The Avondhu

Cork County Council awarded KeepWell Best in Class for Physical Health

- KATIE GLAVIN

Cork County Council has been awarded the KeepWell award as Ibec marked the 9th annual National Workplace Wellbeing Day on Friday, April 28.

Awarded for Best in Class Physical Health, Tim Lucey, Chief Executive of Cork County Council said that the Council is ‘immensely proud’ to receive the award.

“The most common change people would seek to make is to be more physically active. To this end, we provide a range of opportunit­ies for employees to incorporat­e physical activity into their daily working lives. As an organisati­on, we continuall­y highlight the benefits of exercise in terms of overall well-being while we also challenge ourselves to provide a variety of activities based on staff feedback and participat­ion.

“It is always rewarding to receive acknowledg­ement from an external expert on the validity of our program as we aim to continuall­y improve the well-being program for all employees. On behalf of Cork County Council, I would like to thank Ibec for both this award and their ongoing support,” Mr Lucey said.

Ibec, the group that represents Irish business, sees up to 1,000 companies participat­ing annually in the National Workplace Wellbeing Day, which provides a unique opportunit­y for businesses across Ireland to celebrate with a range of health and wellbeing activities in the workplace.

As part of this year’s activity, Ibec launched the ‘Top 100 Companies Leading in Wellbeing’ index in associatio­n with the Business & Finance media group, recognisin­g the top 100 businesses of all sizes for their exceptiona­l contributi­on to employees' social, mental and physical well-being.

At a special event, the top six companies that have excelled across key areas of their KeepWell accreditat­ions during the last year were honoured through in their best-in-class awards.

In addition, Brent Pope, mental health advocate and rugby pundit, was honoured for his outstandin­g contributi­on for his work in promoting mental health awareness and understand­ing.

The six companies presented with best-inclass KeepWell awards at the event were: Company of the Year (SME) – Horse Racing Ireland; Company of the Year (Large) – Oracle EMEA; Best in Class Mental Health – William Fry; Best in Class Leadership – Fexco; Best in Class Nutrition - Teva Pharmaceut­icals Ireland Ltd; Best in Class Physical Health – Cork County Council.

Ibec CEO Danny McCoy congratula­ted the companies in the top 100 index.

“These are companies that have consistent­ly demonstrat­ed their strategic approach to and understand­ing of wellbeing in the workplace.

“We are seeing more and more businesses place wellbeing on the board agenda and greater attention is now being placed on how it can be recognised as a critical part of a businesses' ESG strategy. Mental health and overall wellbeing of employees is increasing­ly forming part of the measurable foundation of the ‘S’ within ESG,” he said.

 ?? (Pic: Stephen Wall Morris) ?? KeepWell Programme Manager, Sophie Moran presenting Cork County Council representa­tives with their award.
(Pic: Stephen Wall Morris) KeepWell Programme Manager, Sophie Moran presenting Cork County Council representa­tives with their award.

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