It’s a fact that hiring people is [relatively] easy, but retaining them is a totally different story. As the time passes you’ll learn that no one cares about your business as much as you do and nor they’ll work hard as you do.
No doubt, there are some employees that will have unexceptional talent, but that’s a small percentage. So, what you need to do to develop the employees’ interest and increase their productivity? The answer is launching the ‘fitness’ program for your employees.
Here are nine reasons why you should encourage fitness in the workplace.
1. Reduce absenteeism
The first and the foremost reason that why business owners urge fitness in the workplace is to reduce absenteeism. The companies could save incredible amounts of costs by introducing staff health and fitness system, which will encourage a healthier workforce. Regular exercise keeps people healthy, and they become less vulnerable to common illnesses; thus spend more hours at work and save you money.
2. Job satisfaction
When an employee is fit and healthy, performing well at work, and are less stressful, he/she might have a greater level of appreciation. No doubt, job satisfaction can be affected by other variables too but, it is acceptable to assume that the happy, healthy and calm individuals are more energetic, productive and are more satisfied with their jobs.
3. Reduces stress
Sadly, one of the leading causes of absenteeism at work is stress and depression, particularly if you’re working in a high-pressure business environment. According to a recent study conducted in the UK, one of the most common reasons that why people go to the gym is to relieve stress along with as weight loss and getting fit.
It isn’t surprising that science has proven it that working 9-to -5, five days a week causes stress. Working out raises your heart rate, improves blood flow and releases stress. It also produces hormones like norepinephrine in the body that helps in proper brain functioning, which enhances mood as well.
4. Cut health care costs
When it comes to the US, companies usually consider healthcare provision a far more prevalent in the employment contract. They believe the employees who exercise on the regular basis save them major costs. When a company offers health and fitness benefits such as a membership plan of a gym to an employee, it will create a significant impact on the cost incurred on medical provisions. Moreover, in the UK, companies are also offering several health benefit plans to ensure that a healthier workforce.
5. Increase brain power
A recent study by Aviva reported by investing in health care programs, companies can increase the employee attendance by 89 percent, along with an increase in productivity. Per the researchers, workouts help produce certain chemicals that are required by the brain to perform certain functions such as memory, multi-tasking and problem solving.
6. Motivated employees
Regular exercise keeps employees more energetic, motivated and happy when they are at work. Employees with enhanced energy, improve brain function and more sleep leads towards a better overall performance. Some studies have also revealed that there’s a connection between productivity and happiness; happier people are 12 percent more productive.
7. Better sleep
Sleep is another key factor that leads to a happy, healthy and productive life. Various researchers have proven that deep sleep helps you fend off stress, depression, and sickness. However, some people don’t understand the connection of gym and sleep. Several studies demonstrate that exercise is helpful in stabilizing sleep patterns. Moderate intensity of exercise also insomnia patients to improve their health condition.
8. Employee retention
When companies incorporate on-site gyms as part of the employee health and fitness benefits plan, it would be considered as one the greatest ‘perks’ by the staff members. Managers are considering a gym as a retention tool. Employees would scare of losing the benefits if they decided to leave the company. Let’s think this way, if employees took this fitness initiative positively and continuously partaking and are performing better, it would be harder for them to leave the job unless some other serious factors involved.
9. Team Building
Fitness experts believe that working in a team make an employee less likely to quit, more energetic to train and highly motivated to achieve their goals. Gym with good gear is the only place where group members interact during their free time and discuss projects during group exercise sessions. With the help of a particular gym section within the company, you can achieve that. You can adopt this approach to create groups, either within their existing teams or with the other departments that contribute to improving internal relationships, which is necessary for team building.
See related: Guide to Employee Fitness