The Pascoe Health Lounge
Our occupational health management relies on three pillars
As a manufacturer of natural medicine, it is our self-image to provide excellent occupational health management (BGM) for our employees.
Managing Director Annette Pascoe: “Pascoe’s employees are the heart of our company and we treat them as such. Appreciative, attentive and loving. Because it is precisely they who make us so valuable as a company and secure our competitive position.”
We are particularly proud that our occupational health management measures have already received two awards (2016 and 2021). Thereby, we would like to inspire other companies. Offering and continuously developing occupational health management creates a win-win situation for everyone involved: employees promote their own health and improve their quality of life. And the company gets and maintains a high-performing and highly motivated employee community.
Occupational health management needs a long-term strategy
We set up our occupational health management system in such a way that we can address the most common illnesses preventively. These include musculoskeletal disorders, respiratory system diseases, mental disorders and infections. To all this, the COVID-19 pandemic was added in 2020/21. Taking this into account, it was particularly important for us to create additional awareness through more profound information and to adapt our existing health measures accordingly.
Our health management relies on three pillars:
1st pillar: focus on the musculoskeletal system
Ergonomics workshops on back-supporting working and optimal posture at the desk were offered to the entire workforce in small groups in summer 2018. And that's not all: following what they learned, each of the 160 colleagues was offered to order a new office chair tailored to their individual musculoskeletal system. The high-quality classic saddle chairs can be used to adopt different sitting positions. They can be individually adjusted and are the ideal complement to the height-adjustable desks that we provided years ago. The aim of this measure is to provide our employees with the best possible conditions for back-supportive working, now and in the future.
Prevention through exercise – yoga and back training
To strengthen muscles and improve well-being, we offer a variety of exercise courses, such as yoga and back training. Our range of courses is always fully booked, partly because the courses were held in-house before Corona and online during pandemic periods. The back-supportive exercises offered were supplemented by three different massage services before the pandemic, all of which were subsidized by the company. After the pandemic, we will of course add the massages back into our health program.
2nd pillar: high-dose vitamin C as a significant pillar of our health concept
Infusions for vitamin C levels
“We don't just sell health, we live it. Because we are convinced that only fit employees can be committed to the health of others. That is why not only the musculoskeletal system, but also the overall well-being of our colleagues is of great concern to us”, says Annette D. Pascoe, Managing Director.
The offer also includes weekly consultation hours with our company doctor – in the Pascoe Prevention Lounge. It is available to all employees for any concerns regarding their health. Appointments can also be requested and booked at short notice in our Prevention Lounge. An additional service in our Prevention Lounge are infusions with high-dose vitamin C. Through regular training on health topics, Pascoe employees know that, for example, the onset of an infection causes a higher vitamin C requirement in the body. Since the body can only absorb 200 mg orally per dose, a higher amount is sometimes necessary to compensate for a possible vitamin C deficiency. Since this can be done by means of a vitamin C infusion, we also offer this through our company doctor.
To strengthen the immune system, employees are also provided with free organic fruit to supplement a healthy diet, as well as still and sparkling mineral water.
3rd pillar: mental health through information and appreciation
Mental health in the workplace is closely linked to the issues of orientation and safety. We therefore attach great importance to ensuring that our holistic management model provides maximum orientation and creative freedom for joint strategy development. Both provide security by knowing the direction set for the future and why it has been chosen.
Personality profiles
All this is supported by another important tool: Insights MDI® personality analysis. It provides holistic feedback on employees’ individual strengths, motivators and behavioural preferences. Pascoe uses the results to discover talent, promote potential and strengthen teams. The personality analysis strengthens and builds relationship competence. Good relationship competence enables you to better understand yourself and others, improve your own communication and recognize the needs of others. We strengthen the strengths and increase our employees’ self-confidence. This again strengthens mental health, because everyone can and may be who they are, and are valued for it.
Annette Pascoe on the personality analysis: “It gives us a good insight into the strengths of our employees. This enables us to respond to them in the best possible way, to promote their strengths even further and to use them accordingly. Because those who are deployed according to their strengths stay healthier.”
The program to strengthen mental health is rounded off by resilience and mindfulness training that we offer our employees.
Other measures we have organised around health management:
Health in our buildings
Health also plays a central role in our new building. Even before the official inauguration ceremony, we activated a garnet stone in the heart of the new building. The garnet stone stands for vitality, self-confidence and inner fire. Good prerequisites for successful work and production at the new site in Europastrasse – and for mental health. The new building was planned and built according to the criteria of the Feng Shui teachings. In addition, a building biologist was involved in the entire process to ensure that all interference fields and detrimental energies were eliminated.
Documentation and reflection via the digital Pascoe Health Card
For more than 10 years, our employees have been able to document their health-promoting measures on the Pascoe Health Card. Such measures are, for example, occupational medical examinations, vision checks and also general medical check-ups as well as possible vaccinations. The card also contains important information for a healthy lifestyle.
Our employees are given the opportunity to record their own health-promoting activities. This ranges from documenting that they get enough sleep, to eating healthy foods, to participating in sports activities. With the card, we offer a tool for them to reflect on how they use the various offers made and stay healthy. The aim of the now digital Health Card is to promote awareness of one’s own health, personal initiative and personal responsibility. This gives meaning and quality of life.
Work-life balance as part of the occupational health management
Reconciling private needs with operational requirements and competitiveness is a daily practice at Pascoe. Our employees can choose among more than 50 different working time models. This makes it possible to reconcile work and private life – regardless of gender and position.
Positive communication
Mutual appreciation is also supported by corporate communications. Everyone pays attention to a positive choice of words and a polite tone in all internal and external communications. “Our communication should strengthen and positively inspire all the people with whom we communicate on a daily basis”, explains Annette Pascoe. “In doing so, we also incorporate the law of resonance (law of attraction: like attracts like).”
The three-pillar model proves its worth
As a result of our occupational health management, our health rate has now been 50% above the industry average for several years in a row. In recognition of this, we received the “Occupational Health Promotion” award from the Great Place to Work Institute Germany in 2021. The health rate is one of the most important corporate key figures and confirms that we are on an excellent path with our holistic health concept, which we have been offering for many years.
Managing Director Annette D. Pascoe says: “We always make sure to deploy employees according to their strengths in order to be able to maintain our high performance level while at the same time developing individual scope for development. This is also an important part of our award-winning health management. The awards show that this idea of holistic corporate management is taking hold, as does the health rate, which remains 50% above the industry average."