GRAHAM has won the inaugural Excellence in Health and Wellbeing Award at the recent Investors in People Awards, held in London.
The contractor was named the winner in recognition of its “groundbreaking” employee health and wellbeing initiative, CONNECT PLUS.
The initiative is said to have already produced “fantastic” results for Graham, with the company reporting a 20% increase in staff engagement, whilst turnover is 33% lower than the industry average. Graham has also reported a 100% decrease in absenteeism, which is now over 400% lower than the UK average.
Investors in People (IIP) is the international standard for people management and is said to enable organisations to benchmark against the best in the business on an international scale.
Graham, which has a Scottish headquarters in Glasgow and offices in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dumfries, was last year awarded IIP Platinum accreditation, the highest accolade that can be achieved against the Investors in People standard, and is currently held by only 3% of IIP accredited organisations. Graham also achieved the IIP Wellbeing standard and is said to be the first company to achieve both accolades at the same time.
Michael Smyth, HR director at Graham said, “This is an outstanding achievement and it is a reflection on our ongoing commitment to making Graham a great place to work where individuals can attain their personal career goals.
”Good wellbeing is good business and our commitment to driving excellence in people management led to the development of Graham’s employee health and wellbeing initiative, CONNECT PLUS – a visionary approach to whole person development.”
He continued, “CONNECT PLUS focuses on individualised plans that develop employees to have the right skills, behaviours and physical and mental wellbeing which will support them to flourish in all aspects of their lives, whilst delivering real results for the business in terms of engagement, retention and productivity.”
He added, “For a construction company to be leading the way for all industries is truly groundbreaking. As a measure of Graham’s belief in its groundbreaking impact, the company has invested over £1 million throughout 2019/20 to roll out the CONNECT PLUS programme to all of its 2,200+ employees across the UK and Ireland.”
Dame Carol Black, who sat on the judging panel, said, “Graham has demonstrated a strong comprehensive commitment to the health and wellbeing and engagement of its workforce. It is evident that this organisation has taken on the challenges of employee health and wellbeing, drawing in leadership and engagement from a senior level through to individuals, answering them with a comprehensive programme of policies and actions designed to promote, safeguard and improve health and wellbeing.
“It has formulated a ‘Wellness High Achievement Model’ focused on manager understanding, supporting an employee to develop resilience, enhancing skills and seeking to influencing the way they do the job; and supporting individuals to be physically and mentally fit.”
Paul Devoy, head of IIP added, “This year’s Investors in People Awards were an inspirational celebration of best practice across our international community. It was fantastic to see so many worthy organisations nominated for outperformance in their approach to people management.”
