Council takes steps to help workforce thrive

Plymouth City Council staff are being encouraged to incorporate more activity into their daily routine as part of a drive to improve their wellbeing.

The Council is the first in the South West to sign up for the ‘StepJockey’ scheme which aims to ‘nudge’ them to use the stairs instead of the lifts. ‘Smart signs’ are up in Windsor House, Ballard House and Midlands House to give people a calorie and step rating for each staircase. Staff can also download a free StepJockey smartphone app to track their performance and get a personalised calorie count.

The initiative will see the council launch a Climb Everest challenge in January that will encourage staff to ditch the lift in a bid to burn as many calories stair climbing as it would climbing Everest. It is the first internal staff scheme to be launched at the Council under the Thrive Plymouth programme which aims to improve workplace wellbeing across the city and is the result of joint work between the Council’s Public Health department and its Health Safety and Wellbeing team.

Councillor Sue McDonald, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Public Health, said: “We are very pleased to be the first council in the South West to sign up for the StepJockey Scheme. The people that work here are incredibly important to us and we are all working together to have a healthy and happy team that contributes towards the overall success of the Council.

“I think it’s really good that staff can download the free StepJockey smartphone app. It is a simple way for people to integrate health and fitness into their working lives.”

StepJockey is backed by the Department of Health and is proven to increase physical activity levels. It will also help the Council to cut its carbon emissions and energy bills from reduced use of the lifts.

Benefits of stair climbing:

Stair climbing uses 8-9 times more energy than sitting and 7 times more than taking a lift. Per minute, stair climbing burns more calories than jogging.
You burn about 0.17 calories for every step you climb, so you burn roughly a calorie and a half for every 10 upward steps.
Just 7 minutes of stair climbing a day has been estimated to more than half the risk of a heart attack over 10 years.

Helen Nuki, founder of StepJockey said: “StepJockey is about looking at the positive and promoting fitness for everyone a little bit at a time. We tell people how many calories are in the food we eat but we don’t tell them where they can burn them off. Through StepJockey, Plymouth City Council is offering the opportunity to put that right and we’re incredibly proud to be working with them.”

For more information on the benefits of stair climbing go to https://www.stepjockey.com/science

More information on Thrive Plymouth is available at www.plymouth.gov.uk/thrive