Promoting health plays a central role at E.ON. As a result of longer working lives, many employees in a number of countries suffer disadvantages in their compulsory health coverage. That’s why the company will invest in health promotion to a greater extent than it has done in the past. Since 2007, promoting health is also part of our groupwide People Strategy "OneHR". All activities are now managed and driven centrally.

Most of the market units are already implementing concrete initiatives in relation to our increased focus on promoting health. These range from healthy meals at staff canteens and stress relief training to social counseling and health checks. Company sports and leisure programs that help keep employees fit are also offered. We are continuously striving to expand these programs. We have established priorities for the coming years, such as health seminars for managers through the E.ON Academy, bowel cancer screenings and special programs for apprentices.

E.ON Energie and E.ON Ruhrgas have signed the Luxembourg Declaration on promoting health in the workplace in the EU and adopted guidelines on encouraging a healthy lifestyle at work. They have thereby committed to improving employee health beyond traditional health and safety measures.

At the start of 2007, E.ON also created a group-level "Health Panel". The health managers from all market units exchange relevant information in the course of regular meetings. Currently, a catalogue describing and evaluating exemplary health initiatives from the market units is being compiled. This will allow the branches to select and implement health initiatives that are related to specific topics – such as cancer prevention or nutrition counseling – and tailored to regional requirements. The goal is to encourage communication between the market units while continuously improving the health of E.ON employees.

In 2008, we received a special award in the "Germany’s Best Employers 2008" ("Deutschlands Beste Arbeitgeber 2008") competition. E.ON received the award for exemplary health promotion from the Great Place to Work® Institute Germany and the "Capital" business publication. We first participated in the employer competition with the German holding companies (E.ON AG, E.ON Ruhrgas and E.ON Energie). E.ON Ruhrgas had already participated in previous years, consistently finishing near the top. For the evaluation conducted during the course of this competition, 1,000 randomly selected employees from the participating companies took part in an anonymous survey involving topics such as respect, fairness and credibility. The tools used by the HR department were also audited.

In the study "Health Management 2007/2008", E.ON Hanse was honored for outstanding health management. The Hamburg-based company ranked seventh in the assessment of 800 German companies. All issues relating to health management were analyzed for the evaluation, from canteen food to employee fitness programs.

As part of the "Active Energy" program at E.ON UK, participating employees are given a 45 minute check up using cutting edge medical technology. The results are then used to develop a target-oriented program for promoting wellbeing, tailored to the specific needs of different workplaces at E.ON UK. In the program’s first year, 2,663 employees took part, with 302 asked to come back a second time. The successful initiative at E.ON UK was recognized in June 2007 at the "Business in the Community Awards".