Engen values staff with wellness campaign

Nurse Maggy Radingaang with Anthony Abrahams from Engen Clarks Garage in Fish Hoek

The roadshow enlists pump attendants and their colleagues in a mass voluntary health screening for diabetes, high blood pressure, HIV and cholesterol.

"After last year's successful pilot, which saw over 450 Engen pump attendants and other retail franchise staff receive free check-ups, we decided to extend the wellness campaign to other parts of the country,'' says Tasneem Sulaiman-Bray, Engen's General Manager: Corporate Affairs.

From Cape Town, the roadshow which includes industrial theatre, the popular 'Pump Idols' contest and lots of prizes, will travel to Johannesburg on 10 and 11 June; Pretoria on the 12th, and then onto Durban on 2 and 3 July. Plans are in place to further extend the campaign to Nelspruit and East London in 2015.

Driver health matters

Forecourt wellness days are a recent extension of Engen's annual Driver Wellness campaign, which for the past four years has educated long distance truck drivers about the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle while on the road. Besides screening for the above-mentioned conditions and body mass index (BMI), the programme also provides counselling and a referral service when required, and promotes health awareness with talks on HIV and male circumcision.

This year's Driver Wellness campaign will visit 17 Engen sites between June and October, screening over 1000 drivers.

Frontline first

Sulaiman-Bray says the inclusion of retail staff is part of Engen's strategy to optimise and leverage the success of the Driver Wellness programme. "The decision is based on observations made during previous campaigns. Forecourt employees invariably showed a keen interest in doing the screening before everyone else. We then made a call to action and challenged dealers and sales managers to come and lead by example on the day."

She says forecourt employees leave their homes very early and often go home late and don't have sufficient time to take care of their health. "By offering primary healthcare to them, we are delivering real convenience. Forecourt staff can also benefit from a proactive approach to wellness, which enables early detection and preventative measures."