Fitness in the Workplace

The Importance of Health and Fitness in the Workplace

6 Reasons Why Fitness in the Workplace is Important

● Employee's who are fit, are less likely to get sick. A Physically fit employee is more resistant to any bug, that is going around than an employee who is not.

● Regular exercise increases energy throughout the day. Energy allows the employee to stay focused on the task at hand.

● Health and Fitness brings out more self-confidence in our employees. Self-confidence helps employees to challenge themselves.

● Others have confidence in those who maintain a higher fitness level.

● A good leader is a fit individual who can take on more leadership roles.

● Implementing health and fitness in the workplace demonstrates a concern for an employees well being. It has been shown that employee turnover is much lower among employees that take advantage of a Wellness program implemented by their employer.

Facts about Health and Fitness in the Workplace

J.Connell and S. Grauiger stated in their artical, written in 2002, “Health and Business promotion organizations recognize the benefits of fitness initiatives in the workplace.” A Positive reaction of corporate fitness was the result, using Jersey as an example to determine the employees attitude towards corporate fitness, in the

1990s.

Health in the workplace has been a concern for ages. Cooper who quoted Ruskin in (1997) who wrote in 1851: “In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; they must not do to much of

it; and they must have a sense of success of it.”

150 years later 76% of our nations employers and employees are over weight, at risk of heat attacks, strokes, loaded down with unmanageablestress, and susceptible to cold and flue viruses that keep them out of workand highly unproductive.

Sports and social clubs, were early attempts on health and fitness byindustrial employers back in the beginning of the 20th Century

In 1943 The Department of Education suggested that there was an identifiable link between physical, psychological, and social needs and sports participation.

In 1991 Brown said that physical fitness could act against life stress,with the opportunity for the employee to keep his/her focus off the origin of the stress.

● According to the CBI, absence due to sickness and lost working time for a larger Company costs about 2.5 million per company every year on average.

● Studies taken in the US and Canada in (1994) and reported in Dugdill and Springett illustrate reduced absenteeism from employees participating in wellness programs.