Meet the STAS Care & Connect Team
Members: Stefanie Silverans - Delphine Ornelis - Bram De Wolf - Dietrich Vandekerkhove
The team consists of volunteers from various departments who want to dedicate themselves to the STAS employees. Their goal? To make the STAS people more aware of wellbeing in the broad sense of the word, to encourage them to ask themselves questions and to bring them to insights. In addition, the team also thinks about how the STAS colleagues can become more connected with each other. Within this framework, the STAS Care & Connect Team was born.
What does the STAS Care & Connect team do?
The team carried out an internal survey to find out more about the concerns of the employees. Based on this, they designed an action plan consisting of 3 major pillars:
- Smoke stop
The wellbeing survey showed that several employees would like to stop smoking. Since, in the long run, this can reduce the risk of heart disease, lung cancer, respiratory infections... and more lung capacity, healthier lung tissue, better mental health... the team was eager to take on this opportunity. As of September, a smoke-stop program will start for those who wish to participate. This way, we are helping our colleagues to achieve a long-term healthy lifestyle.
- Ergonomics
Research shows that 8 out of 10 Belgians will experience back pain at some point in their lives. Bram De Wolf, health and safety expert, gave a training on ergonomics where he talked about the set-up of the office, lighting, teleworking, stress, breaks and even ergonomics in the car. Now that the training is over, Bram will personally visit STAS employees to help them achieve the perfect set-up and give personal tips. Also on the agenda: a learning session about stretch@your desk and start-your-day-exercises with warming-up exercises to get the blood circulation going and to wake up the body and the brain.
- Water
Drinking water has many advantages: you burn more fat, toxins leave your body faster, you stay hydrated, it appeases your appetite, it keeps your skin healthy... Enough reasons to drink 1.5 - 2 litres every day!
This is the third pilar of the STAS Care & Connect strategy. But how do they implement this? By placing drinking fountains and water coolers in strategic locations in the offices and work areas. In addition, each STAS employee was given a Dopper drinking bottle when they started at STAS. These encourage employees to drink more water and to reduce single-use plastic. A real win-win situation! In addition, the team organised STAS Water Week in the week of 23 August 2021. The team gave tips on how to drink more water, more information on the effects of drinking tea and closed the week with a treat of tasty, flavoured water.
Connecting the employees
Other than these three pillars, the team continuously strives to strengthen the connection between the employees, across all departments. For example, the team organised the Move-in-May-Challenge, a STAS Lunch Walk and a STAS Bootcamp. The bootcamp took place under the guidance of Karen Pollefeyt, Master coach at Beweegpunt Izegem. The employees were encouraged during an hour through a combination of strength and CORE exercises. Heart rates went sky-high and those extra calories from the office snacks melted away in no time.
Did you know that at STAS, in addition to the Team Care & Connect, we also have a team dedicated to sustainability? Read the article about Team Sustainability here.
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