE offers advice and guidance on protecting your employees.
- Working with display screen equipment (DSE) – A brief guide (pdf) (HSE) – This leaflet is a guide for people who work with visual display units (VDUs), and their employers.
- Manual handling and labelling loads FAQs (HSE): Resources on lifting, manual handling and correctly labelling loads.
Employee health
- Managing upper limb disorders in the workplace (pdf) (HSE): This booklet is designed to help employers and managers in small businesses to understand Upper Limb Disorders (ULDs), which are often called ‘RSI’ (repetitive strain injury).
- Making it Work (pdf) (Macmillan Cancer Support) – How supporting people to work after cancer is good for business, good for the economy, good for people with cancer.
- Noise at work (HSE): Noise Regulations require each employer to manage the risk to their employees and, where possible, freelancers, and to control, reduce and monitor exposure to noise. This guidance from the HSE offers advice and guidance on protecting your employees.
- Working with display screen equipment (DSE) – A brief guide (pdf) (HSE) – This leaflet is a guide for people who work with visual display units (VDUs), and their employers.
- Manual handling and labelling loads FAQs (HSE): Resources on lifting, manual handling and correctly labelling loads.
Mental health in the workplace
- Stress in the workplace (CIPD) – Guidance on the social, economic and legal implications of mental ill health within the workplace, guidelines and recommendations for the implementation of a mental health policy and guidance on how employers may seek medical advice about an employee’s capability.
- Positively Dealing with Mental Ill Health in the Workplace (Shaw Trust): Website providing information and solutions to help employers support staff who are dealing with mental health issues.
- Mental Health in the Workplace (Mental Health Foundation): Guide to the effects of stress at work and those factors that can contribute to stress. It also addresses the ways in which employers can help to create a psychologically healthy work environment.
The IoD’s work on promoting good Mental Health
The IoD is committed to raising awareness of mental health issues in the workplace.
We have created a mental health hub to help business leaders promote and nurture good mental health in the workplace – and to help them spot the signs of mental health problems and know how to help. Our hub is packed full of helpful advice, best practice and resources as well as shared experiences from business leaders as to how they look after their own mental health and that of their employees.
Why do you need an Occupational Health Physician?
- An employer’s guide to engaging an occupational health physician (pdf) (Faculty of Occupational Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians) – Occupational physicians are able to help employers to significantly reduce the risks around employee health, helping you to optimise productivity whilst reducing the costs related to health.
Further information resources
- European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction: Best Practice Portal – Best practice guidance on drug prevention, treatment, harm reduction and social reintegration.
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