EXCLUSIVE: Financial services outsourcing organisation FinTrU has held a health and wellbeing month in order to promote its new employee benefits package to its 234 Belfast-based staff.
The health and wellbeing month, called Febulous Challenge, was held in February 2018 to help promote the group risk and health and wellbeing benefits that the organisation implemented in January 2018. The new benefits, which include group life insurance, group income protection, group sick pay insurance, private medical insurance (PMI) and a health cash plan, were introduced as a fundamental component of FinTrU’s overall health and wellbeing strategy, to align with the organisation’s stance of having responsibility towards its employees’ health and wellness.
The Febulous Challenge encouraged employees to be active and allowed them to take part in a variety of fitness challenges as teams or as individuals, both in and out of working hours. This included plank challenges, skiing challenges, going to the gym, park-based challenges and going to the ice rink. To conclude the week, the organisation’s two buildings competed in a squat challenge. In addition to the fitness challenges, the health cash plan provider also led a presentation for all staff to answer any questions around this specific benefit.
During the month, employees could additionally take part in a competition to win one of two Fitbit activity trackers. Employees had to take a picture during Febulous Challenge and then post the photo on the organisation’s internal social networking site in order to enter. FinTrU’s chief executive officer drew two names at random from the entries at the end of the month to decide the winners.
A total of 212 employees took part in the Febulous Challenge.
The Febulous Challenge ran alongside FinTru’s existing weekly activities, which includes yoga classes, a football match, squash ladder, book club and languages group.
The new benefits that were launched in January 2018 were originally communicated to staff using presentations. All employees are eligible for the benefits, except graduate trainees who are not offered short-term sick pay, long-term income protection, PMI or the health cash plan.
FinTrU’s benefits package already features a pension scheme, PMI, a discretionary bonus scheme, an employee referral scheme, financial support for continuing professional development and childcare vouchers.
Sinead Carville, executive director, human resources at FinTrU, said: “Looking after the health and wellbeing of our staff is absolutely core to us. Having a comprehensive reward package that demonstrates how we look after our staff is a real differentiator, and as a relatively new name and a fast-growing [organisation], this helps us compete with more established employers. We took in to account our demographic and now offer a package tailored to their specific needs and wants, a significant proportion of which is being delivered via group risk protection. We’ve had great feedback from existing staff and prospective employees alike.”
