Manufacturing organisation Saint-Gobain UK and Ireland has reduced its organisational health age by a total of 3,030 years between September 2013 and June 2018, thanks to the implementation of its health and wellbeing programme Fit4Work, Fit4Life.
The programme, provided by Axa PPP Healthcare, was implemented in 2013 and rolled out across the business in 2014, for 17,500 employees working across 45 factories and more than 1,000 distribution centres. It was initially designed to help tackle the organisation’s rising rates of smoking, obesity, alcohol consumption and mental health issues.
The digital programme primarily uses a health age calculator, which helps employees understand their own physical and psychological condition, as well as any associated health risks. This is to enable staff to make informed decisions about how to improve their personal health and wellbeing and lifestyle.
The online programme is supported by face-to-face events, such as ‘Know your numbers’ health assessment days and blood screenings. Saint-Gobain additionally used targeted emails and internally-trained health champions to help promote the Fit4Work, Fit4Life initiative.
The anonymised data captured via these face-to-face events and the health age calculator has facilitated Saint-Gobain UK and Ireland to take a more targeted approach to its health and wellbeing strategy, tailoring interventions to suit its workforce.
According to results from the health age calculator, employees have reduced their physical health age by a collective 3,030 years between September 2013 and June 2018, and 2,101 employees have also reduced specific health risks related to their lifestyle, disease and psychological profiles since September 2015.
The organisation saw employees’ engagement with the programme increase from 63% in 2013, when the initiative was first launched, to 90% in 2016, according to the result of employee engagement surveys. Saint-Gobain has conducted more than 5,000 physical health assessments since the programme launched, including over 1,200 ‘Know your numbers’ events and 1,000 new starter health assessments.
More than 1,500 measured health risks, relating to disease, lifestyle, and mental illness, have been removed as a result of employees engaging with the programme. Around 20% of these risks are associated with stress or psychological risk.
Saint-Gobain also estimates it has achieved a return-on-investment of £1 million, linked to the Fit4Work, Fit4Life programme.
Kevin Crawley, director of environment, health and safety at Saint-Gobain UK and Ireland, said, “Health and wellbeing for Saint-Gobain is a core value and something we see as anything but a gimmick. It is critical to our success and features prominently on our EHS 2025 roadmap. With 36 businesses spread across 1,000 locations in the UK and Ireland, embedding the programme was complex and challenging but worth the effort.
“We’ve definitely seen a tangible return-on-investment through the confidential metrics we collate and increased levels of engagement and motivation from our employees which in turn has resulted in better customer satisfaction and a happier workforce.”
