A new initiative of sporting activities was made by SEKISUI Diagnostics in Kent, England. The company participates in the program “Workplace Challenge” which aims to engage and motivate staff to participate more in sport and physical activity. They are due to organise various in-house challenges for the employees in order to improve their physical health.
A healthy workforce = a healthy business
The benefits of physical activity are obvious: It reduces many chronic diseases and improves mental health and well-being. SEKISUI Diagnostics have already recognised this and implemented many measures to motivate their employees to get fitter. Next to weight loss challenges, Pilates, fruit baskets and nutrition workshops, the latest initiative of the CSR team is the participation of the “Workplace Challenge”.
The “Workplace Challenge” is a national program, funded by Sport England, with the aim to promote sport, physical activity and health improvements across the UK’s workplaces. People can use an Activity Log In to record their levels of sport or active travel, collect points for it and compete with colleagues or other workplaces at the same time.
Official challenges combined with in-house activities
Since March 2017 Maxine Lehane (HR Business Partner) and Katie Smithers (Purchasing Specialist) built up the “Workplace Challenge Team” of SEKISUI Diagnostics. The purpose behind the initiative is clear: “We care about our employees. We try to motivate the people to get more active, not only in the workplace, but at home too. From a management point of view, more physical activity is proven to lower stress levels, lower sickness rates and boost employees energy levels”, says Katie.
Before initiating any activity, Katie and Max took part in a Workplace Challenge Champion training course in order to get the skills, confidence and resources to promote better health and increase participation in sport activity across the company.
The #Active Travel Challenge is part of the official initiated “Workplace Challenge” from Kent Sport, where many companies in Kent compete against each other for a period of 8 weeks. The idea behind it is quite simple: If people run, walk or cycle to work instead of using motorised transport for example, it will be counted as “Active travel”. The challenge is now complete where SEKISUI Diagnsotics came second in Kent and one of the employees Ian Howden achieved third best male in Kent. In total SEKISUI Kent saved 1,657 car miles.
Besides this official competition the employees take part in, the CSR team are in the process of organising various in-house activities for the co-workers. A “Lunchbreak Walking Club” will shortly be up and running where co-workers come together and take a walk during their 45 minutes lunchbreak. It’s a good opportunity to get together, get to know new colleagues and use the free time to get moving. They will also be providing different fitness exercises people can do at their desk. A very special challenge will be coming up in July. A “Row to Roermond Challenge” where a rowing machine will be on site and we will encourage people to row the route from Kent, England to Roermond, Netherlands. “We wanted to row to another SEKISUI office and decided on Roermond as the annual football tournament is due to be held there”, says Maxine.
150 minutes a week to get healthier
28 SEKISUI Diagnostics co-workers take part in the Workplace Challenge so far. The recommended goal is to partake in a minimum of 150 minutes of physical activity a week. “We hoped that those people not quite achieving the recommended minutes will be motivated by the challenge” says Katie and was proved right. It encourages the employees to set their own goals and to take on new challenges.
Support of local community
With the “Workplace Challenge”, SEKISUI Diagnostics not only tries to motivate staff members to get more active, energised and to boost productivity, it is also an opportunity to support the local community and businesses, in which the company operates. Active Travel e.g. reduces car travel, air pollution and provides opportunities for social interaction. Above all stand the physical, emotional and mental health benefits.
