OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH - Why Choose us?
When we meet new customers the biggest complaints we hear about from HR professionals are related to poor quality occupational health referral reports, from our Safety colleagues are lack of confidence in the quality of health surveillance and associated education and advice provided, and from HR/safety/managers a lack of pragmatic and easily implementable advice to confidently support those with ill-health and injury stay in work, return to work or to manage capability.
Creative
HHW prides itself on providing tailored solutions to solve your challenges! Our values put our customers first. Whether your business needs and priorities are big or small we can provide timely, cost-effective OH provision to support these. We simply do not do 'off the shelf' and our HR partners love our 'done for you' services.
BESPOKE
DESIGN
Our mission is to provide you with an in-house service with an outsourced arrangement that can flex to meet your needs with the competent person for the task.
Firstly we ensure you are fully aware of what you actually need to do to manage OH risks (this may differ from what you want!)
Our aim is for you to have a shorter to-do list, a clear plan, to feel in control and have confidence to ask for advice.
E-Development & Sustainability
OH administration should not be a burden to you nor us! Long gone are piles of paper. In HarmonyHW HQ we love O365 automation and workflows!
We will design bespoke, secure e-questionnaires with you, provide a staff self-booking system and email reminders, leaving you to get on with your day job and reduce wasted appointments! We also manage recall.
We work with you and gain sign-off to ensure your e-questionnaires reflect your actual hazards and risks. All the above plus remote working, LED lightbulbs, air-water heat pump, recycling and conscious purchasing aim to reduce waste & our impact!
SUPPORT &
EDUCATION
We may be contractors but we want to get to know your business, key people and the work (all aspects - the good, bad, ugly and beautiful!) In our interactions we love educating including how employers can reduce business risk and support their colleagues health and personal development plus how workers can improve self-care.
Who we are
Our mission and purpose is to challenge the Occupational Health status quo to be more truly holistic through
blending personal and workplace (occupational) health and wellbeing with learning.
We do this with over 30 years of OH experience and over 50 years of supporting learning and development,
therefore we are confident we can support your needs!
Catherine Tye
Specialist Practitioner in Occupational Health Nursing, Safety & Wellbeing Advisor, Wilderness Guide
Pippa Stanford
Specialist Practitioner in Occupational Health Nursing, Wellbeing Advisor &
Fitness Trainer
Alison Thomson
Health & Safety Advisor
specialising in posture and workstation ergonomics
"Catherine’s professionalism, knowledge, experience but probably most of all, her emotional intelligence when engaging with others is exceptional."
Lee Markham, EHS Manager, EMEA, Harsco Rail Ltd
What we do (dIFFERENTLY!)
Our mission and purpose is to provide an educational approach in all that we do, changing perspectives one employer and worker at a time ........
Attendance management
We assess, advise and educate workers AND their employers to support workers who are ill or injured to stay at work or return to work when able. The majority of our consultations are completed with a highly experienced Specialist Practitioner in Occupational Health Nursing remotely. Rarely, we may require the input of an Occupational Health Physician usually in higher risk industries or situations. We have a special interest in supporting the unique needs of veterans, a hidden population in the workplace.
health surveillance / screening & Toolbox talks
Health surveillance is a checking mechansim to ensure your other workplace controls are working and not contributing to ill-health or injury. This includes e-form/paper based review as well as for example skin checks, hearing and breathing tests, assessment of musculoskeletal health, vision screening, blood pressure for example. Although reactive, we always take the opportunity to encourage and educate such as through checking the correct use of personal protective equipment.
on-employment health assessments
HEALTH COACHING - PHYSICAL WELLBEING
You may think to only involve OH when a worker is on the way to recovery and ready to return but we can often give useful advice and reassurance early promoting more self-care, encouragment and compliance with rehabilitation. What you may not know is that OH is part of public health and that is not just about pandemic advice for managers, workers and workplace! The Public health agenda including tackling the obesity crisis, risks of heart disease, diabetes and stroke as well as cancer. Goal setting, forming positive habits and small change can stack up to produce lasting effects.
HEALTH COACHING -
MENTAL WELLBEING
The majority of workers will experience reduced mental wellbeing during their lives. Life is challenging for many in this post-pandemic phase but medical labels that focus on stress, depression and anxiety may not align with your worker's current reality and create dependency on medication rather than dealing with the cause. We want to change the dialogue from medical labels to normalising emotional wellbeing! The majority of workers we talk to benefit from education around unmourned loss and hurt, unforgiven guilt and shame and/or fear of helplessness and loss of control or lack of life purpose - just these words make a difference by creating curiosity which starts the journey of growth and healing.
life transitions
Aging is an inescapable part of life and the workforce is getting older. It is normal to feel pressured juggling the demands of work and caring for family members and looking after ourselves! Education covering the needs of women in the workplace including during menstruation and menopause can provide reassurance, promoting confidence and improvements in work performance.
We weave the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of wellbeing on a one to one or group basis helping to prevent absence and under performance in the future.
Stress & work-related pressures
We promote and support the use of Health & Safety Executive and other tools to support you to manage workers perceived occupational pressure points. We can also support you to identify how managers cause stress in their staff (and vice versa!)
Our OH advisors have a diverse range of backgrounds offering traditional insights to this modern dis-ease often labelled as stress, exhaustion or anxiety. Together we can learn to use a kinder, less judgemental dialogue to support healing, growth and productivity!
safety critical work
With a history of working in higher risk environments such as steel making, foundry, metal working, construction, rail and aviation engineering, outdoor environments including open-water, very cold weather and fire and rescue we can ensure that questionnaires and assessments reflect the risks to your business and workers. Where possible we use experienced OH practitioners who are able to interpret, problem-solve and advise your workers in a timely manner. When OH technicians complete work they are supervised and their results reviewed by a competent person who has insight into your business processes.
WORKSTATION COMFORT
Whether your workstation is a desk, a bench, a conveyor, a loco, an aeroplane or a humble car for example, we need to think about your worker's posture! Your computer workstation set-up may tick the boxes and have plenty of adjustability but if you personally are not comfortable and productive then it defeats the purpose! Our 1:1 education and workstation reviews aim to 'fine-tune' equipment layout and chair use. We also advise on taking breaks and occasionally alternative equipment to trial so your workers can find that sense of relief and ease often allowing aches and pains to heal and increasing productivity.
"Pippa's in-depth knowledge of the services provided by the College and its business needs and culture meant that her advice was invaluable. She was able to communicate at all levels, provided verbal feedback promptly and clearly, as well as well-written reports, with clear advice which was positive and constructive.
Pippa’s qualities also include flexibility, reliability and enthusiasm and commitment to whatever she was doing. Her work for the College made a positive impact on contributing to the reduction of sickness absence amongst staff."
Head of Human Resources, College of Further Education
"I found Pippa to be a great help, assessing my condition and suggesting possible options available to me. She recommended I see a spinal specialist and helped facilitate this.… I am now back at work carrying out my usual duties after a phased return to work programme. Her professional and attentive manner meant that my condition was dealt with correctly & promptly. I am very grateful to her as without her support I might not be back at work now.’
Drayman with a slipped disc
"Thank you so much for your call, I’ll take a look at these resources tomorrow. I think it’s only when I stop and explain to certain people what is going on that I get upset. I have been in constant work mode, blocking out my own needs."
HR Manager with Pandemic and change related pressures
"The PTSD support and education you have provided have been a lifesaver. I now understand why I am the way I am and there is hope.
My wife is also grateful, she feels she is slowly getting her husband back!"
Aviation Engineer & Veteran in crisis with PTSD
"Thanks for your help! Looking back over the last 5 years my mind and body has gone through quite a lot and i now need time to myself. Yes life at times can be a tuff road but with help from friends and professionals I can now rebuild my self. I will now look at the resources you have sent and spend time looking after my body to get me through to retirement, thanks again you have been very helpful in many ways."
Rail Engineer with musculoskeletal pain
Our Customers (commercial, military and local government sectors)
Educational Testimonials
Deborah Grassman,
Founder & Lead Educator
"Catherine has been on our faculty and has provided presentations on: Soul Injury, PTSD, Play and the Brain, and Body-Awareness therapies. She has also served as a mentor to new leaders post-Institute. In the past year, Catherine has worked with the Opus Peace team to develop and distribute MasterPEACE - an Opus Peace on-line learning program. She has served as editor, workbook designer, chat room facilitator, and administrator for courses on: Soul Injury, Anchoring Heart Technique, Self-Compassioning, Caregiver Distress, Helplessness, Fear of Emotional Pain, and Liberating Emotional Distress..."
Richard Masters,
Health & Safety Manager
"We gave Pippa the challenging brief not only to educate our long distance lorry drivers about the special health issues they face, but also to create a long-term well-being program encouraging them as individuals to take their future health into their own hands. This involves providing practical advice on improvement of diet, exercise and stress management within their normal working environment. It has been a success. Pippa has proved an excellent and inspirational communicator and her honesty, enthusiasm and sheer hard work on the project has gained the respect, trust and co-operation of both drivers and management."
