Vicinity employees on track for healthier lifestyle

How many steps would it take to get from here to Vancouver? This was just one of the questions being asked at Vicinity Group’s head office in Liverpool last week. The Group has kick started the New Year with a resolution to get healthy! The launch of a healthy living week saw staff introduced to a number of healthy lifestyle changes including health checks, healthy cookery sessions and culminating in the Vicinity to Vancouver Pedometer Challenge!

Vicinity has been working with Let’s Get Healthy to introduce healthy lifestyle options. All staff have been encouraged to complete a confidential online questionnaire about many different aspects of their lifestyle and health choices. 97% of staff who completed the questionnaire stated that they wanted to be healthier. Personal profiles are evaluated on an ongoing basis to encourage participants to a healthier lifestyle.

Health leaders from Let's Get Healthy visited each of the main offices across the Group and employees took part in health checks which included blood pressure, hydration levels, height, body fat analysis, weight, measurements and BMI (body mass index) analysis. Each member of staff who received a health check also had a 20 minute consultation to discuss the results of their lifestyle questionnaire, any health concerns and help with their health goals.

Susan Currie, Vicinity’s Learning & Continuous Improvement Officer commented: “The best way to motivate people is to get them interested in taking the first step. We are delighted with the response that we have had to these initiatives and that so many staff are getting on board for a healthier lifestyle.”

A chef also visited the offices to provide healthy cookery demonstrations and treated everyone to a variety of sample dishes. The Health & Wellbeing Week ended on a challenge! Everyone in the organisation was invited to join the Vicinity to Vancouver pedometer race to fitness.

Staff take part in the challenge by wearing a pedometer and either as individuals or teams, record their daily steps on the Let’s Get Healthy website. The intention is to increase levels of fitness by encouraging people to beat their own daily records and also to achieve 18 million steps - the number of steps it would take to get from Vicinity’s head office in Liverpool city centre to Vancouver City Hall and back! The challenge will run for five weeks until the beginning of March.

This is all part of a Health & Wellbeing Programme which Vicinity introduced last year. The programme is supported by champions from across the organisation who attend training sessions over six months so that they can be advocates for these initiatives.