Table 6 Theme of ‘viability and intensity of intervention design’ and verbatim examples

Viability and intensity of intervention design

1. Sustainability of interventions: “It was much easier than I thought it was going to be…I was a little bit scared at the start of all the changes that would have to be made, but actually it was fine, it was fine, it was all quite manageable” (Catering manager, environmental site—follow-up stage).

2. Tailoring of interventions: “Even though the study is over it still continued, there was no dramatic okay that’s done go back to the old ways, pretty much there’s a lot of things that we kept on board” (Catering manager, combined intervention site—follow-up stage).

3. Information at a glance: “People are in a hurry so it was a perfect situation where you were rushing in and out you could still see at a glance what your options were in terms of healthy choices” (Occupational health, nutrition education site—follow-up stage).

4. Employee resistance to change: “The glazed loin of bacon, we took it off for 2 weeks and we had something like 300 common cards or something you know it’s like, ‘where is bacon’ because it would always be on a Monday or Tuesday” (Catering manager, combined intervention site—follow—up stage).

“I suppose from their side they were just afraid that there would be a lot of backlash from the employees and there at the front line then dealing with it but to be fair when we spoke again with them there wasn’t too much backlash” (Researcher 2 - follow-up stage).

5. Intervention intensity: “It’s not very regular, should I say and it’s not very intrusive, you know what I mean… it’s the idea of, you know, getting weighed in once a week and kind of like the competition type thing” (Employee, environmental site—follow-up stage).