Ahlsell lowered the barriers to health and well-being in the workplace
Member companies: Ahlsell
Theme: mental health, work environment, inclusive leadership
Time period: 2024 - 2025
Background
Mental health and well-being is a key employer issue. In Sweden, one in four employees report having experienced work-related health problems in the past year, and stress-related sick leave remains at high levels. This shows how closely issues of health, work environment, inclusion and sustainable working life are linked.
For Ahlsell Sweden, working with employee health is part of a larger commitment. The company's employee promise is ”The best time of your working life” - a promise that requires long-term and practical work to create a sustainable employee experience. When Ahlsell chose to work with the theme of mental health and well-being in the workplace, it was therefore close to the company's view of sustainable employeeship. The starting point is that health needs to be understood from a holistic perspective, where physical activity, recovery, sleep, diet, mental well-being and social work environment interact.
For Ahlsell, work is also about inclusion. Employees have different needs, life situations and conditions. By offering support that can be customised to the individual, Ahlsell wants to lower the thresholds so that more people can take part in initiatives that strengthen health and well-being in working life.
Ahlsell's work in practice
In the spring of 2024, Ahlsell Sweden launched its largest investment to date in employee health and well-being. Through a collaboration with IMR, all permanent employees in Sweden are offered access to a health coach and individually tailored programmes in areas such as physical activity, diet, sleep, recovery and mental well-being.
An important starting point was that health looks different for different people. By offering several ways into the work with health, Ahlsell wanted to lower the thresholds and enable more employees to participate based on their own needs, goals and conditions. In this way, the initiative became not only a health initiative, but also part of the company's inclusion efforts.
- We have long been advocating and investing in healthy movement. But health is more than movement, it's also about diet, sleep and recovery. And with IMR, there is something for everyone.
- We are all different and carry different things. Conversations like this help us break the stigma and remind us not to be judgemental in our interactions with others.
For Ahlsell, the work is about giving both employees and managers concrete tools to strengthen health, work environment and sustainable employeeship. When more people have better conditions for feeling good, being themselves and contributing fully, the individual, the workplace and the organisation as a whole are strengthened.
Insights and results
The follow-up of the pilot project in Hallsberg showed a positive trend in participants' self-rated health. The survey included questions on physical activity, general health, stress-related illness, pain and work capacity. Ahlsell saw an improvement in all areas. Sick leave also decreased during the period.
The positive results were an important basis for the decision to scale up the programme to all permanent employees in Sweden.
As the programme is rolled out more broadly, Ahlsell's goal is to provide more employees with better conditions to strengthen their health and well-being, both inside and outside work. In the longer term, the initiative is expected to contribute to a higher index for sustainable employees and reduced sick leave.