Hundreds of Liverpool workers walked to Australia as part of a campaign to promote health and well-being in the workplace.
Merseyside housing association Plus Dane Group is encouraging staff to lead more active lifestyles – and is backing up the advice with free gym passes, fitness boot camps and a competition to walk the number of steps it would take to travel from their Liverpool offices to Sydney.
There has also been a focus on mental well-being, with staff offered free massages, health check-ups and a range of new holistic benefits on their free medicash scheme.
However it was the Oz trail, which saw all staff and their families issued with pedometers and encouraged to walk each day and log their steps towards a 4,492,667-step total, which was the biggest motivator.
The feat took the 275 staff who signed up to the challenge 15 weeks to achieve.
Prizes were given to the staff who took the most steps. First place was supported housing team leader Donna Owoo, who asked the company to make a donation to the British Heart Foundation as her reward.
Donna said: “Sometimes I can be quite a competitive person so this competition really kept me on my toes. It was a great way of getting me up and about when I didn’t feel like it and I felt the benefits in better fitness.
“Sometimes I didn’t feel like walking but the thought of being able to log the most steps kept me motivated and continues to do so.”
In recognition of the company’s efforts, Plus Dane has been awarded the excellence standard in Liverpool Primary Care Trust’s Health and Well-being Charter .
Plus Dane is one of only six organisations to achieve this Charter standard, after being ranked at the highest level in all seven areas of supporting staff to lead healthier lives.
Plus Dane’s Managing Director for Knowledge, Information and Performance, Jayne Philips, said: “This isn’t a ‘one off’ – it is part of our future Human Resources strategy.”
“The drive behind the health and well-being campaign was to encourage greater happiness in the workforce by reducing stress and absences linked to unhealthy lifestyles.”
Gideon Ben-Tovim, Chair of Liverpool PCT said: “We are delighted that Plus Dane Group has demonstrated a clear commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of their staff by signing up to Liverpool’s Health and Wellbeing Charter. I would like to commend them for implementing a number of measures such as providing pedometers to staff members and arranging free massages, which have already had a positive effect on their employees.
“In recent years more and more organisations have realised that taking responsibility for the wellbeing of their employees not only has a direct impact on health but can also improve productivity, reduce absenteeism and help to attract and retain staff.”
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