BMW Case Study
The iconic BMW Group employs over 8,000 people in the UK. Health and wellbeing is a core focus for the group as it seeks to ensure better health for the employees while reaping the benefits that a healthier workforce provides.
Physical health monitoring was the initial focus for BMW Groups wellbeing services. Following a competitive tendering process the company installed Wellpoints at its main locations in Oxford, Swindon, Farnborough and West Sussex. “We started with a one-hour consultation with a nurse but then moved to the automated solution with the Wellpoints than can operate 24/7 and take five minutes,” explains Andrew Cooke, BMW Group’s lead specialist in health management and occupational safety. “Although we initially focused on the physical assessment, we also now appreciate the value Well.Me provides,”
According to Cooke, the use of the Wellpoints and Well.Me service has seen three groups of users; “The ‘worried well’ who use the Wellpoint on a weekly or even a daily basis. The ‘health checkers’ who participate during health promotions and the ‘not so keen’ who we need to encourage into engagement.”
Cooke also identifies differences in wellbeing attitudes and participation between the different sites. While the car manufacturing centres are more traditional and reserved in their approach to corporate health initiatives, the typically younger employees at the company’s UK headquarters in Farnborough are enthusiastic about wellbeing programmes.
The wellbeing communication approach taken by BMW is to vary the message by audience and to encourage associates without telling them what to do. The company also tracks the overall health of the employee population and is looking at greater monitoring of different employee groups based on the anonymised data provided by Well.Me.