The British Heart Foundation (BHF) have produced a 'Health at work guide to alcohol', which encourages organisations to assess alcohol-related need and develop policy and awareness raising activities.
The guide highlights figures that suggest businesses in the UK lose £7.3bn every year as a result of alcohol-related ill-health, time off work and lost productivity. Referencing the Institute of Alcohol Studies factsheet on alcohol in the workplace, it also highlights the 17 million working days per year are lost to alcohol-related absenteeism, and that alcohol is responsible for an estimated 40% of all workplace accidents.
To address this the guide encourages employers to set up a team to lead on the development of a programme that includes securing cross-organisation support, development of workplace policies, and the delivery and evaluation of staff training and workplace alcohol awareness initiatives.
In 2012 former Alcohol Concern Chief Exec Don Shenker set up the Alcohol Health Network to improve alcohol-related health in the workplace. A 2011 research project into the feasibility of alcohol brief interventions (or 'IBA') in the workplace has shown that opportunities to deliver IBA do exist - though may have limitations and are not without barriers. The project concluded with a briefing paper on alcohol & the workplace which also made similar recommendations.
Other organisations, including Alcohol Concern, have also sought to develop alcohol workplace programmes, whilst an NHS Workplace Wellbeing Charter includes alcohol components. Indeed the workplace may be considered one significant area where real progress is yet to be made.
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