Physical wellbeing

It goes without saying that promoting physical health will reduce absence from work.

But is there anything than employers can do to make a real difference?

Prevention is key here. If an employee has a heath check today, it doesn’t mean they won’t be off sick tomorrow. But it could easily identify an issue which may have led to long-term absence in future.“I got on the kiosk in Dec 2017 as part of the trial, came back saying I had high blood pressure, see your GP in 48 hours (yes that high). Not something we have a family history of, and known as a silent killer as there are no symptoms. Now on a programme to reduce and is more or less under control now. Wouldn’t have known if not for getting on the kiosk.”

Test and learn…

At Aviva we trialled face-to-face health checks and self-assessment through the use of kiosks where employees could check body mass index, blood pressure etc. We thought our people would prefer the human touch – but we were wrong. The kiosks won out - probably due to a combination of easy accessibility, privacy and a desire to avoid being judged by another person. The lesson we learned was to test what you’re doing, then make use of your data rather than relying on assumptions.

“How can occasional free fruit make a difference?”

It’s true to say that occasional giveaways of fresh fruit or vegetables wouldn’t in themselves make a significant difference to the health of those receiving them. But the benefits go much further than this…“ We put out some boxes of fresh fruit and veg, then encouraged everyone to take home four different items each and cook a meal using all of them. We then held a competition to judge the best recipe.Someone would pick up an aubergine and ask, ‘What do you do with that, then?’ You’d hear someone else say ‘I don’t like cabbage’…and another colleague would answer ‘Have you tried stir-frying it?’ ‘Cauliflower’s boring’…”Not if you put it in a curry” and so on. People were swapping ideas and getting each other to try healthy foods that they didn’t normally eat ”

5 ways to promote physical health in the workplace:

Hold regular healthy eating initiatives.
Offer free/subsidised health checks.
Include health insurance as part of the benefits package.
Use app-based solutions – providing 24/7 access to medical assistance and advice.
Think up some great ideas that cost nothing – such as 5k running clubs, or ‘internet yoga’ (play a yoga video on a big screen and invite employees to follow along).