Industry:
Railway infrastructure
DB InfraGO AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, which is responsible for the planning, operation and maintenance of infrastructure projects. With a focus on innovation and sustainability, the company sets standards in the development of modern transport concepts. As a reliable partner in the field of infrastructure management, DB InfraGO AG is also committed to the well-being of its employees and integrates health promotion into everyday working life in order to strengthen motivation and performance in the long term.
Railway infrastructure
65.000
Beginning of 2023
Health despite being tied to a desk: a success story from DB Infra GO AG
Long sitting times, shift work and peak workloads - train dispatchers work under conditions that challenge a healthy lifestyle. However, DB InfraGO AG has found a solution that not only promotes the well-being of its employees, but also achieves demonstrable success. An example that can inspire many companies.
Chapter overview of the success story
Many companies face similar hurdles in occupational health management (OHM): How can health measures be designed sustainably? How do you measure their success? And how can they be integrated into everyday working life? A Survey of Deep Care with partners such as B-A-D GmbH and mhplus Krankenkasse has shown: A lack of prioritisation of OHM by management, a lack of sustainability and successes that are difficult to measure slow down many approaches.
DB InfraGO AG, which has around 65,000 employees, was faced with the challenge of finding a suitable solution specifically for its dispatchers - the "air traffic controllers of the railway". The everyday life of a dispatcher is characterised by a high level of responsibility and constant concentration. Sitting times dominate, as the workplace must be manned around the clock - 365 days a year. Disruptions or diversions in operations can often lead to peak workloads, meaning that planned breaks have to be postponed. However, studies show that a lack of exercise and sitting for long periods significantly increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, back pain and mental exhaustion.
Although Deutsche Bahn is known for investing heavily in the well-being of its employees, health management at DB InfraGO AG faced a key challenge: How can employees be effectively supported in such a demanding working environment?
Lenz Hocher (DB InfraGO) and Simon Fiechtner (Deep Care) reported on the successful BGF project at Arbeitsschutz Aktuell:
In its search for an innovative, sustainable solution, DB InfraGO AG came across Deep Care at Arbeitsschutz Aktuell in November 2022 - a health tech startup that is working with the AI solution Isa offers an answer to the challenges of modern workplace health.
Isa is a digital health coach that uses sensors and AI to recognise individual health needs and provide appropriate impulses. Users receive targeted tips on exercise, ergonomics and drinking behaviour via a display about the size of a smartphone. Isa works completely offline and without a camera, which guarantees the highest data protection standards and employee acceptance.
Why Isa?
For the health managers at DB InfraGO AG, the combination of user-friendliness and measurable benefits were the main reasons for testing Isa in a pilot project.
At the beginning of 2023, Deutsche Bahn launched an initial pilot project with the AI assistant Isa together with Deep Care. Twelve train dispatchers from the Berlin region took part in a four-week test phase. Due to the very positive feedback from the participants, the health management team decided to carry out a second pilot in the Duisburg region. The original target group was expanded in order to test whether the programme would also appeal to other occupational groups. The focus was on traditional office work groups such as works councils and HR staff as well as construction planners.
The two pilot projects - each lasting four weeks with a total of 22 participants - confirmed the initially positive impression of Isa. However, in order to introduce the programme on a large scale at DB InfraGO AG, the sustainability of the approach needed to be examined more closely beforehand. Lenz Hocher, employee in the workplace health promotion department, explains: "New health promotion programmes are always tested at DB in terms of their acceptance and effectiveness."
At the beginning of 2024, a long-term pilot project was launched at the Duisburg and Berlin sites with 56 participants who used Isa over a period of six months. When the BGF team in Leipzig learnt about this project, it decided to test the approach as well, so the pilot project was expanded to include a further 16 participants. In addition to using Isa, all participants had the opportunity to attend keynote speeches by Deep Care on the topics of exercise, ergonomics and habit formation every two months.
Employees receive regular health impulses from Isa while working at their desks. For example, the device reminds them to stand up and stretch for 30 seconds. Ergonomic posture corrections help to achieve a dynamic sitting posture. These interruptions are minimal and do not interfere with the flow of work - in fact, they support long-term habit formation and promote employee health.
While using Isa, the participants were asked anonymously about their health behaviour and their experiences with Isa. For this purpose, the test group received a digital online questionnaire that could be completed voluntarily. To increase the validity of the results, both qualitative and quantitative questions were asked. The aim was to evaluate the measure in terms of its acceptance and effectiveness.
The content of the survey was divided into three central subject areas:
At the end of 2024, all the collected findings were compiled and finally analysed.
The test phases of Isa at DB InfraGO AG delivered clear and impressive results - especially after six months of use:
Voices from the fieldParticipants were enthusiastic about the positive effects of Isa:
The results clearly show that Isa was well received by both employees and health management. The high response rate in the survey signalled a high level of commitment from participants, which is already an important indicator of acceptance. In particular, the values for regular use (87 %) and recommendation rate (90 %) emphasise the practical benefits and attractiveness of Isa. One HR Business Partner who was involved in the project summarised it as follows: "From the point of view of employee retention, it was one of the best measures that I ... was allowed to accompany".
The doubling of the proportion of employees who integrate exercise breaks into their daily routine (32 % → 64 %) indicates a sustainable change in behaviour. These results are in line with the stated goal of promoting healthier habits in office and desk work.
The average impact of Isa on everyday working life, with a rating of 7 on a scale of 1 to 10, shows that Isa is not only supportive, but also offers tangible benefits for well-being and work performance.
The personal feedback also emphasises Isa's multifaceted impact: from preventing physical complaints to promoting healthy habits and providing support in stressful situations. The positive assessment by the HR business partner in particular also emphasises Isa as a strategic tool for employee retention.
DB InfraGO AG's occupational health management team draws a clear conclusion: "The test phases have impressively demonstrated the value of Isa and created the basis for long-term cooperation.
Current (as of December 2024), DB InfraGO AG plans to work with Deep Care to introduce Isa across the board and integrate it into occupational health management. Isa will thus become a central building block for sustainably promoting the health and well-being of employees.
The collaboration between DB InfraGO AG and Deep Care illustrates how innovative technologies such as Isa can sustainably promote health in the workplace - even under challenging conditions. The key success factors were:
Would you like to promote the health and well-being of your colleagues as successfully as DB InfraGO AG? Test Isa in your company - with a cost-effective and efficient test phase in which we support you in measuring and realising the full potential.
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