Organisation Feedback
Nestlé UK
Nestlé UK interviewed staff who participated in the GCC. This is what they said (uncut):
Professor Cary L. Cooper, CBE, Distinguished Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health Lancaster University Management School
"I participated in the Global Corporate Challenge last year and I found it a really fantastic experience. I knew that it would help me improve my physical fitness but in fact I discovered it had an additional advantage for me and the people I work with. In fact, it not only made me feel physical and psychologically fitter but ending up being one of the most significant team building activities I have ever been involved in. What is important in the workplace to minimize stress and maximize productivity is to be able to connect emotional and psychologically with your team, the people you work with day in and day out. Indeed, an individual’s wellbeing at work depends on feeling valued and trusted by those they work with, and GCC helps to forge these close bonding relationships which can last well beyond the end of the GCC activity. As a result of my very positive experience I hope to take part again this year with a different group of colleagues, in an effort to further develop myself physically and forge closer relationships with others at work."
Debbie McGrath - CEO of HR.com
"When I started my first 10,000 step challenge, I was amazed at how quickly I began to feel and notice changes. I could feel my muscles becoming more conditioned, I was sleeping better, and I just felt better. By the end of my challenge, I was stunned to see that I had lost 27 pounds. This really opened my eyes to the power of walking and how a daily routine of 10,000 steps absolutely has the ability to make you fitter, healthier, and slimmer."
Anne O'Keefe - Head of Human Resources at Zurich Financial Services Australia
"GCC has been a part of life at Zurich for the past three years, and it easily fits with our wellbeing strategy (Healthy Wealthy Wise) for employees. In 2009, for the first time, Zurich tracked the sick leave of GCC participants against non-GCC participants. The results were interesting. Of the GCC participants the sick leave was under half a day (0.42 days) on average across the GCC population compared to the organisation average of 1.7 days over the organisation population - and that at the height of a particularly hard flu season. So, its not only a benefit to individuals health but also the organisations health and productivity. "
Kate Ross - Freehills
"Staff members have commented to me that they’ve noticed big improvements in their energy levels, their fitness levels, and in their overall health and wellbeing. A terrific event to be a part of but what we loved most was that all staff could participate. "
Lorraine Green - Fit for Life Co-coordinator - Cadbury UK
"Joining the GCC certainly ticked all the right boxes! It's a fantastic event that is totally inclusive and created a real buzz around all of our UK sites. We had some individuals that made outstanding efforts, achieving personal goals both in increasing their activity levels and also weight loss targets - for some it is no exaggeration to say this has been a 'life changing event. "
Dr David Batman - Head of Employee wellness - Nestle UK Ltd
"The GCC is an incredibly fun and simple way of encouraging employees to get more active and can be easily implemented into people’s busy everyday lives. Not only that, but it’s applicable to every single person within the workplace. It fits perfectly with our strategy. It’s highly visible, has measurable results, is cost effective, and most importantly really excites people – It meets all our parameters. "
Sue Connelly - Employee Health - AstraZeneca
"AstraZeneca's success is linked to the health and wellbeing of our staff - we depend on them for innovation and enterprise. Fundamental to this is maintaining life balance and physical and mental health and wellbeing are key. For this reason we encourage our staff globally to sign up to the GCC event and increase their activity levels. "
Ed Napiorkowski - GM EH&S Australasia - Chubb Security
"The GCC is a fun and effective addition to any health and wellbeing program. Having access to the interactive GCC website supported by regular communication and interaction encourages and motivate employees, makes a real difference and is in my opinion a major factor in the overall success of this program. "
Tony Evans - Chandler KBS
"It's only since I've been doing the GCC that I have rediscovered the natural beauty of the area around my home city of Newport in South Wales. Within a 40-mile radius can be found ancient castles, modern architecture, rivers, lakes and all manner of fabulous scenery just waiting for eager walkers. "
Chris May - Devon Council
"The Challenge, the web site, the intention and the community have combined to give us a better feeling about and approach to healthier living. "
Terry Gilligan - Arval
"At age almost 62, I think I am still much fitter than many of my younger colleagues, whom I will be encouraging to take up the challenge next year. "
Coralie Diett - NHS Wiltshire
"I have now lost 1 ½ stone and the walking is certainly helping the pounds drop off – I feel like a new woman and I am looking forward to slipping into my wedding dress in December! Thank you again for giving me a boost. "
Ian Agnew - Bluescope Steel
"My experience was that the GCC gave me the motivation to get off my backside after recent major surgery and regain some of the fitness and conditioning I had lost while laid up in hospital. The GCC really helped with the mental side as I had a goal each day of achieving a certain number of steps. "
Arturo Norbury - Advisor, People, Policy & Services - QANTAS Airways Limited
"Qantas has participated in the past 2 GCC's with over 30 teams representing various areas within the Qantas Group. The healthy competition amongst Qantas participants has focused attention on the importance of physical activity for all our staff. The GCC has made the event fun and educational with the virtual race around the world concept. The GCC is now a permanent fixture on Qantas' health and wellbeing calendar. "
Linda McLeland - OHSE Business Partner - Ericsson
"2008 was the second year Ericsson Australia and New Zealand participated in the Global Corporate Challenge, and the enthusiasm from our people for this fantastic, well-executed event continues to grow. Over 20% of our employees took part in 2008, reporting positive changes such as increased daily physical activity, healthier diets and the adoption of environmentally-friendly modes of transport. The event also fostered teamwork - as groups of employees across different business areas and geographical locations worked together to achieve their step count goals. From an organisational perspective, the GCC team provided excellent service and support. The GCC is a highly recommended journey for any organisation. "
Tricia Vail - Fortescue Metals Group
"As the company administrator for FMG, I found out about GGC back in September 2007 and was eager to roll this out as apart of our Wellness Initiative. Behind the scenes to promote and sell this among the mass ranks of highly stressed and extremely busy employees was a challenge. The outcome was a impressive 18 teams of eager FMG employees who wanted to make the move out of their chairs and become more active. Well done FMG teams, we have seen a postive improvement on the culture / thinking and of course quite a few participants have now in their efforts lost a few kilos along the journey. The challenge to you all is what are you going to do on day 126? Don't drop the ball because it is over. Continue on your journey towards a healthy body, healthy mind and a healthy spirit. Thankyou Global Corporate Challenge. I have enjoyed the challenge. Tricia "
Karen Williams - Health Manager - Goodman Fielder
"Taking part in the GCC had many positive impacts at the individual, team and company level. We particularly enjoyed sharing and hearing the many personal triumphs and achievements experienced by our employees throughout the challenge. "
Gaynor Henderson - Healthy Opportunities Coordinator - Southern Health
"Southern Health was involved in the challenge in 2008 with 30 teams. With the fantastic response from staff who participated in 2008 this year’s involvement was even bigger with 49 teams.
Feedback from employees indicates that they really like the team and colleague involvement and the chance to meet other employees they would not have normally mix with outside their department.
Southern Health is a large organisation with multiple sites and is always challenged in offering health and wellbeing programs to employees equally. The Global Corporate Challenge allows us to be a part of a health and wellbeing activity and offer it to staff no matter where they are located.
We have also found from feedback that employees self rate their overall wellbeing higher even a couple of months post the challenge that prior to the challenge.
Southern Health has been pleased to be involved in the Challenge for the past two years. It gives the opportunity for employees, who don’t normally exercise, the opportunity to integrate exercise with their working life as they see can see how others have been able to manage the balance."
Kelly Blinzler - VP, Marketing Research Operations - The Mattson Jack Group
"The GCC is a great event and I look forward to participating next year. With a job that has me at my desk and computer all day, it is easy to have very few steps. I do not have a regular routine of exercise so this event made a huge change in my activity level. I started with a miserable step count per day in the first week (under 4,000) and ended the 125 days averaging over 10,000 per day. Weekends were easy, but it was hard during the work day. I started walking the track during my daughter's soccer practice rather than watching the practice. In the end, I lost 18 pounds and brought my total cholesterol level into a healthy range without medications. I am still wearing my pedometer to keep up my step awareness. "
John McGagh - Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto Procurement is a diversified organisation, with staff located around the globe. 2007 was our first year participating in the GCC and it appealed to RTP because it's a truly global challenge, meaning that any of our staff, be they on a mine site in Weipa or in an office in Johannesburg, could participate. We've had a tremendous amount of positive feedback from participants and it has helped bring our employees closer together as many of the teams are comprised of individuals residing in different countries. It has also helped create an awareness of just how sedentary many of us are, which has encouraged increased physical activity through walking groups, and friendly rivalry amongst our teams. Personally, as a direct result of the challenge, I have stopped driving to work and instead catch a bus, which entails a 3km walk each day. RTP considers the GCC to be a positive event that proactively encourages staff to become aware of their physical fitness.
Megan Kingham - Manager Wellbeing & Diversity - AGL
"At AGL physical health is an important part of our overall wellbeing strategy. As an organisation that values its people we recognise the importance of physical activity, particularly for those who are in sedentary, office based roles. The Global Corporate Challenge not only provides an opportunity for our people to increase their activity and improve their general wellbeing but also provides a uniting, if somewhat competitive atmosphere between the teams! The user friendly website and great support from the admin team at the GCC means it's an easy addition to our wellbeing program. "
Kim Wilson - PricewaterhouseCoopers UK
"This has been so much fun" is how my director Jon Rowden described it! The GCC has been enthusiastically embraced by the four teams I organised to take part. They would definitely be keen to do it again next year and one team even plan to continue it after this year's has finished. They are working on a complex formulae to track their progress around the world once the 2007 website has closed! I decided that I would get PwC involved after taking part in the GCC in Melbourne and felt that it fit in well with PwC's ethos of 'Zest for Life' and 'Work/Life balance'. It also fits in well as PwC is keen on promoting participation and getting involved, and I think it has been a great success on that score, getting colleagues talking not only in the office, but also getting together to go on lunchtime walks etc. I personally have become addicted to walking to work ever since I took part in Melbourne and am amazed at how many steps I can incorporate into my day. Others have told me how surprised they have been at how many steps simple things like walking round the supermarket can accumulate, and this is obviously raising their awareness of how to fit physical activity into their lives without realising it. I will definitely be participating again next year and hope to recruit even more teams in 2008! "
Debra Smith - Health & Safety Strategy & Planning, People & Culture - NAB
"The GCC has provided an excellent vehicle for NAB to create the opportunity to support its employees' in achieving improved Health and Well-being. The convenience of the interactive on-line program means we have the capability to make it available to our employees who are spread out in CBD offices and branches nationally. "
Elizabeth Jennison - Payroll - YUM! RESTAURANTS PTY LIMITED.
"Due to the nature of our business we have KFC branded restaurants in regions within NSW/VIC/SA/TAS and a management team who look after their Development / Training / Coordination & Paying of employees. Several of our key personnel within the company have Mentor areas. By registering a team in the GCC, this was one way mentors could build and align teams within their areas, encourage them to better balance work / lifestyle habits resulting in great teamwork and interaction. By encouraging staff to balance work/lifestyle habits, several departments within the company put up their hands to take part in the GCC, this has resulted in some great initiatives to increase those steps, from weekend walks to groups within a team going out at lunchtime and enjoying walking outdoors, it makes for a more friendly atmosphere at work and there is a real genuine interest in what each of the teams is upto to increase steps. YUM! recognises the efforts of their staff, and find reasons to celebrate the achievements of others and have fun doing it, by introducing a fortnightly newsletter staff who were not in the GCC could follow the activities of their work mates and at times encourage them to keep their steps up, I'm sure they will be prime candidates for 2008, we will definitely be part of GCC in the future. "
Richard High - Wellbeing Manager - ING
"We are very proud that over 500 ING Australia staff signed up for the 2007 GCC in our first year of participation. It was great to see participation by staff from all levels and departments within the organisation, who had varying fitness levels . For ING Australia , the important thing was to get our staff thinking about their health and the benefits that good health brings to their lives. "