The portal, Juice, was launched for more than 7,000 staff in November 2012 and aims to allow employees to make informed lifestyle choices, adopt healthier behaviours and go beyond their expectations and existing capabilities on both a personal and professional level.
Andrew Dodman, director of human resources at the University of Sheffield, says: “We did not want to have the traditional approach of writing a policy, but wanted to create a healthy workforce through Juice with onsite access to activities to treat health and wellbeing holistically through physical, mental and social health.
“We felt the best way of engaging employees with their health and wellbeing was to make the drivers about the individual.”
Juice houses all of the university’s health and wellbeing services and features monthly health-related articles and campaigns for staff to read.
The organisation runs about 30 weekly activities, including boot camps, cycling clubs, tai-chi, book clubs and staff choirs.
Staff take-up has been strong, with more than 10,000 regular visits to the Juice website and more than 30% of employees attending at least one activity session.
Dodman adds: “There is a strong obligation [at the university] of wanting staff to be healthy and happy. We are not doing it for the traditional corporate drivers, such as sickness absence, but we want staff to engage and be productive and to have that commitment and passion to work for us and use Juice as a key tool to do that.”
