Reed Business Information’s (RBI) Living Well programme is designed to support the physical and psychological wellbeing of its 2,000 employees.
It encompasses physical fitness, healthy eating, emotional wellbeing, and giving back through a strong charity agenda. The programme is led by global marketing director, Lawrence Mitchell.
“As an ambitious [organisation] focused on innovation and growth, people are a key part of our success and we need them to be healthy and engaged in their work,” he says. ”The leadership team all understand and embrace that, and have put some resources behind the creation of the RBI Living Well programme.”
Having a voice in the executive meetings clearly helped put the topic on the agenda and frame it in a language that resonated with the leadership audience.
In making the business case and demonstrating ROI, Mitchell initially focused on sickness through absence data, using the logical argument that having a team of healthy, engaged people has to be better for business than the reverse.
It also created wellness experiences that engaged people and could be measured and reported. One of these was the RBI 50 Days of Wellbeing, which engaged 25% of employees based in the organisation’s 50 offices around the world.