Northern Powergrid launches EAP

Northern Powergrid-2014

Northern Powergrid has introduced an employee assistance programme (EAP) for its 2,670 members of staff.

It made the decision to introduce the EAP, which is provided by Validium, following a strategic review which led the organisation to take a more proactive approach to staff wellbeing.

Deb Piggett, HR business partner at Northern Powergrid, said: “The nature of our business involves delivering electricity safely and reliably to 3.9 million customers.

”Naturally, there has always been a really strong emphasis on safety, but recently we took the decision to adopt a more holistic approach to the health and wellbeing of our 2,670 people.

“A series of health MOTS were carried out by our new occupational health provider Duradiamond earlier this year, which highlighted that we needed to take a more proactive approach to raising awareness of health problems such as high blood pressure and BMI [body mass index].

”We were also aware that some employee absence related to issues outside of work that can affect all of us from time to time, such as relationship breakdowns, problems with children, bereavement and critically ill relatives. All of which meant we wanted to start doing more to proactively manage both the physical and emotional health of employees. We recognised that putting in place an EAP could have significant benefits.”