Within SSE, supporting the health and fitness of our colleagues is important because we have a duty of care to ensure that we take care of each other and, at the end of the day, safeguard that we get home safe.
We spend much of our time at work and can be exposed to physical and stressful situations; if we do not have the right tools to support this, it can have a detrimental impact on the body.
In SSE, we have a host of services for those who need support for poor mental health but recognised that physical health and mental health are deeply interconnected, and changes in one often affect the other. As a result, over the last few years, we increased the focus on the physical side of health. We recognise that there is not a one-size-fits-all approach so tried to offer various options that colleagues could explores .
In terms of gyms, colleagues have access to Wellhub, which is a corporate wellbeing platform that provides employees with access to a wide range of fitness and wellbeing services. To increase the gym options, we linked up with Pure Gym with the option of a corporate discount for anyone who wished to join.
Being able to measure the outcomes of provision is important and last year, following data received from providing wellbeing assessments to over 1,500 staff, this highlighted that 88% of the workforce did not meet the NHS recommended physical activity guidelines.
As a result over the year, as well as promoting what we already offer in terms of physical provision, we launched a series of initiatives to try and increase physical activity. Some of these included a ’pic me up’ walking competition which asked colleagues to go out walking and take a picture to be entered into a photo competition; know your numbers, linking this to the British Heart Foundation wellbeing assessments available; a walking challenge with incentives for the winning team and personal stories and video of employees’ physical activity journeys which help to inspire others. Following another review of the numbers this year, the percentage of those meeting the NHS physical activity guidelines has almost doubled which is a great result.
Nadya Kuhl is head of occupational health and wellbeing at SSE
