Natixis has held its second annual wellness week for its 430 London-based staff in order to support employees’ health and highlight the wellbeing benefits available to them.
The French bank, which operates globally, including in Paris, New York, London, Madrid and Milan, held its London wellness week between 10 and 14 October 2016, providing a range of physical and educational activities for employees.
The wellness week ties in with an organisation-wide work-life balance initiative, Work and Life, which launched at the Paris head office in June 2016. The global programme aims to develop quality of life at work.
The wellness week aims to remind staff about the health and wellbeing benefits available to them, as well as supporting employees to get energised and fit for the approaching winter months.
Activities included a wellness fair, group exercise classes, hand and foot massages, reiki, a smoothie workshop, and a table tennis tournament. Natixis also hosted informative presentations on topics such as sleep and substance abuse.
Employees also had the opportunity to attend a presentation on the emergency care benefits available to them, provided by My Family Care, which give staff access to six employer-paid emergency childcare, eldercare or self-care sessions.
In addition, employees were given a raffle ticket for every event they attended, with a daily draw for health-themed prizes such as a Fitbit activity tracker, Natixis branded t-shirts, healthy cookbooks and Holland and Barrett gift vouchers.
Due to the success of the table tennis games, Natixis is now looking to run these on an ongoing basis throughout the year.
The wellness week sits alongside a range of heath and wellbeing activities conducted throughout the year, such as weekly fruit drops and chair massages, presentations on topics such as nutrition and good posture, a smoking cessation programme run by drugs and alcohol charity WDP, and mental health first aid training for line managers.
Stuart Bennett, pensions and benefits manager at Natixis, said: “We just wanted a mix of different things [during wellness week]. We wanted to have practical things that people could actually get involved in like gym classes, the running club and the spinning. We had the hand massages, the foot massages and the reiki, which were more [about] relaxation, and then we wanted the educational aspect with the presentations.”