Fit individuals add to corporate culture, bottom line.
What do biking to work, lunchtime walking clubs, and company ball teams have in common? Significant corporate benefits.
Successful organizations are beginning to recognize the benefits flowing to their bottom line as a result of supporting workplace health and wellbeing programs. Not surprisingly, employers are viewing their people more and more as assets, rather than liabilities.
Small and medium-sized enterprises understand the wisdom of investing in assets. The payoffs are considerable: Enhanced productivity, better morale and improved team building can all be attributed to workplace fitness.
Recently, the City of Victoria promoted its annual Bike to Work Week. As well as the generic benefits of a fitness program, the city viewed this as an opportunity to promote Victoria as the cycling capital of Canada at a time when the rest of the country was still experiencing the long, dark days of winter. (Two months earlier, it was the annual flower count, with the results being promulgated with pride nationally.)
In addition to the public relations goal, the program also relieved city traffic congestion, freed up much-needed parking space and improved air quality. A large number of businesses supported the city’s initiative.
One such business was Royal Roads University, a mid-sized Victoria employer (and where I work). For the third year running, it agreed to be a corporate sponsor for the cycling-to-work program. Early on, the university recognized the benefits of such an initiative and the alignment with the growing awareness of the importance of sustainability within the community.
Health Canada reports that employees at organizations that implement fitness programs have 27 percent fewer sick days. This outcome is due to businesses undertaking an active, holistic approach in promoting physical, social, personal and professional-development workplace initiatives.
Workplace fitness proponents such as Royal Roads University have found a number of reasons for encouraging businesses to promote fitness in the workplace, including:
* Fit employees tend to be healthy employees – demonstrated by reduced absenteeism and greater resistance to the monthly bouts of flu. This also reduces healthcare expenditures.
* Fit employees are energetic and willing to take on challenging workplace tasks. With increasing fitness and achieving physical milestones, employees’ confidence grows in their own competencies, and that, in turn, leads to higher levels of achievement in the workplace.
* Fit individuals elicit confidence in the workplace and they are more likely to be recognized as leaders. By establishing the habit of setting fitness goals and achieving them, workers continue this habit by setting and achieving workplace goals.
* Fit workers who feel good about themselves will bring a good feeling to the workplace, and in so doing, contribute to a positive and productive corporate culture.
It is widely recognized that stress and tension dissipate with exercise. Organizations that promote fitness initiatives such as a cycling week or a company baseball team are promoting teamwork and encouraging new organizational ways to work together.
Finally, employers who invest in their workers as assets will be appreciated by their employees. Their efforts will be rewarded by promoting a bond of worth and caring between the employee and the employer.
These reasons have also been validated by the Alberta Centre for Active Living’s Workplace Physical Activity Framework report published in 2003. The report notes that exercise helps employees “improve their mental concentration, stamina, reaction time and memory; be more alert; experience better rapport with co-workers, and enjoy work more than nonparticipants.”
Based on workplace studies, Health Canada observes that a one-percentage-point increase in the proportion of active Canadians is estimated to result in a $58.9 million increase in the productivity of the Canadian economy.
So yes, a business case can be made to support workplace fitness and wellness programs.
The message is clear – get moving.
Note: This article was originally published in 2005.
