Banif Bank started off the year by promoting healthy living among its staff through an internal ‘Get up and Move’ campaign. As a fresh resolve, the bank, in collaboration with Hilton Malta’s LivingWell Health Club, offered an open week membership to its staff as an incentive to get into shape.

Staff also joined in for stretching routines, driven by team leaders who initiated a few minutes of simple exercises at the desk. While there was some trepidation, staff took to the new lunchtime routine like ducks to water, performing neck, head, arms, legs and back stretches on a daily basis. They were also encouraged to ditch the lifts and use the stairs.

Exercise goes hand in hand with a healthy diet, so baskets of seasonal fruit were also delivered to the kitchens and staff helped themselves to apples, oranges, kiwis, plums and bananas.  Fresh smoothies also made the rounds.

Karl Dingli, head of corporate services, said: “Here at Banif, we believe that having a healthy body leads to a healthy state of mind, which is why we thought would should start off the year with this initiative. We are happy with the positive feedback where employees said the exercises alleviated desk fatigue and made them feel brighter for the rest of the day.”