Advertising agency Havas UK has announced it is this week starting a full company-wide roll-out of wellbeing app YuLife to all of its 2,200 staff, after a successful trial with around 110 workers during 2020.
Life insurance firm YuLife de-risks employers’ workforces by encouraging individuals to make health-improving behavioural changes through its reward mechanism – ‘yucoins’ – which staff can built up and spend with retailers.
Challenges take the form of games or activities, such as 10,15 or 30-minute walks, or taking time out to do yoga or meditation. Once completed, yucoins can be exchanged for rewards, including air miles and vouchers for Amazon, Asos and Nike.
Kate Whitelock, head of wellbeing at YuLife, said: “Havas was already investing in life insurance, but it wanted to offer it in a way that created more of an employee experience around it.
“A small trial group was set up, and throughout 2020 we analysed them in terms of the ways healthy behaviours could be created. It was the result of very good engagement with the app that saw Havas decide to extend the benefit to all of its staff.”
Around 80% of Havas employees in the pilot downloaded the app, and during last year 40% engaged with it at least once a week.
Ewen MacPherson, group chief people officer at Havas Group UK, said: “Amid the challenges we have all faced over the past year, maintaining the wellbeing of our people continues to be a strategic priority for us as a company.
“YuLife has given us the tools to make the most of our existing insurance investment and go the extra mile to boost employee wellbeing, providing us with an ideal platform to help our people lead better and healthier lives.”
Whitelock added that the key with any successful wellbeing programme is encouraging people to adopt healthy behaviours from whatever point they are in their health journey.
She concluded: “Havas recognised that a more softly-softly approach would pay it dividends. It’s found that people are now taking walks during the day time, for instance, just to get some fresh air and reset their minds.”