Fit for the future

More exercise, better nutrition and comprehensive, preventive health care: getting and staying fit is enormously important for each and every one of us.

As a business, we also have a strong interest in having healthy and motivated employees. Demographic change is causing a decline in the number of young professionals on the labor market. At the same time, the number of employees aged over 50 is increasing. Maintaining people’s ability to work is therefore of enormous importance for companies such as Bertelsmann, as well as for each employee.

Bertelsmann recognized the implications of this demographic shift at an early stage, and introduced measures to mitigate its impact. We make special efforts to promote employee health, since only people who are healthy and feeling good can be motivated and successful at work now and in the future.

Occupational health

Bertelsmann’s various occupational health management activities are grouped under the name "BeFit.” To help employees maintain their health long-term, there are programs and information on topics such as sports, medicine, prevention, nutrition and smoking. The BeFit campaign takes many shapes throughout the company: from a health week with an activity program during lunch breaks, to the creation of a company sports team, through to special deals with local fitness centers.

Current practices to promote employee health at Bertelsmann divisions worldwide are rooted in a long tradition. Reinhard Mohn founded the company health insurance fund Mohn & Co., the precursor to today’s Bertelsmann BKK (Betriebskrankenkasse: Company Health Insurance Fund), 50 years ago. Then as now, the aim was to provide employees with high-quality, comprehensive health care with low insurance premiums. Bertelsmann has already won the “Company Award for Health,” jointly awarded by the European Commission and the BKK Bundesverband (Federal Association of Company Health Insurance Funds), for its outstanding promotion of employee health on two occasions: 2007 und 2008.

The company medical service now provides care for approximately 20,000 employees at Bertelsmann companies. In addition to the services mandated by public health laws, one main focus of its work is to offer health check-ups to all employees aged 45 and older. This service has been offered at Gütersloh since 2006 and is being expanded to all locations in Germany.