 Employees at Asiana Airlines run on a treadmill at the fitness center inside the firm’s headquarters in Seoul. / Courtesy of Asiana Airlines |
By Yun Suh-young
People’s interest in health issues is at a peak these days.
But despite the high interest, few are actually taking better care of themselves, either through a lack of initiative perhaps or because they don’t know how to, where to, or even when to do so.
Health care is a big issue but especially for office workers who suffer stress from nine to six and longer in many cases.
To help employees maintain a healthier lifestyle, companies are equipping themselves with health-related facilities within their headquarters or are coming up with health care programs for in-house staff.
Below are some of the facilities and programs that major companies from different industry fields have implemented. Some provide differentiated services from other companies either through frontier facilities or creative programs.
Facilities include fitness centers, in-house hospitals, lounges and programs ranging from healthy menus, health-related lectures, funding and sports clubs.
Fitness centers
Some companies have gyms inside their buildings to encourage their employees to work out.
Asiana Airlines opened a fitness center at its headquarters in January 2009 due to the rising interest of its employees on matters of health and diet. The 300-square-meter gym is equipped with treadmills, exercise bikes, weight training equipment and fitness testing equipment. Showers, locker rooms, and powder rooms for women are also installed, along with sportswear, towels, and toiletries. The company also runs a beauty spa for women. The fitness center is free but use of the spa isn’t.
It is not unusual to have a fitness center inside a company but not many have them. Large conglomerates like Samsung and Hyundai also have gyms within their headquarters.
In-house hospitals
Some firms have a hospital inside their building. The most notable example is the one at Korean Air.
The Aviation Medical Center is a fully equipped hospital with professional doctors from all fields ranging from medical laboratory technologists to nutritionists. The center conducts regular physical check-ups on its employees and provides nutrition consulting, sports consulting and anti-smoking education.
The center is the only hospital fully equipped with medical facilities much like large corporate or university hospitals.
NHN, which runs Internet portal Naver, has an in-house doctor at its company headquarters who consults employees about their health individually, as do some other firms. Employees can receive a thorough consultation on their health unlike at local clinics where patients are treated within 5 minutes. A customized medical consultation takes at least 30 minutes per employee.
Asiana Airlines takes particular care of their employees’ mental health. They have a counseling center called OZ Hyu (rest) Port where workers can meet with professional counselors on ways to relieve stress and discuss other concerns.
“Because employees in the airline industry are service providers, they suffer from emotional stress. To help them, we provide a counseling service twice a week at the center,” said an Asiana employee.
Lounges
The companies that stress service or creative ideas tend to focus more on providing adequate stress-relief facilities.
Cheil Worldwide, the largest local advertising company, has a lounge where workers can receive massages, read comic books, play video games, check their stress levels with medical equipment or receive counseling.
“Because people in the advertising industry are stressed from coming up with continuous ideas, they need a lot of rest which is why the company provide such a facility for stress relief,” said a Cheil official.
Health programs
Out of the many health-related measures that companies are taking, notable programs are healthy menus and health-related lectures.
Amore Pacific has a “health & diet” menu for their employees to choose from. In an effort to provide a healthy meal to their staff at least once a day, the firm recently adopted a differentiated lunch menu. It consists of low-salt, low-calorie food set at 500 kilocalories. The company uses ingredients such as ginseng, green tea, beans and bamboo.
Professional health care service providers like GE Healthcare provides lectures on subjects such as “consuming less salt make your life healthier.” As part of its Health Ahead campaign, the firm hosts talks by renowned guests such as pianist Suh Hai-kyung who overcame breast cancer.
