OUTsurance has recently been selected as the ‘Healthiest Workplace’ in the Large Companies Category of the 2014 Discovery Healthy Company Index. We are particularly proud of this fact as we have been making a tremendous effort to ensure the healthy lifestyles of our employees.
Healthier companies show lower absenteeism rates and more productivity levels than their unhealthier competitors, according to the 2014 Healthy Company Index. “The Healthy Company Index showed that South Africans suffer an 11.4% loss in working days due to suboptimal health, which equates to 25 working days per employee. When compared to the UK, SA employers have a 2.3% higher productivity loss rate due to employees being unhealthier and taking more sick days” according to Fin24.
"We have moved beyond the point of defining return-on-investment and impact on absenteeism and prioritising the health of our workforce is good for business and critical for society," said Dr Craig Nossel, head of Vitality Wellness.
"A trend that emerged from 2014 is that we’re seeing a significant shift in how employee health is viewed by companies globally. There is increasing focus on improving and managing health and wellbeing and how this is affecting their bottom line."
According to Nossel, this is largely due to the worsening and alarming general state of health around the world, in particular with chronic diseases of lifestyle.
According to the website Fin24, “Research has shown that chronic diseases of lifestyle can be largely mitigated through tailored interventions to promote a healthier diet, increased levels of physical activity, and regular health checks. Since people spend a great deal of their lives at work, and work significantly impacts stress and lifestyle, employers have a unique opportunity to positively influence their employees’ ability to make healthy choices and help them to manage stress and reduce illness”.
Being voted SA’s favourite insurer in the Sunday Times Top Brand awards wasn’t quite sufficient enough so we took this challenge to companies to heart and launched our Health and Wellness (OUTlive) campaign at the beginning of 2012. Since then, participation in physical activity, maintaining a healthy eating routine, fighting addiction and even the importance of financial wellness was addressed. Considering the investments we have made to give our employees onsite access to facilities such as a clinic, sports facilities and a running track combined with the various incentives we have for staff to remain healthy; we are exceptionally proud of this award. This enables us to gain insight into the health and lifestyles of our employees, which allows for better measurement and management of the health of our people - critical elements in the achievement of our goal to be a great company to work for because happy and healthy employees = happy clients.
Read more about the 2014 winners here http://healthycompanyindex.co.za/2014-winners )