May Shining Star: INEOS Compounds

INEOS Compounds in Newton Aycliffe are a part of the INEOS Group. The INEOS Group is a global manufacturer of petrochemicals, speciality chemicals and oil products. INEOS Compounds signed up for the award in February, and have made an exciting start!

Why did you decide to sign up to the BHAWA?

Some of us have experience of the BHAWA from previous workplaces and understand the impact that the programme can have on driving health and wellbeing initiatives within the workplace. We want to place a focus this year on promoting a healthy workplace culture and supporting the individual health and wellbeing of employees by ensuring they have access to resources and support.

The Health Needs Assessment is a great tool to help us understand the needs and wants of the workforce so that we can tailor our campaigns to address the health issues that are important to our employees. 

It is not only an opportunity to drive new health and wellbeing campaigns, but also to showcase and promote the health and wellbeing initiatives and resources that we already have available to our employees.

How do you find that the award benefits the organisation, and its employees?

It acts as a good framework for ensuring that we address the health and wellbeing needs of our employees and to build on our health and wellbeing strategy. The award provides better access and signposting to training, health information and resources, as well as access to information on national and regional campaigns.

The award provides the opportunity to network with other employers who are members of the BHAWA and share good practice, as well as the opportunity to measure our progress as we move through the award.

What kind of activities have you organised in line with the award so far?

We have initiated a health and wellbeing SharePoint page where employees can access information and resources from various campaigns. We introduced a Health and Wellbeing Policy too.

Other campaigns include:

• Stop Smoking Campaign with the p romotion of National No Smoking Day on 13th March 2024. A Smoking Cessation Clinic was offered to all employees via our onsite occupational health team. Stop smoking information was provided as well as a n ewsletter created by our occupational health provider, which focusses on benefits of quitting smoking.

• Financial Wellbeing campaign on 23rd February – promotion of free will writing service for all INEOS Compounds employees through the Financial Guys. As well as this, we shared the ‘Preparing for Retirement Webinar’ with Scottish Widows and grocery shopping discount available to employees through our benefits platform, INEOS Connect.

• Menopause Awareness Session with County Durham Wellbeing For Life service (WBFL).

• Mental Health Awareness Campaign - mental health resources were shared internally, signposting to various resources, helplines and support groups. WBFL also provided 4 sessions of Resilience Training to 43 employees, and we will be scheduling further sessions for employees.

• MidLife MOT Programme - MidLife MOT Programme communication sent to employees. The programme is offered to all employees aged between 45-55 and provides financial guidance, including pensions, health and wellbeing advice and a health MOT. Awareness sessions will take place with PeoplePlus so they can explain to employees what the MOT programme covers and how to register.

• Physical Health Campaign - 11 of our employees took part in a global INEOS challenge to complete 1km for each lap that is part of the Formula 1 2024 World Championship race calendar. We completed 1490.15km (walking/running) in total. To add to this, 3 of our employees participated in the global INEOS Step Up challenge and managed to cover 1904km (walking/running) over 21 days.

• Weight Management and Healthy Eating Campaign - We provide m onthly delivery of fruit for employees – we had our first delivery of fruit on 8th April which was distributed to various departments and made available to employees for free.