Free Flu Jabs Offered to Operatives

The occupational health and wellbeing provision within A-one+ goes above and beyond any legislative requirements.

A-one+ is a 24/7 business running day and night carrying out a multitude of highway maintenance operations such as winter services, gritting etc, therefore a lot of our personnel (mainly operatives) don’t get the opportunity to attend their own GP should they need to during normal working hours. A recent review showed 81% of our work is done at night. The provision of health and wellbeing support serves as an early indicator for employees to seek medical advice should they need to. As part of this frontline caring programme, we offered free flu vaccinations to our workforce.

Flu is an unpredictable virus that can cause mild or unpleasant illness in most people. We are all aware that a flu epidemic can decimate a workforce during the winter months and if absenteeism increased during winter months, additional pressure is placed on other colleagues to perform the contracted functions of a highway maintenance service provider in keeping the strategic road network operating.

Whilst the flu vaccination is available free of charge on the NHS for vulnerable groups, we at A-one+ recognise that our workforce would benefit from being offered the vaccination. We therefore took the initiative prior to winter to provide free flu vaccinations at dates and times to suit the workforce, crucially including evening periods to cater for night shift workers. This allowed as many employees as possible to attend with over 115 employees taking advantage of this offer.