MELBOURNE, Australia, May 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The days of employers 'doing wellness' to employees are over. The future lies in working with staff to help them take personal responsibility for their health.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150527/218697

Unilever, Lockheed Martin and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) are just a few of the 1200+ organisations taking part in a global initiative that puts healthy employees squarely at the centre of successful business.

Today (27 May) is the day that workplace health and performance experts Global Corporate Challenge (GCC) launch this year's 100-day program to hundreds of thousands of employees and their companies around the world.

Flick Harris, Total Reward and Performance Management Lead - Asia Pacific at Lockheed Martin, says: "GCC ties in perfectly with our health and wellbeing strategy for Asia Pacific and provides the added bonus of teamwork and engagement across sites and countries in our region. It's easy to implement and well supported."

Now in its 12th year, the comprehensive GCC program tackles the three major lifestyle-related risk factors that can affect employee performance and productivity: insufficient physical activity, poor diet and lack of sleep. To date, the initiative has helped improve the performance and resilience of close to two million people across every industry in 185 countries.

The Royal Bank of Scotland is also among the impressive roster of respected employers joining the GCC this year, with more than 25,000 RBS employees set to cross the starting line on 27 May. John Hayes, Head of Workplace Services at RBS, says: "GCC's approach to employee health and wellbeing, both physical and mental, is a great match with ours at RBS. This challenge brings people together into teams to work collectively to be more active, eat healthily and sleep better, so that they feel more energised and resilient. It's a natural fit and we can't wait to see the results."

A 2014 pre-event survey* of participating employees revealed that the need for successful wellbeing initiatives in the modern workplace has never been higher:

• 61% reported unhealthy dietary habits
• 80% were sedentary (didn't achieve 10,000 steps per day)
• 36% were stressed at work
• 59% had high blood pressure
• 36% had high cholesterol

Sandy Zornek, Unilever's Director of Benefits in North America, praised the program's solutions to the physical and mental health challenges listed above, saying: "Movement, nutrition, mind-set and proper recovery are all essential. GCC lets us raise awareness and support each other in taking steps in the right direction."

The 2015 challenge unveils a new and improved experience for participants. GCC now integrates leading names in the wearable technology space -- including Fitbit, Jawbone and Garmin -- into the program's flagship 100 Day Journey around the world, the virtual event that sees a global community of participants aim to take a minimum of 10,000 steps a day.

A sleep app that allows employees to monitor the quality of their rest has also been developed to address the growing issue of fatigue in the workplace, with participants reporting that, on average, the app's insights helped increase their sleep by 45 minutes per night.**

GCC's founder, Glenn Riseley, says: "The organisations that are bringing the GCC to their employees this year are making a sound investment for their shareholders by improving their workforce's engagement and performance. Even more importantly they are creating a legacy for their people by putting them on the path to longer, healthier, happier lives."

Media enquiries

For more information, contact Glenn Riseley, Founder and President at +61-418-567-561 or glennr@gettheworldmoving.com.

About GCC

GCC works with businesses all over the world to improve the health and performance of their employees.

Over the past 12 years, our program has transformed the cultures of thousands of the world's leading organisations and changed the lives of close to 2 million employees across 185 countries.

Our scientifically developed, independently proven program takes employees on a journey that fundamentally improves their relationship with exercise, nutrition and sleep, and instils in them a new sense of personal responsibility, self-belief and resilience.

In other words, we deliver a simple and effective solution that optimises a business's most valuable asset -- its people -- and ensures they arrive each day in the right physical and mental shape so that they are fully engaged and ready to take on the world.

SOURCE GCC