Kier Highways has signed up to the Diabetes Safety Organisation’s Tackling Diabetes Safety Charter to educate and help employees prevent the onset of diabetes and better support those living with the condition.
Diabetes is a hidden epidemic, with 700 people a day diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in the UK. One third of the population is either already living with diabetes or at increased risk of developing the condition.*
To raise awareness of the condition and reduce its associated risks, Kier Highways has signed the Tackling Diabetes Safety Charter designed to support companies in protecting their people from diabetes. Signing this charter means Kier Highways pledges to increase its understanding of diabetes, help remove the stigma, and take steps to ensure its workplace and employees are safer.
Vicki Glover, Kier Highways HR director, said: “We are committed to fostering a work environment in which everybody is safe, healthy and happy. By making this commitment, we want our people to know how to look after themselves and their colleagues, be aware of health risks they may face, and how to avoid them. By signing the Tackling Diabetes Safety Charter in Kier Highways, we are focusing on tangible steps we can take to keep our employees safe with our ultimate aim of embedding the key principles of diabetes safety into Kier Highways and the wider Kier Group.”
"I am delighted that Kier Highways has agreed to sign the Tackling Diabetes Safety Charter. Their involvement in raising awareness and their commitment to education and intervention in the workplace around diabetes, means that they will not only make a difference, but they could ultimately save lives."
Kate Walker Diabetes Safety Organisation CEO
Alongside this work, Kier Highways is encouraging employees to take on the One Less Challenge. It aims to provide a simple and sustainable action for people to take, which doesn’t include cutting everything out of your diet or making huge changes to your lifestyle, the challenge is to just have ‘one less’. This could be one less packet of crisps (three less bags of crisps a week amounts to 156 fewer a year) or having one less spoonful of sugar in your tea or coffee (for somebody who drinks six cups a day that could be a whopping 1kg less per month – that’s 12 bags of sugar a year).
*Diabetes Safety Organisation