Repeated cigarette breaks, staff that stink like an ashtray, and a collective smokers’ cough that makes the ground shake…what can be done to encourage employees to kick the habit? We look at What Happened Next when a member asked the Any Answers forum for tips on lifting the cloud of smoke from her workplace. By Sarah Fletcher
Stubbing Out Smoking
“I’d love to hear from anyone who has any ideas for a wellness at work initiative or programme they’ve implemented to encourage employees to give up smoking. My MD has approached me and asked me to look into what we could offer members of staff.
“I thought about contacting a charity or government scheme to see if we could get someone in to do a talk or workshop and give people ideas on how to give up, tips and advice and inform people of their local support groups etc. My MD has suggested that perhaps we could pay for the cost of patches for X number of months or a similar offer?
“We have approximately 200 staff, 50 of which are office based the other 150 are field based so anything we offered we would need to offer across the board.
“My first aim is to gauge how anything we offered would be received and I thought of sending a memo to all members of staff asking them to reply back if they would be interested? But with no real idea of what to offer I’ve held off doing this so far.
“All comments/ ideas greatly received.”
Lucy Hibbert
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What happened next?
“We have been in contact with our local NHS Stop Smoking service, and have discussed holding a presentation for all members of staff who wanted to attend (smokers and non-smokers who may be interested on behalf of family members, for example).
“This would contain information on the dangers of smoking, why people smoke, passive smoking and details on what help is available. Before arranging this we are in the process of finding out who smokes and who would be interested in attending to see if it is wanted!
“After the presentations we are going to look into holding an NHS clinic here at work if there is enough interest; or alternatively, if only a few employees are interested and choose to go to their local clinics we may look at sponsoring them in the form of patches. We are also going to obtain leaflets and posters to put up on notice boards giving people further information.”
What reaction have you had to the scheme?
Reaction has been really positive. Some were a little suspicious at first, asking "why do you want to help?" but once fully explained they seem really impressed that we're taking an interest!
What benefits do you hope to see from the stop smoking campaign?
Hopefully this iniative will improve morale and employees' view of the company. It will possibly improve sickness absence and generate a happy, healthier work force.
