Young’s – and its sister company in Grimsby, The Seafood Company – have landed a first – an award for looking after employees’ health!

Young’s and The Seafood Company’s four factories in Grimsby are the first businesses in North East Lincolnshire to be recognised by the Healthy Workplace Award Scheme. This was for their work to promote healthy eating and encouraging staff to quit smoking. The award scheme is a key component of the Health in the Workplace Programme, run through the NHS Public Health Directorate.

Healthy Workplace Award Programme coordinator Danny O’Toole said: “We are delighted to have been working with Young’s over the last year or so and it has really helped us to further develop the award scheme.

“A huge amount of effort has been shown by the team who chose to focus on the two key health areas of healthier eating and tobacco smoke and smoking cessation for their bronze award.”

The scheme encourages staff from all levels to become involved in initiatives such as the Government’s 5 A Day scheme and no smoking days as well as offering support around improving health.

Operations director for Young’s, Steve Lidgett, said, “We have done a lot of work in recent years to improve the health and wellbeing of our workforce – it’s just good sense for our people and our business. Plus of course fish is also one of the healthiest foods and endorsed by the Government’s recommendation to eat two portions a week – so as a fish specialist business healthy eating is naturally something we are very much aware of!”

Danny O’Toole says, “Employers are beginning to understand the business sense of creating healthier workplaces. It’s not an easy task, but for those that are committed to proactively addressing workplace health issues the benefits for employees and the business are very real.”

Notes for editors
The Health in the Workplace programme is designed to help improve the health and wellbeing of people working in North East Lincolnshire, with a particular focus on industry employers. The scheme has been advertised to more than 2,500 employers in North East Lincolnshire and is gathering momentum. For more information about the Health in the Workplace Programme, please contact Danny O’Toole at Danny.O'Toole@nelctp.nhs.uk.