A dedicated occupational health and wellbeing adviser has been appointed to the Gough Group as the company moves to improve support for its staff.
Kirk Blumers joined the group almost a year ago as recognition grew that the company needed a more future-proofed approach to its workers’ health and wellbeing.
Since his appointment Blumers has assessed what the company offers, working with leaders and staff to understand and put in place improvements and refinements to meet future wellbeing and occupational health requirements.
He quickly realised a “cookie cutter” approach wouldn’t work for a company as complex as the Gough Group which is made up of nine separate businesses.
“So there has been a need for Kirk to design and develop a framework supporting agile health and wellbeing programmes for all of our staff, whatever their work circumstances,” group recruitment manager Jane Hunter says.
The group has been a family-owned business for more than 80 years and family values are at its heart, she says.
“Like any family we are always moving to be better at supporting each other and this is one of the exciting and rewarding parts of working within the group.”
The business already has good support programmes in place – flexible working hours, annual health monitoring and a Health W.O.F. (a warrant of fitness for people) are just some of the examples of the more traditional forms of programmes operating well.
“Wellbeing is dovetailed into all our business development plans so the culture is driven from the ground up and the benefits will become apparent in the near future,” Hunter says.
As well as those developments, a comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) supports the workers through tough times, whether a cause is related to work or their home life.
“Gough Group management take a personal interest in looking after their workers and provide support through these tough times, which enhances the family as a whole,” she says.
The group is a tertiary level ACC accredited employer, which means injured workers receive faster access to health and injury management. Gough Group leaders remain in support of the injured worker throughout their journey to recovery.
