Hughes Insurance is the first company in Northern Ireland to officially achieve the Healthy Place to Work certification.

R&D tax credit specialists, Amplifi Solutions based in Ballyclare and the Northern Ireland branch of global IT consulting and managed services company, Version 1, also recently become certified as Healthy Places to Work.

Healthy Place to Work was launched at the beginning of the year as the global standard for workplace health certification by John Ryan, providing a strategic approach to organisational health and well-being that is evidence-based and data-driven. To be certified, an organisation needs to engage its employees in the completion of a robust survey covering four pillars – purpose, mental resilience, connection and physical health – to gather insight into their experience of work. The organisation then receives actionable insight from the results and a development plan providing benchmarks on practice, detailed feedback on identified strengths and weaknesses and paths to improvement. An organisation becomes certified when the actionable insights can be seen to have been met.

John Ryan, CEO and founder of Healthy Place to Work, said: “I am delighted that the first organisations in Northern Ireland have gone through our process and have officially become Healthy Places to Work. The last year has put the spotlight on the need for a healthy workforce, both physically and mentally, and in order for business leaders to understand the health of their companies, a strategic approach needs to be applied. Healthy Place to Work provides this approach and enables organisations to move the dial on employee health and improve their performance, helping the economy recover from the impacts of the past year.”

Sarah Balmforth, Head of Human Resources, Hughes Insurance, said:
“I am extremely proud that Hughes Insurance is the first organisation in Northern Ireland to become a Healthy Place to Work. The health of our employees is our number one priority and the amount of data we received from the process was insightful and detailed, allowing us to clearly measure the impact of any staff-focused initiatives.

“We are currently in the process of running focus groups with employees to delve deeper into the areas that we identified as development opportunities. We will then use this to update our health and wellbeing strategy. The advice and guidance we have received has been second to none and I am confident that the wellbeing of our employees will increase as a result of going through this process.”

Managing Partners at Amplifi Solutions, Chris Maylin and Jeff Drennan, said:
“We are thrilled that Amplifi Solutions is one of the first companies in Northern Ireland to become a Healthy Place to Work. The last year has been a challenging one and it feels great to be able to take a strategic approach to improving the overall health and wellbeing of our employees. The holistic insight that is provided during the process is truly transformational and I am looking forward to seeing the benefits, for both our employees and the company, of being a Healthy Place to Work.”

Lorna McAdoo, Director of Operations and Business Development NI, Version 1, said: “Becoming a Healthy Place to Work in Northern Ireland was a significant milestone for our company. Being spread across five countries presents its own set of challenges and it has been absolutely critical to ensure our employees are happy and healthy. We have been able to benchmark our progress through the data provided during the process and are now updating and creating initiatives and strategies across our operations to ensure our workforce is the healthiest it can be.”