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Workplace Stop Smoking Scheme
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Go the extra mile… help your staff to stop smoking
Employers are not legally obliged to help employees to stop smoking. However, employers that do provide cessation support could reduce the risk of non-compliance with the law, as well as taking advantage of the opportunity it offers to improve people's health. They will also benefit from reduced sickness absence and increased productivity.
A large majority of smokers say that they would like to quit for good and the new smokefree regulations will give them yet another reason to want to stop. Employees in your workplace may be considering quitting and as an employer you are in a position to help them in conjunction with local NHS support.
For more information about how to help your staff to stop smoking, please contact Gillian Foster, Health Promotion Officer, Sheffield City Council, on 0114 2053781.
Why should an organisation help its staff to stop smoking?
- It is the proper thing to do as a responsible employer! Involvement in this scheme will reflect to your staff that their health is of paramount importance to you as their employer.
- It makes business sense: smokers take more annual days of sickness leave and in the UK smoking breaks typically account for £48,000 of lost time annually for every 100 employees (around 30 of whom will typically be smokers).
- It is easy to do so using the Workplace Stop Smoking Scheme, a free service being run as a jointly between Sheffield City Council and the Sheffield NHS Stop Smoking Service.
What does the Workplace Stop Smoking Scheme Involve?
- An NHS Stop Smoking Advisor can talk to you and your employees and give you information and materials about stopping smoking, how to access NHS support programmes and how the scheme can be used flexibly to suit your workplace.
- Online or paper format surveys can be provided to find out how many of your employees smoke and would like to give up.
- Stop smoking clinics can be set up at your workplace, where there are more than 5 smokers who would like to take part.
- Stop smoking clinics take place weekly over a period of seven weeks, which includes support for at least the first four weeks of the quit.
- Information is available on various forms of medication, including nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), and arrangements are made for the smoker to receive a prescription for these products.
- Smokers are up to four times more likely to succeed in their quit attempt with the support of the Stop Smoking Service and medication, than going ‘cold turkey’ alone.
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