Help your staff get fitter

The UK is getting fatter according to the government’s Health Profile of England. The affect this will have on the NHS is obvious, but what does it mean for employers, and how can we sort it out?

By: Andrée Deane, chief executive, Fitness Industry Association

According to Deloitte accountancy group, absenteeism – a lot of which is caused by illness and lifestyle-related issues – cost Britain more than £11bn a year. Workers not doing enough exercise and eating unhealthily costs employers almost £500m a year from sick days.

But, beyond the obvious savings you can achieve by eliminating sick days, healthy workforces have a profound impact on the bottom line, in the areas of recruitment, retention, motivation and productivity.

Studies show that performance at work is influenced by sleep, stress, nutrition, body weight, responsibilities, mood and job satisfaction, all of which can be improved easily.

So you have a vested interest to invest in promoting good health. There is no single approach guaranteed to improve health at work: any programme thrives when it comes as part of an overall approach by the company to value its workforce.

According to business group the CBI, minor illness is the greatest cause of absence, with long-term absence accounting for only a third of all of days lost. Stress results in the loss of more than 90 million working days every year and obesity almost 20 million. That puts the bill for health-related lost hours at almost £10 billion a year.

This means that every organisation loses almost 20% of product every year – one day a week – because of sickness.

The government and the Fitness Industry Association are funding a pilot workplace programme, Active at Work, which could help. The 12-week programme comprises sessions in the workplace, as well as in a gym and includes a three-month membership at the participating health club (see www.activeatwork.org.uk).

People strategy

If you do not elevate your ‘people strategy’ (i.e. one which addresses the physical and mental health of its workforce) to the same level as its focus on profits, cost management and market intelligence, then you’ll never getting out of third gear. True; you get to your destination, but you could have arrived earlier and without spending so much money.

The facts are compelling, whilst nearly every interviewee in the Deloitte survey accepted the link between exercise and good health, 50% still admitted to doing less than the recommended average. Over 60% of interviewees blamed work and domestic commitments as the biggest hurdle to exercising.

So encouraging a healthy workforce should be part of an integrated strategy. Employers acknowledging the importance of their role in shaping the attitudes and habits of their ‘stakeholders’ and if you get it right, the personal and financial benefits are huge.

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By Andrée Deane  on   Jul 08,2008

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Keywords

fitness    employee benefits    sick days   

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