The Better Health At Work Award recognises businesses that prioritise employee wellbeing. The programme helps to create healthier, happier, and more productive workplaces through the delivery of a bespoke set of campaigns that meet the needs of specific businesses and their people.
Throughout 2024, we ran a number of campaigns which were identified in a employee health survey. Here are just some of the activities that led to our award.
Physical Exercise
In May of last year, a group of our colleagues took on the Walking With The Wounded Cumbrian Challenge in the Lake District. This event saw our team cover diverse terrains while raising an impressive £3,000 for the military veteran charity. It was great to link our internal activity to supporting our communities.
Fast forward to the summer, and the energy shifted to the track. Employees from across Pearson Engineering and Responsive Engineering gathered at Karting North East. The well-known North East race track provided the perfect setting for some exhilarating kart racing with a healthy dose of competitive spirit.
Healthy Eating
To support Healthy Eating Week, we wanted to show our employees how easy and delicious it can be to eat well. We set up a smoothie bar in our café for five days, offering a variety of fresh fruit-based smoothies. We hoped that by tasting these smoothies, our employees would be inspired to make their own at home.
In addition to the smoothie bar, we created a ‘30 Plants a Week’ challenge. This list encouraged our employees to try 30 different plant-based items over the course of a week. We hoped that this would help them discover new and exciting ingredients that they might not have tried before.
Financial Wellbeing
Planned Future provided an informative session on the importance of Money Mindset. The session was led by a qualified psychologist who explained how our thoughts and beliefs about money can affect our spending habits. The psychologist also discussed how neurodiversity can influence our relationship with money.
Mental Health
We invited various speakers to our offices throughout the year to discuss topics around mental health. #ANDYSMANCLUB covered their ‘It’s OK to talk’ campaign with a focus on mental health among men. Orange John Three Peaks Mountain Guide delivered a presentation on ‘Mind Over Matter’ and how to overcome negative thoughts during difficult challenges using his experience of reaching Mount Everest Base Camp.
Work/Life Balance
To remind everyone of the importance of winding down from the working day, we provided sleep themed mugs to everyone with a little treat in each (hot chocolate and Horlicks). Whilst the mugs are a novelty, they represent an important step in so called ‘sleep hygiene’ to give everyone the best opportunity for good quality sleep.
We look forward to progressing our award in 2025 with sights on achieving ‘Continuing Excellence’. Keep a look out on our social channels and website news area for some of the activities we’re getting up to this year!
Our battle proven minefield breaching products provide armoured vehicles with the capability to defeat anti-tank mines. Whether intended for deliberate breaching or to support ‘freedom of manoeuvre’ for fighting vehicles, our blast-resistant ploughs give Commanders the option to move unimpeded and in doing so, maintain a battlefield advantage.
Our earth loading capability delivers a powerful digging and carrying ability, enabling armoured vehicles to transport materials, clear obstacles, dig and fill trenches and to assist in construction tasks. Our loaders can be provided with varying degrees of function and therefore complexity to support different mission sets.
Our interrogation capability is rooted in providing additional capability for Counter-IED and Route Proving operations. To supplement physical detection from ground engaging roller systems, our interrogation arm can be used to further understand the nature of threats and to identify where risks may be present outside of the path of the roller.
Our obstacle and earth moving products include general purpose and multi-purpose dozer blades, designed specifically to meet the needs of different mission sets. Our blades are designed to be tough, robust and lightweight, enabling a wide range of obstacle and earth moving activities whilst minimising the impact on the vehicle’s mobility.
Typically used alongside Pearson Engineering’s Route Opening Mine Plough, Surface Clearance Device or Route Proving rollers, our highly configurable obstacle marking systems support battlefield mobility by quickly and reliably marking safe lanes and the edge of hazardous areas.
Our excavation capability is designed to support combat engineer operations such as digging, demolishing, removing obstacles and filling trenches to support Area Access and Area Denial.
Our approach is often described as a ‘Swiss Army Knife’ in that host vehicles can be adapted to take on various combat engineering roles, or to overcome challenges to mobility. Integration of our products with the vehicle is made via a Pearson Engineering Direct Fit Interface or Pearson Engineering Quick Connect. The most suitable integration method depends on the mission requirements and vehicle capabilities. Our engineers will work closely with end-users and vehicle manufacturers to define the most appropriate route to minimise the impact on the vehicle and to maximise operational capability. Decisions are often based on hydraulic and electrical availability as well as the required role of the vehicle. Our integration kits are used to fit products that are designed to enhance armoured vehicle agility, tactical flexibility and adaptability. They are designed to be configurable and to deliver ‘freedom of manoeuvre’ to operations.
Our recovery capability includes a range of dedicated and multi-purpose blades which are primarily designed to support the recovery of other vehicles and for moving of heavy obstacles. A powerful ground-engaging blade sinks into the earth to hold a vehicle static, acting as the force against which the obstacle can be pulled. The same blade can be articulated to provide some obstacle and earth moving capability.
Surface laid mines represent a rising threat as Armed Forces turn their attention to near peer conflict. Our solutions, each designed to support the missions of dedicated combat engineer vehicles or fighting vehicles, provide a comprehensive detect and displace capability to support deliberate clearance or self-extraction in the face of air delivered scatterable mines.
Our highly configurable rollers have saved countless lives, limbs and assets on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and have succeeded in ensuring ‘freedom of manoeuvre’ for soldiers around the world. Provided as either a full-width ‘route proving’ variant to actively check routes for the presence of Improvised Explosive Devices, or as a track-width ‘self-protection’ variant, our rollers are designed specifically to meet the needs of wide-ranging operational requirements. Our continued Research & Development and our approach to customisation provides confidence to those who use them.
Like all of Pearson Engineering’s products, our assault gap crossing solutions are designed to be modular, to be interchangeable with other mobility and counter-mobility equipment and to support ‘freedom of manoeuvre’ on the battlefield. In a time when units are tasked to ‘march divided and fight united’, independent manoeuvre support is key.
Our range of Mine Clearance platforms and tools provide Armed Forces and other organisations with scalable solutions for mine clearance, explosive ordnance disposal and the defeat of improvised explosive devices. Our platforms and their tools can also be used to create mobility challenges for adversaries. Proven around the world, these mine clearance platforms and their tools are designed specifically to meet the needs of different operational contexts from large area clearance to support logistics and peace keeping operations through to clearance in complex terrain.