Is it time to give your business including staff a health check?
29th November 2010
... Comments

What are the benefits of having fit and healthy staff?

With fun, frolics and probably excess in the eating and drinking department over the coming month Joy Arkley of the HR Dept discusses the aftermath and the benefit of happy healthy workers and what you as a business owner can do help and reap the benefits.

Whether it’s Atkins, Beyonce’s maple syrup diet or Jenny Craig, come the New Year and having had one mince pie too many, we will all be looking for ways to move swiftly from the retox to the detox phase. And with gym memberships hitting an annual high, we won’t be the only ones. After the season of excess, most of our New Year resolutions have an element around cultivating health and wellbeing.

Nowadays employers are getting in on the act too.

Research shows that being active can help reduce the amount of sickness absence people take. This has to be good news, given that, according to the CIPD, the cost of absence has increased to £666 per employee per year. The David Lloyd chain of health and fitness clubs estimates that exercise can reduce absenteeism by 23.5 percent as well as reducing staff turnover.
Now even the Government plans to introduce a wellbeing index from next year. The Office of National Statistics is to start producing official measures of Britain’s average happiness levels.

Joy Arkley Director of The HR Dept West Wales advises that “these days more and more employers are harnessing the widely recognized benefits of an active lifestyle within the workplace as there is no doubt that a healthy, happy team equals a productive workforce”.

The British Heart foundation report states one benefit of activity is mood enhancing so that member of staff you nicknamed Grumpy suddenly becomes Happy without seeing Doc! You never know a release of endorphins – the ‘happy hormones’ might be just what the Coalition Governments Big Society needs. Joy says “it’s not surprising many employers are offering fitness initiatives for their staff. These include gym membership and fitness subsidies whilst some train together and run marathons for the Firm’s chosen Charity. Even more creative are staff ‘sports days’ although that may seem too much like going back to school”.

With research from AXA showing that stress levels have doubled in four years and Labour Force Survey reporting that stress and chronic ill health in the workplace costs £100bn, this is something that every employer should be thinking about. Since people’s moods tend to be lifted by the New Year and a ‘new start’ mentality, this may be the perfect time to capitalise on this from a motivation perspective. Here are The HR Dept’s three top tips for promoting health and wellbeing in the workplace.
• Look at linking with a local gym.
• Support a healthy eating regime
• Have a sponsored weight loss joint effort for January

The HR Dept West Wales specialise in advising small and medium sized businesses on all employment and HR issues.  Email Joy here or call on 01239 639128

More
About the Author

Diana V

Member since: 10th July 2012

I am Diana Vickers, the site owner of thebestof Carmarthenshire. This was launched in Carmarthen town in June 2008, to support the very best of the area’s businesses with their promotions and marketing....

Popular Categories