Bodies at Work

 

Everyone wins when employers provide health and fitness opportunities in the workplace.

Diane Hart

Fess up: When you walk in the door at the end of a long day at the office, what are the chances you'll drop your briefcase and pick up your gym bag?

Practically nil, according to Canada's fitness experts, claiming most time-crunched women are more likely to get caught up in the domestic details of making dinner, folding laundry or making lunches rather than heading back out the door for an invigorating workout.

It's why workplace wellness - linking active living to individual employee well-being - provides such significant benefits to companies and their employees.

Workplace wellness is as varied as the businesses themselves: It can be everything from early morning spin classes in large scale on-site fitness facilities to providing informal stretch breaks over lunch in an empty board room. It can he introducing a year round lunch time walking club or simply erecting bike racks to encourage commuting to work.

But if it's going to work - really work - workplace wellness has got to be more than a one time "wellness" seminar squeezed into the middle of a busy day.

"The bottom line is that to have truly effective workplace wellness, it has got to get beyond lunch and learn," asserts Veronica Marsden, president of Tri Fit Inc., a Mississauga, Ont.-based fitness and wellness company that started up 25 years ago, speaking to the concept of inviting a guest speaker into the lunch hour to address issues such as nutrition or fitness. Tri Fit Inc. has worked with more than 70 organizations since its inception in 1978

"Employees may very well attend these 45-minute seminars and find them very interesting. Then they leave and that's the end of it."

Over the years, she has seen the evolution of workplace wellness grow from the jogging craze of the 70s to innovative, custom-designed programs that act as effective employee recruitment and retention tools in the savvy business world of 2003.

Benefits to employers are well documented, including reduced absenteeism, increased productivity, boost in employee morale and satisfaction, reduced health care claims, reduced cardiovascular disease and less stress related illness. It is estimated that, over five years, an organization should see a return on investment of $3.43 for every dollar. With almost 15 million Canadians spending half their waking hours at work, it makes sense to provide programs to keep them physically active during a working day.

It also, points out Marsden, makes good business sense.

 

In Canada, businesses both large and small reported costs savings due to decreased absenteeism, health care claims and reduced turnover. At BC Hydro, for example, employees enrolled in a work-sponsored fitness program had a turnover rate of 3.5% compared with a company average of 10.3%, according to Health Canada's website on active living at work.

In the United States, Coca Cola reported a reduction in health care claims with an exercise program alone, saving $500 per employee per year for employees who joined their HealthWorks fitness program.

If employees are polled, fitness facilities are right up at the top of list of requests along with daycares and cafeterias.

Notes Marsden: "It's no longer a part of your lifestyle; it's a part of how you do business."

A good workplace wellness program provides many benefits to employees, including increased energy, more time at home with family, better memory, strength, decreased illness and increased job satisfaction.

And yet, all too often, in financially stretched times, an organization drops corporate wellness programs. "It's the first to go," she admits.

"Our challenge is to get employee workplace wellness from the back burner to the front burner," adds Tri Fit's president, explaining it can be an effective recruitment tool to lure the brightest and the best in a competitive environment.

"Proximity is everything," concurs Art Salmon, an exercise physiologist and workplace wellness consultant. He recalls a company in Ottawa whose employees chose to work out at lunch in less-than-ideal surroundings just across the road rather than hop in their cars and drive five minutes away to a luxurious fitness facility.

If it's not convenient, fitness experts say, it isn't going to happen.

An empty committee room can be an ideal place for an informal stretch or yoga class. Plus, there is no need to get changed. Tri Fit Inc. offers an at home program that begins with a technique session at the workplace that workers take home and follow for eight weeks. They are then supported by fellow colleagues in the same program. The collegial, supportive atmosphere results in employees tending to stick with it more than if they were on their own.

Christa Costas-Bradstreet, Physical Activity. Specialist with the Hamilton Public Health and Community Services Department in Hamilton, Ont., recalls how a simple stair challenge sparked long term physical activity among a group of about 250 workers at Nestle Canada a few years ago. With the enthusiastic support of the CEO at the time, employees embarked on a stair climbing challenge where teams would log the number of stairs climbed over a week.

It was great to see that they continued to take the stairs long afterwards. When you see people adopt the practice, then you know it's been a success," she said.

Hot at the moment are stretch breaks at traditional coffee break times. Often an employee who signs up for a stretch break at work will follow through and join a gym or begin a walking program.

Lee Scott, a walking coach and owner of WOW Walk On Water Company, believes in levelling the playing field when it comes to workplace wellness. She likes to introduce "Minute Trackers" where employees keep a log of how many minutes they walk at lunch every day and the results are posted.

"Generally there is so much competition between colleagues at work, it's nice to focus on how much time they are willing to invest in their own health rather than how far they walked at what pace," she said. With everyone focused on how much they invest of their own time into their health, it lessens the competition that can traditionally occur in 5 km "fun" runs, or competitive fun fit challenges.

Costas-Bradstreet says she'd like to see companies embrace the wellness concept fully to include nutritious food and physical activities that offer lots of support in the workplace.

Says the busy mother of two: "You have to offer support in many ways. It's difficult to make healthy choices when you're surrounded by high fat salad dressings in your company's cafeteria."

 

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Title:	Bodies at Work: Everyone wins when employers provide health and fitness opportunities in the workplace.
Author:	Hart, D.
Publisher:	Mill Pond Publishing Inc.
Source:	Active Woman Canada (Georgetown, Ont.)
Volume (Issue):	1(4)
Date:	July/Aug 2003
Page:	30-32
SIRC Article #:	S-891455

 

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