How McLaren worked with Construction Health & Wellbeing to build a prevention-led health strategy, create a project-level framework and strengthen psychosocial risk management.
Managing health with the discipline of safety
McLaren
- Starting point
- The challenge
- The approach
- The outcome
Starting point
McLaren’s work began with a board-level question. In 2024, a request for Mental Health First Aid training was taken to the board. Rather than approve another standalone intervention, the board asked whether training was really the right place to start.
McLaren already had mature systems for managing safety through its Home Safe and Well strategy. Health and wellbeing needed the same focus, with clearer structures around occupational health, prevention and the factors affecting people at work.
The business wanted an approach grounded in construction risk, with enough dedicated focus to develop properly before becoming more closely integrated into its wider safety strategy.
3
Connected areas underpin the workforce health strategy.
1
Wellbeing champion planned for each McLaren project.
1
Dedicated health and wellbeing training day.
26
Target year for projects to achieve bronze.
The challenge
Health and wellbeing covered several areas that were not always managed with the same consistency as safety. Occupational hygiene, clinical occupational health and workplace wellbeing each had different requirements, and the business needed a clearer way to connect them.
McLaren also wanted to move beyond activity focused mainly on awareness or support after problems appeared. Psychosocial risks such as workload, programme pressure and working patterns needed greater attention alongside physical health hazards.
Any approach also had to work across different projects. Each project has its own size, stage, risk profile and supply chain, so McLaren needed consistency without imposing an identical model everywhere.
The approach
CH&W worked with McLaren to develop a prevention-led health and wellbeing strategy covering occupational hygiene and prevention, clinical occupational health and workplace wellbeing.
The strategy was then translated into an Occupational Health and Wellbeing Matrix for use across projects. The matrix provides a practical route map, using bronze, silver and gold stages to help teams build capability progressively.
Wellbeing champions support implementation at project level, helping connect the strategy with everyday delivery. McLaren’s Health and Safety team also completed CH&W’s Putting the Health and Wellbeing into Safety course, building shared understanding and supporting the business’s developing approach to ISO 45003 and psychosocial risk.
The outcome
McLaren now has a structured framework for managing health and wellbeing across its projects, with a defined standard that teams can work towards and use to evidence progress.
The Occupational Health and Wellbeing Matrix gives projects a consistent approach while allowing for different operational conditions. Wellbeing champions provide a direct link into project delivery, and internal training has strengthened understanding across the Health and Safety team.
Projects are working towards bronze during 2026, with progression to silver planned for 2027 and gold from 2028. The longer-term aim is to embed this approach more fully within McLaren’s wider Home Safe and Well strategy.
How CH&W can help your business.
Want to manage workforce health with the same discipline as safety? Find out how CH&W can help you build a practical, prevention-led approach.