Lafarge focuses on wellness for distributed workforce

Mindfulness app, local ambassadors, newsletter content part of company’s ongoing efforts

Lafarge focuses on wellness for distributed workforce

As a construction materials manufacturer, Lafarge Canada employees typically work in various locations without ready access to computers and the internet.

So, in a bid to offer them online wellness materials, the company recently provided free access to a mindfulness app for its 2,500 employees across eastern Canada.

The app, Headspace, includes exercises on stress management, meditation, breathing activities and even content to help employees sleep better, and it’s part of a greater wellness effort for the company, according to Jessica Assaf, regional manager of corporate communications at Lafarge Eastern Canada in Montreal.

“Headspace contains a host of features, whether it’s physical wellness, mindfulness, workout or coping with stress. [There is] bedtime content as well, just to make sure that you get a good night’s sleep and wake up for duty and there’s content in terms of ensuring that you’re focused at work. We felt like that was a very good fit for people especially given the fact that they are not connected to their computers.”

The success of the app rollout happened almost immediately, says Assaf.

“Right away on Friday, May 7, there was a huge uptake in employees downloading the app and this trend is still continuing to rise where people are still downloading the application. Certainly, people are very excited with it.”

Several wellness initiatives

As one of its chief architects, Assaf helped to launch the wellness initiative, dubbed “Wellness@Lafarge,” even before COVID-19 hit.

“I tried to use every opportunity in our newsletters and our intranet, through all different communication channels that I have access to including during our town halls with the CEO and employees, to leverage wellness and mental health messages because the pandemic really called for additional support on that front.”

But once the pandemic was declared, the wellness efforts really took off, she says. “We took the idea for senior executive committee and they were all obviously on board because there was definitely a need for that.”

The company appointed regional “wellness ambassadors” who are tapped into the needs of the workforce at a local level, says Assaf.


Jessica Assaf

“It offers a two-way conversation because they also tell us what’s going on on the ground. [Since] we’re at the corporate level, we don’t know necessarily everything that’s happening at the operational level so they feed us that information and if there’s any special needs in one market area, we work together to make sure that they have the information that they need for their site.”

As well, during each morning’s site meetings, there are “safety moments” used to push lots of wellness-related content, says Assaf. “We do make sure that during those meetings, it is top of mind and it is part of the conversation.”

The company has also partnered with health professionals who have conducted two online sessions for employees: one on coping with stress by focusing on breathing techniques and another on ergonomics and good posture, according to Assaf.

Wellness content popular

Lafarge’s workforce really values the wellness information, she says, as evidenced by online activity through its regular newsletter content.

“In terms of our communications, I do track readership and clicks and this was also one of the reasons why I was an advocate for wellness content, is that whenever I would share those types of stories or resources, my readership would skyrocket,” she says.

“I knew that employees were hungry for that kind of kind of content.”

Meanwhile, the messaging around financial wellness is mixed in many organizations, found one survey, and many employers are not reacting properly to burnout, according to another report.

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