New Acorn Occupational Health Nurse
New Occupational Health Nurse – Natalie Bond
June saw the arrival of Acorn’s latest recruit, Natalie Bond. Natalie joins Acorn as a highly qualified occupational health nurse with experience of both public and private sector clients and is a very valuable addition to Acorn’s team and a great asset to the company.
Award Winners
2011 Customer Care and Service Award for Acorn Occupational Health
Amongst strong opposition from seventeen other entries and a shortlist of seven Acorn Occupational Health Ltd recently picked up the 2011 Customer Care Award from the East Cheshire Chamber of Commerce.
Front left to right: Andrew Burrows, Hayley Rhodes, Isabel Burrows, Denise Short and Peter Bowers, Sales Director of Berisfords Ribbons Ltd.
Acorn Occupational Health are dedicated to providing the best service to our clients and this award is acknowledgement from the business community that we have proved repeatedly that we are prepared to go that extra mile for our customers.
Thank-you to all our loyal customers, your contribution is appreciated each and every day.
Charity Event
Isabel and Andy cycled approximately 268 miles in Scotland for the East Cheshire Hospice and raised £1700. This included cycling over the highest road in Great Britian – Bealack-Na-Ba.
Please view the charity article.
2009 Customer Care and Service Award for Acorn Occupational Health
2009 Customer Care and Service Award for Acorn Occupational Health
Amongst strong opposition Acorn Occupational Health Ltd recently picked up the 2009 Customer Care and Service Award from the Borough of Congleton Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise.
This award represents acknowledgement by the business community of Acorn’s dedication to providing a high quality, personalised service to our clients.
We realise that we could not do this alone and would like to thank all our clients for their support.
Practical Methods of Dealing with Pressures and Stress at Work
The are a number of practical tools which can be used to manage and reduce pressures and stress attributed to work.
Our fully qualified theapist can provide the following:
Yoga
Yoga has the many benefits for well-being which incude:
- Easily grasped elements
- Can be practically introduced to arm employees with skill for self help
- is a very relevant, multi-faceted training which has aspects to support the body and mind
The Bowen Technique is an effective hands on therapy which is:
- Applicable to any working environment
- Beneficial to many health concerns
- Appropriate for all age groups
- Is non invasive as the removal of cotheing is not required
Reiki
Reiki is a system of healing and self-development and has the beneift of:
- Being non invasive
- Facilitates stress-reduction and relaxation
- Supports effective immune-system functioning
- Encourages the body’s self-healing mechanisms
- Replenishes natural vitality
So how does an employer assess whether there is a need to manage and reduce pressures and stress attributed to work?
- The HSE Management Standard recommend that employers assess and manage work related stress.
There are certain signs to look out for. Are you seeing?
- Distracted or distressed colleagues
- Underperformance
- Normally calm people over-reacting
- Less creativity in problem solving
- An increase in absenteeism
- Relationships under strain
- Low morale and motivation
If the answer is Yes. These are common signs that people are not coping and this may due to stress. The employert has a duty of care to manage these signs and positive help is available.
Working creatively together, we can design and provide positive intervention to support you and your company in nurturing your most vital asset – people. There is great flexibility in the delivery options, depending company size, budget and on how the company see this caring approach fitting into their management style:
- A taster day works well. It can be arranged for 8 – 40 people, including group and one-to-one sessions selected from an agreed menu of techniques and therapies.
- A programme may be implemented over a period of time. this can be tailored to suit the company and will have a high profile which is branded to demonstrate that the the company is caring and giving something back to it’s employees. regular group training is well suited for this. Altenatively, a programme may be implemented quietly providing pastoral care behind the scenes to individuals who have been recognised as struggling in some way, or to those returning to work after illness, pregnancy, accident or trauma.
A combined approach could be adopted. The focus can be geared towards the physical demands of the work, or a generic all-round anti-stress, well-being and health promotion. Follow up is important and feeds naturally into a cycle of reviewing, planning and implementing which in turn maximises the benefits for all.
Benefits include the following:
- Positive interaction with colleagues
- Reduced sickness absence
- Stress related health issues diminish
- Improved motivation, energy, stamina and morale
- Empowerment employees to take proactive steps to self help rather than being reactive
- Employees becoming self sufficient by using techniques introduced for self help
- Unprompted positive feedback to Human Resourses
For further information, to arrange a site visit or for a free consultation please call 01260 277703
First Aid Consumables
Acorn Occupational Health Ltd has recently secured an attractive deal with a wholesale importer of First Aid supplies. This enables us to pass massive cost savings on to our customers. We now offer the following advantages when purchasing occupational health and first aid supplies:
- Very competitive prices
- Top quality products
- No minimum order value
- Free delivery for orders over £100 (£9.99 under £100)
- 24/48 hour delivery on all items
- Free gift with every order
Day one telephone sickness/absence assessment
Acorn Occupational Health is very pleased to announce that we have launched a new service for business. We have a day one telephone sickness or absence assessment service. Your absent member of staff would contact us on the first day of absence and we will walk them through a thorough assessment of their symptoms. This will provide you with an expectation of their likely date of return to work, any work restrictions recommended and the likelihood of the absence being covered under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 2005.
The benefit to the employee is that they get health care advice and support for their return to work. The benefit to the business is that you get your staff back to work quicker, meet employment legislation and manage sickness/absence effectively.
Work for one of the best Occupational Health Service Providers in the UK
We are always looking to recruit Occupational Health Advisors or Registered General Nurses with Occupational Health experience on a full or part-time basis. If you are interested please forward your CV to us or just give us a call.
Also if you are an Occupational Health Physician please contact us with a copy of your CV as we have clients throughout the UK and local OHPs are required.
Flu Vaccines at work
Acorn is now taking orders for Flu Vaccines. The benefits of vaccinating healthy working adults include reduced sickness absence and a corresponding increase in productivity. Vaccination of healthy working adults is an intervention with favourable cost-effectiveness.
If the incidence of influenza in the community is 6 percent, the expected probability of an employee being absent from work is reduced from 5.7 percent to 1.8 percent (with 100 percent employee vaccination), with a reduction in absenteeism due to an influenza outbreak of 220 days per 1,000 employees.
Please call 0870 165 0496 to order your flu vaccines.
New limit on respirable Crystalline Silica in the workplace
This applies to employers in the foundry, ceramics, brick manufacture, heavy clay, quarry, industrial minerals, construction and stonemasonry industries, and any other producer or user of silica flour whose employees could be exposed to respirable crystalline silica dust.
From 1 October 2006, a revised workplace exposure limit (WEL) for respirable crystalline silica (RCS) will reduce the existing limit.
The new WEL value for RCS will be 0.1 milligrams of RCS per cubic metre of air averaged over an eight-hour period (expressed as 0.1 mg.m-3).
If the new limit is exceeded the HSE recommend the following:
• Respiratory questionnaire
• Spirometry
• Chest X-ray every 5 years for 20 years of working life & then every 3 years.
• Observe sickness trends of chest illnesses over 12 month periods.