Promotion of health as a matter of course

Only employees who are healthy and feel well can fully perform their services. Especially for us, as a company in the outdoor sports industry, there is no doubt that we must find and promote an appropriate way to offset desk work.

Our health management program focuses on prevention and our employees’ active involvement in their own health.

Our goal at VAUDE is to implement a holistic approach to health management. This ranges from healthy food to illness prevention, through to sports and advisory offers, and office equipment that meets the latest ergonomic specifications.

Since 2014, we have been working tirelessly on the establishment of a resource-oriented Occupational Health Management system based on self-determination and self-efficacy.

We are supported by Stefanie Raaf from EmBODI in the field of occupational health management. A standardized reporting system based on quantitative and qualitative characteristic figures is being developed to help us specifically manage our Occupational Health Management system.

In 2017, the following measures were implemented:

• We continued the training and further education of our internal VAUDE health coaches. At the end of 2017, 12 employees were dedicated coaches. These employees offer a sports program, which includes approx. 8-10 events per week and is open to all coworkers.
• Several lectures on topics such as healthy nutrition and self-regulated health management
  
• Our VAUDE canteen "Mittagsspitze" has aligned its menu even more strongly to healthy eating and offers, among other things, even more vegetarian dishes.
  
• Courses on quitting smoking and weight loss were conducted with external experts and met with a very positive response.
  
• Crossfit courses were held in cooperation with health insurance companies.
  
• Our health coaches led regular mini units of "Strength in Stretching" (KidD) directly in the departments.
  

The Coordination, management and evaluation of all measures was implemented by a company health management team, which consists of employees and managers from several divisions at VAUDE. 

There is an important interface with the area of occupational safety. In 2017, we worked consistently on merging and coordinating the BGM and occupational safety.

Integrating the Occupational Health Management system into the business management system is of central importance in directing further interventions and makes the system quantifiable and sustainable for VAUDE.

In the future, we will focus more on the mental health of our employees in addition to the previous focal points. Among other things, starting in 2018 we will have courses on offer to strengthen personal resilience and will strengthen our support services for employees with mental health issues.

Since 2015 we have been working in our modernized, particularly health-promoting company headquarters. This has provided us with a health-enhancing framework:

• The in-house VAUDE organic cafeteria provides healthy and delicious meals.
  
• Our impressive climbing area offers all employees the opportunity for athletic challenges.
  
• Our sports room provides the perfect setting for over 400 sports activities per year within the context of our occupational health management program as well as for self-organized employee activities.
  
• During the remodeling, all computer workspaces were ergonomically designed with height-adjustable desks and ergonomic chairs.
  

More about it - "Future-oriented Work Environment"

Our Café VAUDE and snack bar – next to the outlet store are certified organic.
And in the new “Mittagsspitze” canteen we also welcome external guests, all menu items are made with organic ingredients.

See "Bike commuting"

Our absenteeism* (= all absences caused by illness, including accidents at work or work-related illnesses) was 5.49 % in 2017. (2016: 5.87 %) Thus, we have reached our goal of reducing the number of days off work, and the figure continues to be below the national average as it has been over the past:

On average, we recorded 9.5 sick days per employee in 2017. The national average is 15.1 days (survey by the Techniker Krankenkasse).
Added to this is the fact that we use an extremely strict calculation for absenteeism. In contrast to most other statistics, we count every absentee day and not only after the third day of absenteeism in a row.

We will continue to strive towards lowering our illness absenteeism rate. For this we rely on the above described measures in our company health management program and the issue of company safety Occupational Safety.

*Calculation: Sick days 2017/full time employees * working days 2016 (without holidays=30, without national holidays 12)) in figures:
5,135/(429*218) =5.49 %