Happy and Healthy Colleagues…

A helping hand to a healthier lifestyle…

July sees the launch of a range of new ASDA health benefits to all of our 170,000 store and depot colleagues.

The ‘Year of Colleague Health’ initiative has been 9 months in the making, with combined input from the human resources, healthcare and catering teams within ASDA. The teams have joined forces to create a programme of activities aimed at supporting colleagues and their families to lead healthier lives. And with a Health co–ordinator in every store, showing how serious we are, when it comes to the welfare of our workforce.

Free check-out…

Free health checks are available at all 152 in–house pharmacies and 84 opticians are available for colleagues and family members. These include free eye tests, contact lens aftercare, Body Mass Index, diabetes and blood pressure check ups.

Colleagues can also benefit from subsidized purchases of optical equipment such as glasses and contact lenses and healthcare products such as vitamins and minerals– helping them maintain a healthier lifestyle.

Kids can also bring in their glasses for a free UV coating on their glasses to protect their eyes this summer.

Our restaurants have gone the extra mile, with a new healthy eating programme for all colleagues in stores and depots. With new healthier meal options and better portions, ASDA colleagues are on track to a better lifestyle and with free eating and weight management advice from the ASDA pharmacy, they can get off to the best start.

Linsey Taylor, ASDA’s general manager of healthcare said, “We realised that many of our colleagues didn’t have time to get to the doctor or simply couldn’t afford to pay for expensive health checks or weight management programmes. Offering these services free of charge in their place of work solves this problem for them. What better way of supporting our community than working with our colleagues and their families.

Slimathon…

At ASDA we are also sponsoring a national ‘slimathon’ for our colleagues, stumping up some great prizes for the national winners such as:

• A two night break in a luxury health spa for two.
• An additional week’s holiday
• A George makeover

So far take-up has been phenomenal with colleagues from Elgin to Eastgate hopping on the scales and pledging to shed thousands of excess pounds. Over 3,500 colleagues have signed up to the national slimathon and are working towards the first weigh–in on the 4th August.

Alison Hinchcliffe, health co–ordinator at the Sunderland store has a group of 30 colleagues in her store who are working together on a healthy eating and weight loss programme.

“The health programme in our store is going extremely well. The new menus in the canteen have gone down a treat and we’ve been serving healthy food now with not a chip in sight! The screening programmes have been a huge success. We’ve also had over 200 customers attend our BMI and cholesterol screening”

It's not just our colleagues we’re helping to lead healthier lifestlyes – we also want to help our customers do the same. To see how, click here:
www.about-asda.co.uk/health