How NORDEN employees got five years younger through health and wellness campaign ‘Moving Beyond 150’
Employees across NORDEN have taken part in a health and wellness campaign designed to instil life-changing healthy habits.
The ‘Moving Beyond 150’ campaign was launched in connection with NORDEN 150th anniversary, as a way to celebrate employees and put the focus on living a long and healthy life – just like NORDEN.
“This campaign was all about creating a sustainable NORDEN, which depends on our employees,” said Heidi Persson, Head of People, Communication & Sustainability.
“One thing we’ve learnt over the last year is that nothing is more important than the health and wellbeing of our employees. We wanted to create a shared experience while we couldn’t be together in person, and to encourage people to live a healthier and happier life. I think the results have been truly remarkable. I hope we can keep up the new healthy habits.”
Connections across land and sea
The eight-week campaign focused on physical and mental health, food, exercise and work-life balance. Employees across 11 global locations joined in, including everyone from the CEO and senior management to seafarers onboard ships.
Participants were encouraged to make small but impactful lifestyle changes, reporting daily on various targets ranging from coffee and alcohol consumption, hours of sleep and exercise, to whether they had taken time out to experience mindfulness during the day. Experts on nutrition, sleep and fitness were on hand throughout answer any questions.
Participants connected via an online app, sharing tips, recipes, photos and encouragement. In total over 700 photos were shared over the course of the campaign.
“For me, the opportunity to connect with colleagues around the globe in a social way, sharing things not related to our day-to-day business was so inspiring,” said Ana Paula da Costa, senior operations manager who took part from Brazil.
“Seeing people engaged, enjoying themselves and happy to be sharing a small part of their lives, cheering each other on was amazing. Most enthusiastic of all were the seafarers – they have incredibly tough jobs, made so much tougher by the pandemic. Yet they have still found the time to embrace this campaign, finding new places to exercise on board, and have fun with us – they are a true inspiration!”
700 years younger
At the end of eight-weeks, a final health check revealed that NORDEN employees have reduced their body age by 721 years – which works out as almost five years per person. The campaign also gave a much-needed boost to employees struggling with the impact of Covid-19 on their working lives. At the start of the campaign, 51% of employees saw a negative impact on their wellbeing from Covid-19 – by the end of the campaign this had dropped to 44%.
Moving Beyond 150 in Numbers:
- 56 days;
- 1,000,000 minutes of exercise
- 23,307 – pieces of fruit
- 32,842 – vegetables
- 721 years – reduction in employee body age overall
- 5 years – body age reduction per person
- 67% less nights with not enough sleep
- 29% more exercise
- 26% decrease in stress levels
- 50% increase in optimism
- 128% increase in those rating their health as ‘very good’
- 49% less smoking
