Northern Ireland insurance firm is first and only company to achieve the Healthy Place to Work certification for the third time

Hughes Insurance has become the first and only company in Northern Ireland to achieve the Healthy Place to Work certification for the third time.

The accolade highlights the Newtownards firm’s leadership in workplace health, culture, and well-being.

Launched in 2021, Healthy Place to Work is the global standard for workplace health and well-being. It provides a strategic approach using a unique framework that allows employers to quickly assess the health of their workforce and workplace.

Expressing pride in the company's achievement and its dedication to putting employees first, Bernie McHugh Sonner, director of operations and customer services at Hughes Insurance, said: “We’re beyond proud to be the company in Northern Ireland to receive the Healthy Place to Work Certification three years in a row, this is a welcome validation and recognition of our ongoing efforts commitment to fostering a healthy and supportive work environment.

“The insights we’ve gained from the Healthy Place to Work process have been invaluable in shaping our health and well-being strategies. We’re delighted to see our hard work paying off and the tangible impact of this, but most importantly that our employees recognise the steps we are taking to support them to improve their health, wellbeing, and overall happiness.”

Recent data revealed that being happy at work isn’t just a win for employees but also a win for employers. The research which was carried out by British telecoms firm BT in partnership with University of Oxford states that workers are 13% more productive when happy.

John Ryan, founder and CEO of Healthy Place to Work, continued: "We’re delighted to once again recognise Hughes Insurance as a Healthy Place to Work. As the first and only organisation in Northern Ireland to be accredited for the third time, it highlights an unwavering commitment to prioritising employee health and sets the benchmark for workplace well-being across Northern Ireland.

“From our global research and over 20,000 employee responses we know what the biggest presenting issues are for organisations, and it all starts with leadership. Leaders who are seen as role models for healthy behaviours and who authentically care about the health and wellbeing of their staff everyday are the ones who inspire loyalty and high performance. And when it comes to wellness, we need to move away from a tick box approach and replace it with a data driven evidence-based approach which targets limited resources to the biggest presenting needs of the employees.”

To become certified an organisation needs to engage its employees in the completion of a robust survey covering four pillars – purpose, mental resilience, connection, and physical health – to gather insight into their experience of work. The organisation then receives actionable insights from the results and a development plan providing benchmarks on practice, detailed feedback on identified strengths and weaknesses and A path to improvement. Organisations can only become certified when the actionable insights can be seen to have been met.