At the beginning of the year, I, like many other benefits and compensation professionals, was thinking about my new year’s resolutions (mostly health-related and predictable), and also what we at Capital One want our employee health and wellbeing offering to be throughout 2015.
Over the past few years, we have continued to build on our health and wellbeing strategy by launching campaigns and offers around events such as Men’s Health Week and Women’s Health Week.
These kinds of events provide a springboard for initiatives such as cancer awareness and a focus on both the physical and mental health and wellbeing of workers.
Regular health check-ups, which are run through staff and personal trainers, help to keep initiatives at the forefront of employees’ minds.
We are also keen to get back to basics, for example, highlighting the benefits of taking a lunch break. Even as little as 20 minutes away from your desk can have great restorative power, helping [employees] feel more alert and focused in the afternoon.
We also want to remind our employees of some of our top tips to help manage their health throughout the year. These include ideas on how to have quality sleep, nutrition workshops and encouraging a healthy work-life balance. We are also going to be offering salsa classes, which combine fun and exercise, so are bound to be a winner.
In addition, we are looking to maximise the extended health benefits our staff have access to, such as the employee assistance programme (EAP) and the GP helpline. Both of these great benefits can be under-utilised but are very much appreciated by employees when needed.
Jill Cunnison is HR benefits and operations manager at Capital One.