Country Energy has recognised this, and recently they held a Health Field Day in Inverell for their employees from Bingara, Glen Innes, Goondiwindi, Guyra, Inverell, Moree, Narrabri, Tenterfield, Texas, and Warialda.

Country Energy’s regional general manager, Matt Patterson, said that throughout Australia there was a shortage of qualified people to work on the electricity network, and that Country Energy was committed to being an employer of choice, so they could retain their employees.

“The Health Field day was about ensuring that our employees remain healthy, fit, and safe, so that we can keep them with us for as long as possible.

“We recognise that given the average age of our employees, and the fact that they are mostly male, if we wanted to keep them healthy we needed to bring the health professionals to them,” Matt said.

Employees attending the day undertook a Health Pit Stop provided by a group of nurses from Inverell Community Health, and Tingha Multi Purpose Service.

The Pit Stop program is designed to relate areas of health to parts of a car, with the key health areas looked at being, alcohol use (fuel additives), blood pressure (oil pressure), bowel cancer (extractors), skin (duco), smoking (exhaust), torsion (flexibility), and waist measurement (chassis check).

“The Health Field Day forms part of our strategy to ensure we have enough employees to provide the essential service of electricity,” Matt said.

They are hoping that initiatives from the Health Field Days will see sick leave further reduce in the company.