HECK’s Jack has launched a new Walk At Work scheme to give the team at our vegan factory an extra paid hour a week to get out for a walk.
Whilst most people who can either cycle or walk to work to gain a few extra miles as part of their fitness regimes, the HECK factory that produces all our vegan food is in an isolated and rural location, making this really difficult. So HECK’s Marketing Manager Jack Tate got his thinking cap on to come up with a solution.
Jack completed over 400 miles during Lockdown, walking to raise money for the mental health charity Same You is HECK’S Outdoor Ambassador. He launched the Outdoor Ambassador scheme with Julia Bradbury to encourage companies to embrace the outdoors, encourage their employees to get outside every day, and even in Lockdown find a lockdown virtual buddy – either locally, or virtually, to walk and talk.
“In my team who are based at HECK’s main headquarters, we’re really lucky because we are either working from home with our office based jobs or we are working in the main site which has a beautiful railway line in the grounds which makes it much easier to get out for a walk.
The team at the vegan factory are often on shift work and it’s more difficult for them to pop out, so I spent a bit of time researching some lovely walks locally, and once we got the scheme signed off, we started going for a walk each week. If you can’t walk to work, walk at work! Plus, it’s a great way to spend time with colleagues who I wouldn’t otherwise get to see day to day.”
Jack’s boss Jamie Keeble says of the initiative, “Jack came to us and suggested this scheme. The physical and mental well-being of our team is really important to us. It’s much more of a challenge to get out when you’re working on the main production line, so we thought we’d trial it at our vegan site and it’s working brilliantly. We want everyone to become a ‘walkaholic’.”
Jack has now been officially appointed HECK!'s Outdoor Ambassador and his role is to look at a number of different ways to encourage team members to get on board, and HECK! has a dedicated section to their website giving inspiration to other companies.
Walking guru Julia Bradbury, who has been supporting Jack on his charity walk, has come on board with the campaign to encourage other companies to follow suit “It’s brilliant that HECK! has really walked the talk and launched this initiative to actively encourage their team to get out and about. Having an “Outdoor Ambassador” in the company can really help mental health by encouraging the team to get some “Vitamin Nature.”
Jack is already planning a series of company walking and outdoor challenges with his colleagues at HECK!. Jack and the team have been restoring a railway walk that goes round the HECK farm and it’s here they walk every day when on site. Many of the HECK team are dog owners and are actively encouraged to bring their pooches into work and to part of the walks too. And when it’s back to work, furry friends can check in to the firm’s recently installed dog hotel.
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