MetLife UK gets active with employee wellness campaign

MetLife UK is expanding its commitment to wellness at work by signing up with Global Corporate Challenge (GCC), which works with businesses worldwide to improve the health and performance of employees.

It is joining GCC 2016, which has worked with more than 5,500 organisations across 185 countries and has helped more than two million employees during its history since being founded in Australia in 2003.

Participation in GCC 2016 is part of MetLife’s Wellness for Life global programme, which focuses on a holistic view of wellness as part of its commitment to clients and staff.

On 25 May, 189 of MetLife’s UK employees will take part in the global challenge in teams of seven, taking on a 100-day virtual journey around the world competing against some 50,000 other teams across the globe, including almost 1,200 colleagues from across MetLife’s EMEA region.

Each participating team member receives a wearable activity tracker, the GCC Pulse, which logs movement through the day. Each MetLife staff member has a target of 10,000 steps a day and the more active the team the further their collective progress through the challenge.

Wellness is a strategic growth area for MetLife and its Employee Benefits business in particular, which focuses on physical and mental wellness as part of its commitment to clients and staff.

Tom Gaynor, Employee Benefits Director of MetLife UK said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for our employees to really embrace wellness and for the company to literally walk the walk as well as talk the talk.

“Our aim across EMEA is to strengthen employee engagement to promote the healthiest focus we can on all aspects of wellness, including physical activity, nutrition, positive minds and better sleep. Whether our staff walk, run, cycle, swim, ballroom dance, or are into martial arts, we want to support and reward them.”

MetLife’s own data* shows more than half of employers (56%) thought improving staff health, fitness and general wellness would improve productivity within their organisation, but only 28% said they had such a programme in place. Around 57% of employees agreed that improving staff health, fitness and general wellness would improve productivity.

MetLife has embarked on a programme of research, innovation and thought leadership to help organisations look at practical ways to improve health and resilience, improve stress management and in turn model and measure engagement and productivity.