From theory to practice

We speak to engineering giant Rolls-Royce’s Chief Medical Officer Dr David Roomes about the company’s global employee health and wellbeing certification scheme, the LiveWell Accreditation, and why it makes sense to invest in workplace wellbeing.

Launched in 2015, LiveWell is central to the company’s commitment to empowering and enabling employees to lead healthy lifestyles at work, wherever they are in the world. It requires all sites with more than 50 employees to meet rigorous health and wellbeing standards, in line with bronze, silver and gold levels of accreditation. The aim is for all eligible sites to be gold accredited by 2020.

LiveWell considers all the factors that can affect a person’s health, and finds ways to maximise physical, mental and social wellbeing. It helps break down the barriers in changing unhealthy behaviours; it demonstrates to colleagues that Rolls-Royce takes employee wellbeing seriously; it creates an environment where employees are motivated to make healthy choices; and it is a step towards creating a high-performance culture within the business.

“In terms of investment”, explains Dr Roomes, “the scheme is structured so that initiatives range from simple to the more advanced, and don’t cost a lot to put in place. Sites can achieve bronze accreditation through basic initiatives like implementing flexible working and smoking policies, and by offering employee resilience training. To achieve silver or gold accreditation, sites must meet these and more advanced requirements such as providing showers, cycling racks and subsidised gym facilities. To date, five of the 77 sites participating in the scheme have been accredited, and we expect a further 10 to do so by the end of 2016.”

Dr Roomes notes that poor health and wellbeing have significant negative impacts on workplaces, including higher absenteeism rates and lower productivity and engagement.

“By investing in wellbeing, it’s possible for us to not only reduce the bottom line impact of employee health, but provide an environment that allows our people to be at their productive best. Ultimately, healthier employees mean we’re more likely to meet our business goals and keep our customers happy,” he says.

To further encourage teams to take up the scheme, certain health, wellbeing and productivity metrics are used as motivators for change.

“Obese people, for example, take on average 10 more sick days than others; 25 per cent of US healthcare costs are down to lifestyle disorders; and Type 2 diabetes, bad backs and chronic musculoskeletal conditions are most commonly related to lifestyle. Lost time as a result of absenteeism ultimately equates to lost productivity,” says Dr Roomes.

Often, people think of health as the absence of illness but Dr Roomes sees it as much more than this. “Take obesity, for example. The European Court of Justice has ruled that in some instances obesity may be a disability. If this is the case, is smoking a disease? It certainly causes diseases. There are many grey areas. But in an occupational health setting, health relates mainly to adverse work exposures, such as noise or exposure to harmful chemicals.

“Wellbeing, however, is more about the individual feeling good and functioning well. It’s a combination of physical, mental, emotional and social health factors and is influenced by things like rewarding work, nutritious food and supportive relationships. It’s about allowing a person to improve their health and wellbeing beyond a base level so that they’re more resilient and able to thrive,” he adds.

Dr Roomes says the corporate athlete analogy is a good one to draw on. “Coined by psychologist Jim Loehr and author Tony Schwartz, it looks at how organisations typically connect employee performance with a person’s mental capacity, but much like an athlete, you need to strengthen and align energy across the body, heart, mind and spirit to really drive high performance.”

According to Dr Roomes, the LiveWell accreditation provides a framework for sites to make specific and targeted investments in the workplace that are supportive of wellbeing. He notes that research published in The Harvard Review’s What’s the Hard Return on Employee Wellness Programs? shows that wellbeing schemes typically bring a return on investment of three‑to‑one.

So, what’s the single biggest or most effective thing an organisation can do to ensure workplace stressors are addressed and health and wellbeing becomes a priority in workplaces?

“You need to have someone who owns the agenda and champions it. Getting your policy framework right is also important, inexpensive and likely to lead to sustained improvement. If you don’t have the culture and policies in place then all the physical environment investment may as well go down the drain,” says Dr Roomes.

“People often cite heavy workloads as a leading cause of stress, but data shows that change, control and lack of clarity are the three biggest stressors. When I see people who are burnt out or who have developed serious mental illness from work, it’s often because their role isn’t clear, there’s a lack of change management or they receive insufficient support.”

What about encouraging healthier practices on a bigger scale? It is crucial that we get people moving more, says Dr Roomes.

“Fitbit products are quite useful as they motivate people to get up and walk around. The other big ticket item is about making it easier for people to make healthy food choices. We’ve introduced a nutrition standard at Rolls-Royce that requires all of our catering suppliers to comply with nutrition standards. Across our sites, the food that we sell is split into three types; eat more of; eat less of; and avoid. Aside from movement and nutrition, smoking and mental wellbeing are the other major areas of focus and investment,” he adds.

“Ultimately, moving the needle even one percentage point in any of these areas will have a significant impact on the overall health of an organisation and of the general population.”

People centred design

Rolls-Royce Trent XWB Project Hall

We devised and rolled out workplace strategies and design and change management initiatives across Rolls‑Royce sites globally.

To improve global communication, efficiency and productivity across Rolls-Royce, and help it bring products to market more quickly, we developed the strategic brief and design for its project hall in Derby, UK, which houses around 400 staff working on the company’s latest project — Trent XWB — the world’s most efficient jet engine.

Previously, teams were often based in different buildings across the site, resulting in poor information flow and communication. Many offices also lacked natural light, while work spaces featured uninspiring rows of desks.

To create a workplace that would inspire Rolls-Royce staff, we spoke to employees to understand current work patterns and how they wanted to work in the future. This allowed us to put people at the heart of our designs.

At the Trent XWB project space, teams work under one roof in a highly innovative environment that encourages better communication and collaboration, allowing teams to thrive.

By placing all workspaces near windows, staff receive more natural light, which is important to help regulate their natural body clocks; varied workspaces, including dedicated quiet spaces mean employees can escape noisier areas and work undisrupted; and vibrant group and social spaces create a stronger sense of community, enhancing people’s social wellbeing.

Crucially, we also provided change management expertise to help those moving into the new workspace embrace agile and more collaborative ways of working.