Life partners, Lisa and Lukas Burri, set up their business, BetterBe, on the Isle of Man in 2021 to provide employees with mental and physical wellbeing support by addressing the root causes of workplace illness before they become life-long problems.
Both originally working in the healthcare sector – Lisa is a Nutrition Coach and Environmental Advisor and Lukas is a qualified GP – they had become frustrated with the symptom-focused approach modern medicine was taking. They noticed many people were struggling with the sedentary way of modern working – including physical inactivity and poor mental health.
The turning point for Lisa and Lukas was when they moved from their home in Switzerland to the Isle of Man in search of discovering somewhere new to live. Lukas initially worked as a GP on the island in a local NHS practice and was faced with the familiar challenge of seeing patients with problems that could have been prevented.
They both realised the source of a lot of people’s issues stemmed from their work life, and crucially that there was a great need for providing preventative workplace health and wellbeing solutions to employers.
They realised there was a gap in the market for SMEs specifically, which struggle with time and resources as well as for business leaders who often put their own wellbeing at the end of their to-do list.
They therefore chose to use the Isle of Man as starting ground for their two main solutions: a leadership programme and a mobile app aimed at improving employee wellbeing and team spirit.
Lisa and Lukas have successfully rolled out their Leadership Transformation Programme on the island. This bespoke programme delves deeply into the unique challenges leaders face, transforming them from overwhelmed to fully empowered.
BetterBe will also soon be launching its mobile app – the BetterBe On Track App – to help people implement small changes in their lifestyle.
BetterBe has sought a new approach to create an app which promotes healthy competition in the workplace. This includes team challenges for companies where teams are created that, over the course of one month, compete against each other by tracking their steps, cycling and eating healthily to rack up points.
In developing the app, Lisa and Lukas have used several scientifically proven behavioural change principles to make it easy for people to introduce healthier habits. Uniquely, BetterBe’s app focuses on team spirit and collaboration, which benefits any company looking to create a supportive and connected working environment.
As a further bonus, companies and/or individuals using the app will be able to see how much Co2 they are saving by choosing alternative ways to commute and by supporting environmental and social projects linked to the app.
The Isle of Man has provided them with opportunities to expand their business through connections to the various government departments, industry, Chamber of Commerce and the Institute of Directors, and the government has also enrolled them onto their Employee Benefits economic cluster.
Building on their success on the island, Lisa and Lukas are now in the process of expanding to the UK.
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