In today’s competitive and challenging business environment, investing in employee health and wellbeing is a strategic necessity, however there is substantial evidence that women’s workplace health is often overlooked. Research highlights that the UK is losing 150 million working days each year (ONS) due to poor women’s health and a lack of suitable support.
There is evidence that SME and third sector employers are particularly impacted by workdays lost as they do not have the same operating scale or resources to deal with this loss of business capacity, unlike large business or public sector bodies. Women constitute nearly half of the workforce, occupying significant roles across all sectors of business and there are over 5.51million SME businesses employing between 0 and 49 employees in the UK.
The issue of women’s workplace health has both social and economic consequences impacting women’s physical, mental and economic wellbeing along with business output, productivity and wider economic growth. Neglecting women’s health costs the UK economy £20.2bn annually. The Women’s Health Strategy (2022) provides a policy context and opportunity to guide departmental and wider organisational action to invest in finding, testing and scaling up solutions to equip businesses to support women’s workplace wellness more effectively.
The co-production of the Women’s Workplace Wellness Platform is a response to the challenges faced by SMEs and Third Sector organisations and their employees. Its focus is to equip employers by increasing knowledge, improving attitude and practice in relation to women’s workplace health at scale in England. The impact of which will be to improve the experience of women in a workplace context, prevent workplace attrition of women into economic inactivity, enhance productivity and reduce lost working days and attendance at Primary and Mental Health Care Services.
The Platform comprises two main elements, designed to be accessible at the time and order that suits the small business and its employees:
- Embedding women’s workplace wellness into SME culture and operations through the Advocacy Development Programme, accredited through an Open Awards Badge of Excellence. For employees in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to champion women’s health at work.
- Bundles of Resources including The Small Business Conversation Podcast Series; Legal and Compliance Toolkits; access to a curated and focussed knowledge bank.
