Fortis’s ambitious growth targets can only be achieved if our people are in good shape. To meet that challenge, we have launched a comprehensive health programme called ‘BRAVO’. The programme focuses on five topics: Exercise, Smoking, Alcohol, Food and Relaxation, and a variety of activities have been organised to raise awareness among employees and to achieve real improvements in their health.

The programme was developed in the Netherlands and its principles have since been applied across the entire Fortis organisation. BRAVO is also designed to further reduce absenteeism rates – an expensive problem that Fortis has worked hard to reduce in recent years. The results achieved to date are encouraging. Absenteeism figures depend significantly on local definitions and are highly culture-dependent. Definitions are not harmonised across our organisation, which is why we continue to present separate figures for each country.