Wellness in the workplace

When Brian Crooke, www.workwellireland.ie, first started his podcast about a year ago, the idea was to focus on wellbeing in the workplace. Little did he know that the workplace, or at least how we view the workplace, would change so much in just a short period of time. Brian previously provided his insights and advice on the topic in the January/February and March/April issues of The Hardware Journal last year.

The focus of Brian`s podcast, The Work Well Podcast, is still very much on wellbeing and work. Some of the key themes that will be explored throughout the 12 episodes of Season 3 are “the future of work”, “work life blend” and how we support our colleagues and ourselves as we work from home, a hub or HQ.

Separately the Healthy Ireland Framework 2013-2025 supports Government’s response to Ireland’s changing health and wellbeing profile. Healthy Ireland is a collective response to the risks that threaten Ireland’s future health and wellbeing. This new Framework calls for action to improve the health and wellbeing of the population of Ireland over the coming generation.

The Framework draws on existing policies but also proposes new arrangements to ensure effective cooperation and collaboration to implement evidence-based policies at Government, sectoral, community and local levels. It is about each individual sector helping to improve health and wellbeing for all. More information about Healthy Ireland is available at Healthy Ireland - www.hse.ie.

HAI have partnered with the Department of Health to launch a 30 minute Workplace Emotional Wellness Webinar for Employers and Employees. Further information is available from aoife@hardwareassociation.ie.

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BUSineSS inDex q4 2020 ReSULtS

Year on year comparisons for the quarter are very positive with the sector recording an increase of 20% for Q4. Despite the extraordinary public health circumstances the sector has reported a 6% rise for the full year of 2020.

Notwithstanding the exceptional times, Q4 exhibits its usual month on month pattern with a sharp retraction in December and a moving average of 94%. Beyond the understandable volatility of Q2, the monthly moving average throughout 2020 showed a more typical annual pattern.

Business Index Annual Review 2020 v 2019 v 2018

Month on Month Comparisons*- Seasonality(2020 in green,2019 in blue, 2018 in red)

240

195

150

105

60

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

*Preceding month always equals 100%

Branches Profiled Business Location

192 Member Branches includes in Index

Number of Employees

What our members say

Eoin Lynch, Owner at D Lynch and Sons Ltd

“We find the HAI Business Index a valuable resource in enabling us to benchmark our performance against similar sized stores both within our region and nationally. As a small rural store, it is important to know how we are performing relative to the market and the results of the Index help us set, track and potentially change our KPI’s accordingly”. 25%

Mark Lohan, Managing Director, Brooks Timber and Building Supplies

“The Business Index gives us key quantitative data to drive our decisions. It removes hearsay and gives us a reality check of what is happening at a national and at a regional level”.