Video tutorial: Case study on how Saint-Gobain reduced health risks

Reducing health risks is key benefit of health and wellbeing, according to Dr Chris Tomkins, chief operating officer, proactive health at AXA PPP Healthcare. “There is a clear relationship,” he said.

Watch Kevin Crawley and Dr Chris Tomkins session 'Demonstrating value and impact on your health and wellbeing investment through a reduction in health risks' in full.

Speaking at the REBA Employee Wellbeing Congress 2017 he said companies could drive value and engagement through their health and wellbeing strategies which was then clearly illustrated by a case study from Saint-Gobain. “One of the starting points is to make it engaging,” he said.

He said titling a health risk assessment puts people off but an approach of ‘health age’ does more to engage employees, he said. “The challenge has been how can we tie this all together. Data is important but what we want to do is see it live. Learn as you go and refine your program as you go,” he said.

He said the company had worked on this model for the past five years. “We want to work to make the UK 50,000 years younger over the next three years,” he said.

At manufacturer and distributor of building products Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland the company’s environmental health and safety director, Kevin Crawley said his company made a global commitment to reinvigorate health and wellbeing in all its businesses around the world in 2011. The scale of the business, even in the UK where it has 34 businesses across more than 1,000 sites, meant it was no easy task, he said.

“We were doing health and wellbeing at different levels in each business but there was no joined-up thinking and there was a really fragmented approach to how we were getting people to come onboard with the health and wellbeing message. We were doing things because we thought it was the right thing to do. We didn’t have the data,” said Crawley. He explained how the company took action, working with AXA to identify health risks within the business, and developing a programme called Fit for Work Fit for Life. “People recognise it, understand and engage with it,” he said.

Since the programme was implemented in 2014 he said engagement rates had risen from 64% to 94% today. "We believe and know we are doing the right thing because our people are telling us we are," he said. Staff had reduced the health age of their organisation by 1442 years and the company had also removed more than 1200 health risks, he explained.

This video tutorial was recorded at the REBA Employee Wellbeing Congress 2017 which took place on 22 June.