On Monday 15 February the Sussex Active & Healthy Workplace Initiative launched the brand new small grants scheme to help local businesses improve the health and wellbeing of their workforce.

The Initiative launched the scheme to support employers to make a positive change by increasing the opportunities available to employees throughout Sussex and working towards improving the health of the local workforce.

The business benefits of having a healthy workforce are well documented. A healthy workforce can lead to a more productive workforce, reduced sickness absence levels as well as boosting staff morale. Research shows that workers raise their productivity by up to 15% when they start to take regular exercise, and when they do, on average they will take 27% fewer sick days.

In 2008, The European Network for Workplace Health Promotion stated that for every 80p spent on health promotion and intervention programmes, £4 can be saved due to reduced absenteeism, temporary staff and improved motivation.

The Active & Healthy Workplace Initiative is working in partnership with West Sussex – Ahead of the Game, (with support from Healthy Mid Sussex and Crawley Borough Council) to provide the opportunity for Sussex businesses to bid for up to £500 to cover eligible project costs. (Subject to available funding)

These businesses will also be supported through the Active & Healthy Workplace programme giving them access to many additional benefits.

Over 30 companies and organisations from across Sussex are already involved with the Active & Healthy Workplace Initiative in a number of different ways, so make sure you take advantage of this fantastic FREE service and find out what works for your organisation.

Application forms and guidance notes will be available on our website: www.sussexsport.org <http://www.sussexsport.org> from Monday 15 February 2010. The deadline to return the form is Friday 30 April. For more information please contact Donna Imrie on dimrie@brighton.ac.uk or 01273 644 103

Tags: brighton, healthy workstations, hove, new business grant, Sussex

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 10:55 am and is filed under Ergonomics, Health & Safety, Sussex. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.