During March Martin Nairn, Quarry Manager at Temple Quarry, supplied his Team with an activity tracker.  The idea was to raise awareness of the amount of activity and sleep everyone got in a day in the hope that they, themselves, would take action towards a healthier lifestyle.

Martin carries on the story: “So far the feedback has been excellent; steps and sleep have become an almost daily conversation topic.  I’ve already seen improvements amongst the staff with steps increasing throughout the month.

A different objective is set for each month with a £10 voucher going to the winner.  March’s objective was the most steps reached over the month whereas April’s is the best sleep quality over the month. March’s voucher went to Andrew Keddie, our Senior Operative who covered a 355,283 steps over the month.  This equates to 177 miles and 17,764 calories.  He was surprised by the amount of steps recorded whilst carrying out his duties over the course of the day.

The trackers are Xiomi MiBand2 – they are relatively cheap units and are highly rated.  They cost around £20 and track steps, sleep quality and heartbeat.  Personally, with the feedback I have had so far, I believe they are worth the investment and do have a positive effect on the employee’s wellbeing.

There have, however, been some slightly erratic readings from the CAT 966 Loading Shovel Operative, the wrist action of using the joystick controls seems to pick up steps which can lead to him recording up to 150,000 steps a day, although he is aware of this and still finds the tracker useful!  Luckily the standard steering wheel in the Volvo L150 loader doesn’t record steps whilst it is being operated.”