WORKING IT AT WORK
Incentives vary to get employees moving and active — and not all are created equal
Fit employees are more productive, take fewer sick days and are less dependent on health insurance programs than their sedentary colleagues. Yet, with most of the workforce spending at least half their waking hours behind a desk, and another couple of hours a day commuting, company culture doesn’t lend itself to an active lifestyle.
Understanding the value of a fit workforce, more and more companies are offering incentives for employees to get moving. Lunch-hour fitness classes, bikestorage facilities, walking groups and work site challenges are just some of the ways employers encourage their staff to get out from behind their desks.
Not all incentive programs hit the mark, though. And not all workplaces are equal when it comes to the quantity and types of initiatives available. To find out what kind of work site fitness programs employers offer and whether they result in fitter employees, a team of North Carolina researchers surveyed adults across four Missouri neighbourhoods, asking about the availability of 18 work-sponsored exercise initiatives. Another, smaller sample of 119 employees wore accelerometers all day for seven days to determine how much activity occurred during work and leisure hours.
About 2,000 people completed the survey, with 97.7 per cent reporting they had access to at least one exercise-related incentive in the workplace, and 48.3 per cent claiming to have as many as seven initiatives designed to combat inactivity.
Seventy per cent of respondents reported taking advantage of at least one of the workplace programs. The most popular options among employees polled were attending health fairs, using health-related services such as fitness testing or nutritional counselling, and taking advantage of flextime for physical activity during the workday. Bike storage was the least-used initiative.
As for workplace incentives that resulted in a significant enough boost to meet the recommended 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week: access to physical-activity breaks, maps or signs outlining nearby walking routes and signs encouraging the use of stairs had the greatest impact.
So did in-house exercise classes and/or exercise facilities and structured physical-activity breaks offered during the day. Another important factor in motivating people to work up a sweat at work was having showers available so they could freshen up before getting back to their desk.
Interestingly, one of the most potentially successful ways to help employees reach their weekly exercise quotient was also the least popular form of workplace initiative: incentives to walk or bike to work doubled the opportunity to meet national exercise guidelines. Coupled with the lack of use of bike-storage facilities, it’s clear that workplaces need to do more to promote active transportation to and from the office.
Other initiatives proven to change a sedentary workplace into a hub of activity include providing a diverse selection of opportunities to be active. Access to five or more work site incentives significantly increased the odds of getting employees moving.
Not all companies restricted their initiatives to those available at work. Subsidized memberships to fitness clubs and workplace challenges (like step-count competitions) encouraged employees to be active outside the office.
The take-home lesson from this study is that the more opportunities and options employees have to be active, the greater the buy-in. The good news is that not all the initiatives are difficult or expensive to implement. Workplace challenges, walking maps/ clubs, prompts to use the stairs, incentives to take active transportation and allowing flextime for short bouts of activity can be easily incorporated into workplace culture. More complicated to deliver, but well used and appreciated, are showers, in-house exercise classes and structured exercise breaks.
Perhaps the most interesting finding of all is that workplace activity begets activity: the more employees see their colleagues exercising, the more the workplace culture is likely to change from a staff that sits to a staff that moves. The same goes for active transportation: as the number of employees walking their bikes down the hallway increases, the more likely it is that others will follow suit.
The bottom line is that companies need to do more than pay lip service to workplace health promotions. It takes a comprehensive, thought-out program with a variety of options that cater to a variety of needs to reap the benefits of a fit workforce. It also requires support by management.
The more that employee health and fitness is seen as a pillar of workplace culture, the more likely it is your office will be bustling with the type of activity that builds workplace loyalty, productivity and collaboration.
The more employees see their colleagues exercising, the more the workplace culture is likely to change from a staff that sits to a staff that moves.