5 ways to promote a fitness lifestyle in your workplace

Poor employee health costs American organizations billions of dollars a year. Decreased work productivity due to health-related absenteeism can have a devastating effect on organizational performance. Preventable diseases account for the majority of health care costs today. Fortunately, there is good news too. There are five steps organizations can take to improve the health and fitness of employees, lower the risk of illness and injury, save millions of dollars, and improve overall performance.

1. Offer flexible work arrangements. Flexible work arrangements are work schedules that allow employees to work outside of the standard 8:00 am to 5:00 pm range, while maintaining a high level of service to internal and external customers. This gives employees the opportunity to create work schedules that are more conducive to their work-life balance and overall performance. Common flexible work arrangements include Peak hours flexible schedule (flexibility in start and end times), Compressed work week (working full time for 4 or fewer days a week), Telecommuting (working from a remote location), Job sharing (two people share the duties and responsibilities of a full-time job), and Informal flexibility (requests for changes to a regular schedule for personal reasons).

2. Provide medical examination services. Screening services are a great way to help employees understand their current health status. The most common services include health risk assessment, blood lipid surveys (eg, cholesterol, glucose), blood pressure monitoring, body composition measurement (eg, body mass index, body fat percentage), assessment of muscle strength and flexibility, cardiovascular fitness tests, and bone density screening.

3. Provide educational programs and services.. Educational programs can include classroom seminars, online learning programs, and printed materials. Common topics include nutrition, weight management, stress management, work-life balance, disease prevention, management of health problems (eg, hypertension, diabetes), starting an exercise program, cardiovascular fitness, strength training, children and exercise, sleep improvement, women’s health, men’s health and safety (eg, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, first aid, back safety).

Four. Offer behavior change programs.. These programs can be of great benefit to employees struggling with a specific health or fitness problem. Some examples include smoking cessation counseling, weight loss programs, and stress reduction programs.

5. Provide a gym for employees.. While the first four steps are relatively inexpensive, building a gym for staff members requires a significant financial investment. However, a corporate gym can be more profitable than other activities because research has shown that employees who use your company gym are more productive, get along better with their co-workers, and manage work demands more effectively. . Additionally, corporate exercise programs can pay off in reduced health care costs, absence and stress, and increased morale and productivity. If the cost of providing a gym is too high, an alternative is to offer discounts or rebates to employees who join a local gym.