Industry charity The Drinks Trust has lined up a new scheme to help businesses better support employees.

The Business Advisory Programme (BAP) is designed to help companies execute a meaningful wellbeing strategy through a service that provides ongoing support and “proactive welfare solutions”.

The Drinks Trust said the UK is facing an employee absenteeism crisis due to stress and mental health problems. Citing a survey of 900 businesses by the Chartered Institute of Professional Development, The Drinks Trust said employee absences are at a 10-year high. In the survey, stress was highlighted as the reason for short-term absences in 76% of cases, and poor mental health was the reason cited for 63% of long-term absences.

BAP includes a library of resources, webinars and a wellbeing calendar. The scheme also features consortium buying benefits, giving members a choice of training options at reduced rates. BAP will run live events throughout the year, which will include training and debates on key wellbeing topics.

The programme centres around four areas of health: physical, mental, social and financial, and will be executed via a network of trained ‘wellbeing champions’.

Ross Carter, CEO of The Drinks Trust said: “For many years The Drinks Trust has been advocating for, and offering, a variety of holistic services aimed at the well-being of drinks and hospitality industry professionals. Recognising the inextricable link between employee well-being and organisational success, The Drinks Trust BAP focuses on support for the business to design their own well-being strategy. It does not replace traditional EAP programmes but between this and our range of traditional services, the BAP works equally well for businesses who do, and do not have an EAP already in place.”

 The programme counts Jeroboams as a member and CEO Matt Tipping said: “Becoming a BAP member gives us access to industry specific support for our managers and wellbeing champions. It provides training materials which we can use throughout our business and allows us to add optional modules to suit our specific needs. We are proud to be part of an industry-wide initiative led by The Drinks Trust which is harnessing the combined buying power of our industry to deliver a unique platform. A platform which would be out of reach for most companies trying to source these services independently.”

BAP will be ready for launch on November 6, and trialled in year one by the first members of the programme, including Chapel Down, Davy’s, Drake & Morgan, Gusbourne, Hatch Mansfield, Jeroboams, Lay & Wheeler and Maison Marques et Domaines. 

The Drinks Trust is still recruiting a limited number of businesses to join for the launch year. For more information, click here.