EMCOR UK is the first organization globally to achieve certification against BSI’s psychological health and safety at work scheme.
With over 4,000 employees, the company provides high-performance, sustainable, integrated facilities and workplace management. It delivers services in some of the most complex and regulated workplaces in the UK, in industry sectors including government, defence, nuclear, life sciences, and hi-tech manufacturing.
Jonathan Gawthrop, Executive Director, Wellbeing Sustainability & Assurance, EMCOR UK, says the company takes a robust approach to governance and risk, which includes maintaining rigorous occupational health and safety protocols. As he explains, “Our purpose is to create a better world at work and, as employers, we see a key element of this being a responsibility to protect and promote the well-being of our people.”
Gawthrop says that, in the past, the company focused largely on physical health and safety, but increasingly psychosocial issues affecting individuals’ mental well-being have come to the fore. “Since well before the pandemic, the board had embarked on a long-term well-being strategy that took a proactive and sustainable approach to employee health. In particular, we wanted to give equal weight to both physical and mental well-being,” he says.
BSI’s psychological health and safety scheme, based on ISO 45003, offered the ideal way forward. Published in June 2021, ISO 45003 gives guidance for managing psychosocial risks and provides recommendations to organizations on how to prevent work-related psychological ill-health. “We recognized that BSI certification against the scheme would show that we have a robust structure in place to identify and manage mental health risks,” says Gawthrop.
BSI certification demonstrates the company’s determination to foster a safe and positive working environment. “We’re proud that our long-term well-being strategy has been rigorously tested by BSI against this global standard,” he says. “It shows we’re compliant with our own ‘People Who Care’ value, that our commitment to physical and mental health is not merely a ‘tick-box’ exercise, and that we strive for continuous improvement.”