Established in 1998, Allstate Northern Ireland provides high quality software development services and business solutions in support of The Allstate Corporation’s global operations. Allstate NI is now one of the biggest employers in Northern Ireland and the largest IT Company employing more than 2,300 staff across three sites in Belfast, L’Derry and Strabane.
One of the main foundations of Allstate NI’s success has been its unique blend of competitive foresight and organisational culture, which is rooted in the American principles of flexibility, work life balance and the societal nature of work. Allstate NI recognises the correlation between happy and healthy employees, satisfied customers and business results and has taken a systematic and innovative approach to the health and wellbeing of its people.
This strategic commitment to employee health and wellbeing, headed up by VP and CAO Rose Kelly, not only improves the health of employees, but contributes positively to productivity, quality, work motivation, job satisfaction and thereby to the overall quality of life for all employees.
Allstate NI promotes a lifestyle, not just a job and their innovative programme of activities and flexible working options has been celebrated at regional and national levels. Most recently the company received gold level status by Investors in People, putting them in the top one percent of all 40,000 IiP organisations across the UK, while also making them the only organisation in Northern Ireland to be awarded the Investors in People 6th generation Gold Award.
The company has recently taken its investment in occupational health to new heights with the introduction of the trailblazing Energy for Life programme: a pioneering new programme designed to help employees manage stress and cope more effectively with the demands of their roles so they can fully engage in all aspects of their lives.
As part of Allstate NI’s overall health and wellbeing strategy, the company also held a month-long celebration throughout September. This first of its kind initiative focused on maintaining the culture of wellbeing and high performance throughout the organisation and was designed to help employees get fit, get happy and get healthy all on company time!
Week one focused on health awareness with Cancer Fund for Children, Marie Curie, Learning Breakthrough, Prostate Cancer and Chest, Heart and Stroke all giving talks to employees on how to look after their health and spot the warning signs.
Week two gave employees an insight into their physical health with alcohol and diabetes awareness sessions, reflexology classes, back care and orthotic clinics and lunch time activities run by the company’s sports and social committee. Various local gyms were invited in to talk to employees and Cancer Focus also carried out BMI and body composition checks to measure blood pressure and blood sugar levels.
Week three was all about life health with wills, pension and mortgage advice from local solicitors and banks, as well as visits from Parenting NI, Employers for Childcare and Fleet Financial.
The event was concluded with a week full of awareness talks by their very own suicide and mental health awareness campaign, ANIbody. Action Mental Health, Addiction NI and Cruse bereavement Care also came in to talk about subjects of a more sensitive nature.
The company’s staff restaurant, managed by Sodexo, also participated and spread the healthy eating message with various food demonstrations and tastings, as well as supplying healthy food options for breakfast and lunch.
The event was a great success and helped further support Allstate’s efforts as a great place to work!
