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Case Study: North West Firm Champions Workplace Health Initiative 

Businesses interested in implementing workplace wellbeing initiatives might want to look to the North West for inspiration.

Starkey, a world leader in manufacturing and delivering advanced hearing solutions, has adopted a digital workplace health programme it believes will help staff to become healthier, happier and ultimately more productive.

Based in Stockport, Starkey has adopted a programme called ‘actilife’.

Designed and delivered by Life Leisure, the programme – which combines wearable technology, an online interactive programme and remote coaching to help people become more active and better manage their weight – is now being used by 63% of Starkey’s workforce. It is part of the Stockport company’s programme of investment in its employees.

One hundred and seventeen of Starkey’s staff have signed up and undertaken their body composition assessments: whole body scans that give them important information about their health.

Life Leisure staff discuss the results in 20 minute one-to-one sessions with employees, giving them tailored exercise, health and nutrition information.

Each member of staff who participates in the programme received either a Garmin activity tracker or money towards buying a tracker of their own choice courtesy of Starkey. Employees use the tracker to record physical activity throughout the day, syncing the information with an online portal that enables them to monitor progress. From this they can compete in a range of online challenges to keep them motivated and encourage them to become more active, whether this is cycling to work, taking shorts walks on their lunch break or joining an activity in their local area.

Initially developed as a community health project aimed at getting members of the public moving more, but now being offered to businesses across the North West and beyond, the original actilife 3-month pilot project with 400 Stockport residents – 61% of whom were categorised as completely inactive – saw 85% report an increase in their activity levels with over two-thirds changing their habits to enjoy 30 minutes of ‘moderate physical activity’ at least three times a week.

Lindsay Fulcher, HR Manager from Starkey said: “Our most important asset is our staff, so we want to ensure we look after and protect them. Many of our employees have desk based, sedentary roles, which we know isn’t good for health. We wanted a health improvement scheme that helped us to engage staff in a fun and sustainable way.

“We have a commitment to making Starkey Hearing Technologies the best place to work, while also being a conscientious employer, therefore it’s very important to us to look at ways we can continuously improve. As well as using a local company – Life Leisure – to deliver this employee health programme, we are looking at ways to reduce our carbon footprint, be more efficient and provide an employee medical support programme too.”

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