National workplace wellbeing company Champion Health welcomed a record nine new clients during September, opening up its evidence-based platform and personalised support to an additional 4,000 employees across the UK.
The business, which is headquartered in Sheffield, provides innovative health and wellbeing solutions for the workplace, developed by world-leading academics, GPs and technology professionals.
The nine new Champion Health clients are England Athletics, TDM Recruitment, Birkdale School, Cellhire, First Intuition, Mercia Learning Trust, Sheffield College, West Sussex Fire and Rescue and Southwest Water. Collectively, these nine organisations employ around 4,000 people, all of whom will now access Champion Health resources and programmes for mental health and wellbeing support.
Recognition of the company’s positive impact has also led to Champion Health today being ranked 70th in the prestigious national Start Up 100 list. The list ranks the 100 most disruptive and innovative UK small businesses. It follows on quickly from CEO Harry Bliss being named Young Leader at the Northern Leadership Awards last week.
Champion Health has a team of over 50 professionals and academics to help improve health and wellbeing outcomes across the UK. The latest clients join a roster of more than 75 including Rabobank, NHS Derbyshire and Twinkl.
Chris Jones, CEO of England Athletics, said that the Champion Health platform was already helping team members to access high quality, tailored advice for aspects of their lives such as sleep, physical health and mental health; enabling them to be “happy, healthy people”.
Jones said: “We need to create an environment at England Athletics where people feel empowered, trusted, supported and given the bandwidth and flexibility to produce their best.
“What works for one individual will not necessarily work for all. I think that the adaptability and flexibility of the Champion Health system – based on that unique personal health check for that individual – is important.”
Harry Bliss, CEO and co-founder at Champion Health, said that September was a record month since the business was formed in 2018. He said: “It’s incredible to welcome so many new clients all at once. I am so pleased to see these fantastic businesses are prioritising and investing in workplace wellbeing so that their teams can really thrive. Getting this right helps staff to feel empowered, motivated and engaged at work. More importantly, it also gives them the opportunity to talk and raise worries should they feel they need support with their mental health or wellbeing.
“We’re definitely seeing a real increase in businesses and organisations taking the mental health and wellbeing of their staff far more seriously than ever before. This could be partly because of the Coronavirus lockdowns but also because it’s becoming even more recognised that there are so many positive benefits to looking after staff both in and out the workplace. It’s a great stride in the right direction for UK business but it is definitely the tip of the iceberg – so many more businesses still need to recognise that workplace wellbeing needs to be embedded throughout the culture of the organisation.”
Mercia Learning Trust is one of the first multi academy trusts in the country to work in partnership with Champion Health. Chris French, CEO of Mercia Learning Trust, said: “At Mercia Learning Trust, we recognise the direct link between positive staff mental health and wellbeing, and our ability to sustain successful and improving schools. The trust actively promotes wellbeing for everyone in our schools and we want to raise the importance of this further.
“We are also keen to offer trust staff additional support and benefits and ensure working for the trust is a great place to build a career. Our partnership with Champion Health demonstrates this commitment, and we are really optimistic about the positive impact this will make, particularly when it comes to really empowering our valued staff teams.”
Bliss added it was perhaps even more crucial at a time that UK businesses are still adapting to supporting people with working at home as well as in the office post-lockdown. He added: “With workloads often being very high and the digital world we live in placing expectations of a 24/7 response, staff can often feel very isolated and overworked if they don’t have the right tools at their disposal. We’re here to ensure that they can have access to solid advice which helps them to navigate the complexities of the changing working environments and demands that we’re all still getting used to.”
