Carphone Warehouse Balance (PDF)

The Royal Institute of Public Health
Royal Mail
Background
Royal Mail employs around 190,000
people throughout the UK, many from
a diverse multicultural background.
Jobs are diverse too – from postmen
and women collecting, sorting and
delivering the mail, to office-based
staff handling customer inquiries and
running “backroom” operations such as
accounts, IT and HR management.
Strategy
Royal Mail firmly believes a healthy
and fit workforce is key to providing
a consistently reliable, high quality
service to its customers.
The company’s strategy for delivering
fundamental health improvement
messages to employees has ranged
from lifestyle and healthy diet advice
(including a healthy option on their
canteen’s menu) to safety information.
The RIPH’s Understanding Health
Improvement qualification was seen
as a natural extension to Royal Mail’s
occupational health strategy.
Implementation
Aiming to give ‘health’ and ‘safety’ a
more equal focus and emphasis, Royal
Mail decided to cascade Understanding
Health Improvement to established
networks within the company, including
over 50 Health and Safety professionals
and around 5,000 First Aiders.
A number of First Aiders Trainers
and Health and Safety personnel
volunteered to be trained initially by
RIPH. This then gave Royal Mail a
core group of people who could train
colleagues and peers.
Giving employees the opportunity
to gain a nationally recognised
qualification from a reputable public
health awarding body supports their
personal and professional development,
self esteem and motivation, and of
course, health improvement.
Understanding Health Improvement Case Study
lifestyle
Outcome
1. Personal benefit: employees
of Royal Mail will have
the awareness to make
healthier choices and
adopt healthier lifestyles
for themselves and their
families.
2. Peer benefit: employees will
be able to help and support
colleagues.
3. Royal Mail: increase in
morale and engagement,
raising productivity, and
thereby ultimately providing
customers with a higher
quality of service.
Further information
Nicki Alvey, RIPH Understanding
Health Improvement Project Manager
T: 020 7291 8360
E: nalvey@riph.org.uk
http://www.riph.org.uk/
healthinformation/

The Royal Institute of Public Health
Carphone Warehouse
Background
The Carphone Warehouse Group is Europe’s
leading independent retailer of mobile
phones and services with over 2,300 stores
in 11 countries, and now with a significant
Telecoms business.
With 800 stores, 52 service centres around
UK, 1 major repair centre and 14 contact
centres in the UK, the Carphone Warehouse
Group employs around 12,000 staff.
As an organisation they are aware that their
employees are their most important asset,
and as a growing and developing Group
they want to ensure that their values and
the care of employees is not compromised.
This has to be balanced with quality
customer service being at the forefront of
Carphone Warehouse’s business ethos.
Strategy
Though staff motivation and satisfaction,
staff sickness and absence rates are not
significant issues, Carphone Warehouse’s
HR team constantly examine and address
the work environment.
When an opportunity arose to participate
in ‘Balance’ – a workplace health research
project led by The Centre for Workplace
Health and funded by Sport England –
James Collins, former UK HR Director based
at Carphone Warehouse’s North Acton
contact centre in London, could immediately
see the benefits in addressing the health
and wellbeing of their employees at work,
and supporting them in choosing healthier
lifestyles. Thus, the North Acton contact
centre introduced the trial Balance Project
in January 2006.
Implementation
A Project Co-ordinator from The Centre
for Workplace Health was assigned to
Carphone Warehouse and started working
with the HR team, volunteer Workplace
Health Champions and the wider Carphone
Warehouse staff on a two year programme
of health related initiatives in the
workplace. These included themed health
weeks, pedometer challenges, stop smoking
support, extending and labelling healthy
food options on their canteen’s menu, and
physical activity classes.
Participation was good, with more than
50% of contact centre staff attending at
least one heath related event or initiative
every three months.
When The Centre of Workplace Health
became an accredited RIPH Centre for the
new Understanding Health Improvement
qualification, it seemed to Carphone
Warehouse as an ideal way to ‘validate’ all
the work that had taken place so far, as well
as giving key staff a nationally recognised
qualification from a reputable public
health awarding body – all good for staff’s
personal and professional development,
self esteem and motivation, and of course,
health improvement.
Understanding Health Improvement Case Study
lifestyle
Outcome
The Balance project been so
successful and popular that
the HR team at North Acton
contact centre are going to
continue the good work that
the two year research project
began.
Over and above this, Carphone
Warehouse have rolled out
similar work across two
other large contact centers
in the north of England and
are looking at a programme
of further expansion of
the scheme to cover other
Carphone Warehouse
locations.
promoting health and wellbeing at work
Further information
Nicki Alvey, RIPH Understanding
Health Improvement Project Manager
T: 020 7291 8360
E: nalvey@riph.org.uk
http://www.riph.org.uk/
healthinformation/