RNLI Case Study

Each year, an average of 14 divers die in UK and Irish waters with the vast majority of lives lost when divers suffer cardiac-related events whilst under water.

Over a three year period the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) has placed three Wellpoints at a variety of dive centres and offered visitors free cardiac health checks.

Over 3,500 divers have made use of one of the RNLI Wellpoints to date. The result is many divers have heeded the warning and taken action to improve their cardiac health.’

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.

RWE Case Study

RWE is an international energy company suppling power from wind, solar, gas and biomass RWE in the UK has a workforce of around 2500 staff. The company takes an empowering approach to health and wellbeing where the individual takes the lead and the company is the enabler.

RWE has a fleet of 2-3 Wellpoints that are available to move between sites with the aim that every employee checks their health at least once per year.  Rather than imposing a timetable, RWE has empowered each site to take responsibility for wellbeing checks with a “wellbeing champion” at each location.

According to Robert Manson, Head of Occupational Health & Wellbeing RWE Generation UK, the empowerment approach is crucial to wider adoption: “By being ground-up and not top-down we get the sites to want to have the Wellpoints.  Some sites want it every two months now.”

RWE has also seen strong adoption of the Well.Me digital tracking wellbeing tracking app with around 20% of employees now using it. With many of the employees working shifts around the clock and some located off shore, it was important to RWE that the Wellpoint system and Well.Me service could operate autonomously and track vital health indicators such as blood pressure with no human intervention.

RWE also sees variance in attitudes to health and wellbeing between the traditional renewable divisions:

“We see a big difference between the typically younger employees working in the renewables business compared to those in the gas and biomass generating business,” explains Robert. “The renewable employees are very keen on health and wellbeing programmes and use the Well.Me app. Those those working in the power stations have been working in the business for many years and require a slightly different approach and a bit more encouragement.”

Siemens Case Study

Siemens, the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe, has run a wellbeing campaign since 2015 across its 49 sites in the UK. The campaign is aimed at increasing workforce happiness and productivity by encouraging employees to make healthy lifestyle choices.

Inspired by a local Siemens branch in Newcastle which wanted a better employee health programme, Siemens rolled out Wellpoints as the core of its nationwide employee wellbeing campaign. Supplemented by physiologist and nurse led face-to-face checks, Wellpoints were initially placed in all major sites with over 500 employees.Staff are also able to track health metrics through the Well.Me digital service.

“The biggest reason for using the Wellpoints is keeping employees healthy and empowering them to make better lifestyle decisions. It’s all about the value our wellbeing programme can deliver for individual employees.” said James Brown, the Health Management Lead at Siemens. “Another big driver was how the focus on wellbeing made us much more attractive as employers to potential staff.”

Rather than simply harvesting the data, Siemens’ wellbeing programme focuses on alerting employees to health issues and helping them to make positive changes. The company uses the Wellpoint and Well.Me systems concurrently to empower employees to improve fitness by giving them access to their personal healthcare data.

Today, the location and requirement for Wellpoints is decided by each Siemens site and set up in high profile locations as this has been shown to drive usage.

“We selected Wellpoints as they are the market leaders as well as the thought leaders in the sector,” explains Brown.  “We also liked the combination of physical Wellpoint health checking system and the digital Well.Me wellbeing tracking service.”

National Grid Case Study

UK energy infrastructure company National Grid is one of the most established users of Wellpoints with over ten years’ continuous operation. The company currently has five Wellpoints at different locations and is in the process of upgrading to new Wellpoints that will coincide with the Well.Me digital health tracking service being rolled out to employees.

With over 6,000 employees and a team of just three people to look after their mental and physical wellbeing, the automation of health services is important at National Grid. In addition to Wellpoints, the company also provides a virtual GP service to staff.

“We are focused on establishing a healthy and happy workforce that are on site and working,” explains Dawn McCarroll, Physical Wellbeing Officer at National Grid. “We track sickness absence days as our key metric, but we are now also looking at blood pressure data to judge wellbeing.”

With many employees located outside of offices, National Grid also has the challenge of how to monitor wellbeing among mobile workers as well as the office-based staff. Wellpoints are located in prominent positions in National Grid buildings to encourage usage, and the benefits of tracking vital health metrics are communicated during team meetings.

“Our office workers are already well aware of, and appreciate our efforts in health and wellbeing,” adds McCarroll.  “The challenge is the out of office workforce. We need to provide encouragement for some employees while observing the fine line between telling people what to do and informing them of their choices.”

BBC Case Study

The BBC has installed Wellpoints in key locations across the UK as part of its employee health and wellbeing initiative.

According to the BBC, “the Wellpoints provide a state-of-the-art machine providing the user with the facility to take their own health metrics, in confidence, without having to make an appointment or see a health professional”. The Wellpoints also provide advice and guidance, but gives the user the responsibility for taking action where needed.

The BBC instructs employees on the value of health monitoring and reminds staff that there are an estimated 7 million people living with cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the UK. CVD accounts for more than a quarter of all deaths, meaning 160,000 lives are lost to the disease every year in the UK. About 41,600 of these are premature and affect those of working age.

The Wellpoints are located in buildings around the BBC at 13 different locations including Broadcasting Centre in London, Salford, Cardiff Llandaf and Glasgow Pacific Quay – with seven permanent Wellpoints and additional mobile units.

The Wellpoint check takes about 4 ½ minutes for each individual. Once completed, employees are given a printout of results and also emailed to the individual. This will also include a number links for further reading and access to the free Well.Me online portal. The Well.Me Dashboard gives BBC employees a summary of their current health metrics, as taken on a Wellpoint kiosk. You can see your results, how they relate to the ideal or recommended values and your history and any personal goals you’ve set for yourself.

User Experience Case Study

When Dave Chandler checked his blood pressure in July 2018, the 26-year-old assumed he was fit and healthy. But the Wellpoint told a different story and Dave avoided serious medical consequences by listening to the Wellpoint and getting medical help.

Dave, an electrical engineer at an electricity distribution company, designs and installs electricity substations to keep the grid running and the lights on for the people around Lincoln.  Dave is also a keen sportsman with a love of football and rock climbing who had just completed a 100-mile bike ride from Lincoln to Old Trafford, the home of his team Manchester United. So a routine health check on the Wellpoint, which is installed twice a year at his local depot, was a major surprise when it showed a red warning signal for high blood pressure.  Initially doubtful of the reading given his age and fitness, Dave rechecked his score and on the advice of his partner Susan Dower, sought medical advice.

The GP he consulted immediately referred Dave to Accident and Emergency where an electrocardiogram detected damage to the left ventricle. Through medication Dave has fully recovered, with his blood pressure now under control, and has taken up sports fully once more.

As Susan explained, the presence of the Wellpoint was critical: “The A&E doctor said that due to his age, high blood pressure normally goes unnoticed until it’s too late and a stroke or heart attack happens. I’m not sure that without the health Kiosk being brought to the depot what would have happened.”

Dave Chandler is now fully restored to health, with his blood pressure maintained at normal levels, and able to play football and carry on his passion for rock climbing.  Both Dave and Susan appreciate the Wellpoint for the vital purpose it has served, but also for the general role it plays in keeping the team at his company focused on fitness and wellbeing metrics.

As Susan concludes: “You can tell when the Wellpoint is in the depot as everyone is eating the salads.”

[Names have been changed in this case study to protect privacy]