But its new global initiative is intended to help people assess their own healthiness and identify problem areas so that they can make the lifestyle changes required to improve their lives.

Integral to the scheme is a dedicated website where employees register and complete a 15-minute well-being and health risk assessment based on vielife’s Online software.

 

They are questioned about their diet, exercise regime, stress levels, smoking rates and sleep patterns – a full lifestyle assessment, in fact. Crucially however, the information provided to vielife is kept confidential and is not accessed by Medtronic at all.

Based on the answers given, each person then receives a wellbeing score ranging from one to 100. Those identified as being in a high-risk group – people who are at risk of diabetes, for example – are offered individual coaching.

 

 

Gen Barron, Medtronic’s senior manager for global wellness, says: “People at risk get an outbound call and that coach will work with them one-on-one.”

 

The firm has found that 42% of those receiving such a call have so far opted to work with a coach on their problem areas. The aim is to have staff repeat the assessment on an annual basis, however, in order to see whether their score has improved.

The initiative builds upon an existing “Total Health” programme, introduced in 2006 at the firm’s US headquarters, which has so far produced some impressive results.

 

These include reducing the number of employees who smoke by 15% and cutting the number of employees identified with high cholesterol by 72%. The eventual aim is to roll out the initiative to 11,000 employees working in 18 countries.

“We’re a global company and our programmes and initiatives need to be as equal as they can,” Barron explains.

The supplier estimates that the scheme has so far saved it more than $4 million as it no longer has to deal with a range of costly health issues. But it also believes that the benefits are more than purely monetary.

 

 

According to Barron, it’s also about “company reputation, to be seen as a good place to work, and morale because it shows that as a company you’re not just interested in people’s work life – people bring their whole selves to work”.

When the programme was first introduced in the US, 50% of the total workforce registered to take part in the assessment, but that figure has now risen to 90%. Despite the impressive levels of take-up, however, Barron admits: “There’s always a level of scepticism with anything new.”

And the high take-up rate can at least partly be attributed to the fact that Medtronic offers incentives to encourage people to get involved. Participation has, in fact, been tied to its health insurance offer, which means that those employees who complete the programme pay less for their cover.

 

In the UK and other geographies where health insurance is not an issue, however, other types of incentives are being employed. For example, the first 100 to complete the risk assessment are offered gift vouchers for gym membership.

Nonetheless, of the 11 countries, including the UK, in which the wellbeing programme was rolled out without any major incentives being provided, 48% of the workforce still chose to register and some 34% completed the survey.

 

By using incentives, however, the goal is to increase this figure to 75%. Phase two will also see the initiative being rolled out to a further seven countries.

 

Results from US wellbeing programme, introduced in 2006: