The health initiative resulted in better employees
HALMSTAD.
There is fruit instead of candy on the tables, meetings are held and the employees "compete" to see who is the healthiest. Here is the company that spends expensive money on the well-being of its employees.
PUBLISHED 3:02 AM UPDATED 7:40 AM
A bet worth every penny.
- Yes absolutely! It's definitely worth it. How you feel affects your whole life and we want everyone at us to feel good. Then we also get more positive employees, claims Ulrica Björnhag, CEO of the IT company Quicksearch in Slottsmöllan.
Health benefits and perhaps a health check, there are many companies that offer their employees. But bigger health investments than that are heard less often. However, there are exceptions.
- Many probably offer health care out of duty, but with us it is with passion. I'm surprised that companies don't get a hold of it in a better way, especially with the knowledge that exists about the big impact good health has, says Björnhag.
At the IT company, health has gone hand in hand with the workplace for seven years. Then Ulrica contacted a health specialist company in Halmstad - and the effects have not been long in coming.
- Corporate health care felt so mushy and when I looked around for alternatives, I found the Health Team. For example, we have developers who sit still a lot, so we wanted to prevent problems, but at the same time it would be joyful and with a focus on long-term better health. Those who are not in the game from the beginning are the hardest to get on board but what we can see is that the most die-hard Coca-Cola drinkers are making progress. Another proof that this works is that we have unusually low sickness absence.
Camilla Larsson runs the Health team and sees great progress in the more than 30 employees.
- Some were completely unmotivated at the beginning but have become completely new people. We have worked a lot on the preventive part with a focus on strengthening freshness. Among other things, we have done blood tests, strength tests, worked with posture and given suggestions for measures, says Larsson.
When HP is in place, Camilla holds an inspiration breakfast for the employees. She talks, among other things, about the importance of diet and the good impact of exercise while the responsive "office rats" munch on their first meal of the day.
Other benefits that the employees are offered include a paid entry fee to the Prince's memory (running exercise race), free times in Söndrumshallen and if they want to exercise, it's fine during working hours.
In addition, almost every quarterly meeting is focused on exercise, and each year a winner is chosen for the person who has made the greatest health progress compared to the previous year.
- You compete against yourself. Everyone does as much or as little as they want. It can be small things like taking an apple when you rarely eat vegetables. Someone starts running, then others join in and there are more and more. There is a buzz about what others have done and it is contagious, says Björnhag.
Can't it be too much of a good thing then, that employees feel pressure to be healthy?
- I had a fear that it could be like that and therefore I have checked it with the staff, but there were no problems. It must not be exaggerated and everyone decides for themselves what they want to do.
Tony Thorsell: tt@hallandsposten.se
Roger Larsson: rl@hallandsposten.se
