Specsavers

Specsavers case study

Specsavers have a really clear vision for health and wellbeing – and Bluecrest Wellness now form a key part of that strategy in the UK, ROI and Guernsey, helping colleagues look after their health proactively.

Steph Falla is a Reward Specialist within the People & Organisation function which looks after the 2,000+ centralised support staff across 5 office locations. She explains: “Our aim is to make Specsavers the very best place there is to work - and that makes taking care of our people a top priority. Health and wellbeing are key areas of focus for us, and Bluecrest Wellness rounds off a whole package of benefits aimed at supporting colleagues’ physical, mental and emotional needs.”

Every year, Spescavers’ colleagues can choose what reward options they want to sign up to for the year ahead, and sacrifice salary to select things like critical illness cover, life insurance, travel insurance and extra holiday days. Bluecrest Wellness is now added to that list of benefits, and complements the organisation’s existing medical insurance and Headspace subscription – both available to all colleagues.

Health

MOTs

Steph explains: “Our medical insurance means our colleagues are covered if something goes wrong – but we don’t want people to have to wait to get ill. What appealed to us about Bluecrest Wellness was the opportunity for people to spot problems and deal with them before getting to that point. Who wouldn’t want to know what’s going on inside their body - and get what’s essentially a health MOT?

“I think after Covid and everything we’ve been through in the last few years; people do want to get themselves checked out and look after themselves a bit more. We had Bluecrest Wellness health checks before the pandemic, but they’ve proved even more popular this time around.

“Colleagues now have three options. Everyone has access to a free health assessment that Specsavers pays for, but they can then top up and pay more through our benefits shop to upgrade to two further levels with more detailed tests. They can also opt to buy a health assessment for their partner or spouse, too. We also liked the fact they could choose to upgrade at any point – right up to the day of their test.”

Tests take

off

700 plus staff have already taken Specsavers up on the offer of the basic Bluecrest Wellness check.

Steph continues: “We spend a lot of time and energy making sure people understand the benefits available to them – and we’ve also invested a lot in making the health checks themselves accessible.

“In the UK and ROI, our colleagues can be office based, completely remote, or somewhere in between, so it made sense for them to be able to book their own appointments at Bluecrest Wellness clinics – which are all over the UK and ROI. In Guernsey, though, we had to be a bit more creative!

“There’s no Bluecrest Wellness clinic here in Guernsey, so we’ve set aside a room on-site where Guernsey colleagues can go for their assessments – so it’s really easy to fit them into a working day. And Bluecrest travel over with their equipment and take the samples and data back for testing.”

Adding in

prevention

“Preventative healthcare really was the slice that was missing from our health and wellbeing provision,” says Steph. “With Bluecrest Wellness we’ve filled that gap. It means our colleagues can get a full picture of their health, take action early, and have Specsavers’ support at every stage.

“Longer term, we hope to see the positive impact our programmes have on staff engagement, productivity, absences and satisfaction.

“At the end of the day it’s pretty simple: happy, healthy people make happy healthy workplaces. If people in our central support teams feel respected, valued and do a good job – that resonates across our operation, out to stores - and ultimately out to customers. We really do care about people, and that goes right through everything we do.”