The Carphone Warehouse is introducing a wellbeing programme for 8,000 of its workforce to encourage staff to exercise at their desks, and improve absenteeism and staff turnover.
The move coincides with the launch of salary sacrifice benefits to employees for the first time, including childcare vouchers and a home computing scheme (HCI).
The two-year wellbeing programme Project Balance is being launched this month over a four-day period. Fitness professionals have been hired to demonstrate different ways of exercising at work to staff based at its London head office, which houses the company's call centre. Accor will also explain how the company's employee assistant programme (EAP) works, which is being provided free to all staff.
Monica Frost, project manager of Project Balance, said: "Workplaces in general have been largely overlooked in the past. Exercise and healthy eating is promoted in schools so it should be in the office as well."
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She has conducted research into the health of Carphone Warehouse's staff and has specific aims for Project Balance. "We want employees to benefit from having a good work-life balance and The Carphone Warehouse to benefit from a reduced staff turnover and a lower absenteeism rate," she said.