Britain’s healthiest company 2013: What does it take?

To combat the UK’s growing sickness absence figures, PruHealth, Mercer & The Telegraph have joined forces to show us how it should be done.

The Healthiest Company in the UK competition saw over 10,000 employees respond to the survey giving us a great picture of UK employees’ health when companies see health & wellbeing as a priority.

The methodology behind deciphering the winner of the competition was using PruHealth’s Vitality Age indicator which they describe as an ‘algorithm’. This measures the health of each employee by testing them on the biggest indicators of mortality: physical activity, nutrition, BMI (Body Mass Index) and smoking as well as reviewing their medical and family history.

The overall winners of the Britain’s Healthiest company 2013 category were the mid sized (fewer than 1000 employees) Adidas and the large (more than 1000 employees) Quintiles. Here’s how they did it:

Adidas are universally expected to know how to keep their employees fit and healthy but they’ve genuinely succeeded in implementing their ethos.

With an on-site GP at the beginning of the week, Adidas have put an end to the all too familiar waiting times that many employees face before diagnosis. This combined with 2 onsite gyms, sports masseurs, nutritionists and personal trainers readily available for all employees at their Stockport based offices, employees have no excuses. Not only do Adidas make it possible, but they also make it fun to be fit with constant programmes and initiatives to drum up some friendly competition between employees.

Tricia Kalloo of Wellness International (Adidas’ wellness centre management) said that Adidas are all about being proactive, ‘’Let’s have a wellness check, let’s not wait until you’re ill.’ We have picked up prostate cancers, a few colon cancers, cardiovascular disease — and these were people who were completely asymptomatic.” This just goes to show why Adidas succeeds in having the healthiest employees.

Lastly, employees’ minds are put at rest by the availability of a company dental plan, travel insurance, critical illness insurance and life assurance not only for the employees, but for their families too. Impressive.

Quintiles, the world’s largest provider of Biopharmaceutical development, have reached the top because being healthy is in their ethos. They believe that their employees’ should be amongst the fittest in the world. Centred around their online programme ‘Healthy u, Healthy q’, the employees are given a wealth of knowledge on how to stay healthy as soon as they start at Quintiles and they are offered a wide range of benefits for staying healthy.

If the employees visit their local gym at least 4 times a month, they can recover their gym membership fees. Quintiles will also cover half the cost of home exercise equipment for remote workers and the full cost of dietary programmes such as ‘Weightwatchers’ to keep their employee’s healthy on the move or away from the office. There are also in-house fitness schemes and challenges, as well as healthy eating and work-life balance campaigns.

The various schemes and initiatives seem to have paid off, as in the same week Quintiles were also voted the 6th Best Workplace in the UK and 8th in Europe.

Lastly, the Sports wear brand Sweaty Betty came top in the Most Active category. Once again, they certainly practice what they preach with activity being the core of all employees’ days.

Between 1/3 and ½ of their employee’s cycle to work and to keep the numbers rising they introduced a ‘blow dry bar’ at their head office to ward away ‘helmet hair’. There is also a ‘no lift’ policy in their Fulham offices meaning employees caught taking the lift without carrying anything heavy, must run up to the 3rd floor and down again as a forfeit.

Every year, employees must declare a sporting challenge that they want to overcome and are supported by all others in the company. Alongside daily yoga, pilates and running group sessions, there is no sitting still at Sweaty Betty.

‘With 5 yoga teachers, 15 cyclist commuters, 1 triathelete-in-training and dozens of road runners, our Head Office team runs an average of 800 miles collectively per week. Pretty impressive!’ (Sweaty Betty web-site).

There is a whole host of things your company can do to start its journey to becoming more healthy and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Honeydew Health can give you all the advice you need in starting your own company wellness scheme.