For Business

RETENTION AND MOTIVATION

There is growing trend amongst leading organizations to cultivate a healthy, happy workforce as it promotes a positive work environment with more motivated employees and reduced turnover. One such company who actively promote this policy are Mc Donalds Restaurant Of Ireland. Michelle Ryan, HR Director in Mc Donalds says"The AFRESH motivational well-being program is just one of a number of initiatives the company runs to motivate and retain their staff. It fits in with our overall Corporate Service Responsibility and Diversity and Equality strategy. After the AFRESH programme, 66% of the participants said they had a more positive attitude and 47% of them said they were grateful to Mc Donalds for running such an innovative programme." Irish Life’s HR General Manager, Carol Pemberton has also indicated that programmes such as the ones which AFRESH run with the company have a positive impact on employee turnover. (Further information on testimonials)

UK firms are also adapting this approach according to the CIPD’s UK survey on Absence Management. Insurance company Royal London Group decided to shift the emphasis of the healthcare it provided for its staff from reactive treatment towards the promotion of better health and well-being as a way of reducing sickness absence and improving productivity. “But we believed a well-being scheme would serve as an attraction, motivation and retention tool too,” says group employee health manager, Marisa Pickerill. At the time of writing, Pickerill expected the company’s absence bill to have dropped by 33 per cent to £1 million, down from £1.5 million at the end of 2005. “Occupational Health wouldn’t want to claim credit for all of that: Vitality at Work is part of a collective approach to absence management,” she says. Research by the UK Department of Health in 2005 showed that for every £1 spent on such wellbeing programmes there was an average return on investment of £3.73, including a 34 per cent saving in absenteeism costs.

AFRESH firmly believe that physical wellness impacts mental wellness and vice versa which in turn impact the health and safety of the workforce. To assist employers not only meet legislative obligations but also benefit from a productive, healthy and well balanced team , AFRESH deploy a four pronged customised solution to meeting health and safety obligations: