Building a healthy business

Groupama Insurances is kicking off 2008 with a real focus on employee health and wellbeing, continuing the work started in 2007. Last year, staff saw the introduction of the Preferred Employer Taskforce (PET) to steer and oversee a raft of activity designed to make Groupama ìa great place to workî and the programme is going full steam ahead.

Caroline Alexander HR Director for Groupama says: ìPET is all about understanding what is important to our employees and trying to ìmake it happenî. Listening to their feedback is a crucial part of the process. We use staff forums and on-line surveys to monitor feedback, as well as analysing HR related performance indicators (KPIs).

ìThe Investors in People standard and other external measures also ensure that we maintain our focus on effective management, training and development, as well as the wider issues such as corporate social responsibility.î

As a result of feedback, over the last 12 months, Groupama employees have enjoyed the introduction of a whole range of new benefits including, childcare vouchers, discounted health checks, enhanced family leave benefits, on-site health assessments and a new fleet risk management initiative designed to look after the safety of Groupamaís company vehicle drivers. These and many other initiatives, benefits and activities are captured in a web-based intranet hub designed to ensure that employees can easily understand everything that is being done to support them in the workplace.

Groupamaís wellbeing projects have included a recent initiative to deliver fresh fruit to all offices to raise awareness of healthy eating. The New Year began with the issue of a personal pedometer to each employee, putting the spotlight on getting and staying fit. Says Caroline Alexander: ìThese health programmes are also supported by the ëHealth Mattersí intranet site offering on-line access to a health and wellbeing portal hosted by the Companyís occupational health advisors. We believe that having healthy employees makes for a healthy and successful business, with more motivated staff and less employee absence.î

Groupama has in place sophisticated systems to monitor progress with the emphasis on listening carefully to the feedback from managers and staff. This includes regular forums for managers to boost communication and staff focus groups to understand how employees are thinking.

ìOur twice yearly staff focus groups give us the opportunity to engage directly with more junior employees and to understand clearly their day to day experiences and needs. This feedback combines with the information gained from across the business to create a dashboard that allows us to monitor success in improving the working environment. This level of enhanced reporting also enables early intervention where problems are identified and over time should help us learn what works best in different parts of our business and what really motivates staff to perform better.î continues Caroline Alexander.

ìAttracting and retaining talented people is key to the continued success of Groupama Insurances. Our Preferred Employer Taskforce is a highly focused programme of activity, designed to really involve all aspects of the business in helping to ensure that Groupama remains a great place to work.î