Now more than ever, being active is vital for the health of an organisation’s people and its business.
For organisations, supporting people to be active can improve productivity, reduce absenteeism and presenteeism and help to attract and retain the best people.
Active workplaces – even when working from home as many employees now are – are healthier, happier and more productive, with less stress, lower absence and better performance.
Furthermore, results indicate that workers in companies with a physical activity workplace programme take 27% fewer sick days. In fact, UK business currently lose £6.6bn each year through absenteeism.
Research from Sport England’s Active Lives Adult Survey 2020 suggests that inactivity in adults is a concern, especially in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, with fitness centres closed, local sports put on hold, and people spending much longer at home.
In fact, it is estimated that a quarter of adults in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough region are inactive and more than a third are not active enough for it to benefit their health.
Living Sport’s Workplace Movement scheme aims to help combat this and reduce sedentary working practices, improve health and reduce stress for employees, even if they are spending more time at home.
The scheme provides a range of online health and wellbeing resources focused on physical activity – including a Benchmark Tool, Staff Wellbeing Survey and Resource Library, with access to a variety of webinars around physical activity.
Kelly Vickers, Head of Business Development at Living Sport, said: “This last year has highlighted the need for everyone to take better care of themselves and physical activity can be both useful in terms of preventing long-term health conditions and managing them.
“Ultimately, we want to help make every day a good day at work, for individuals and the organisation itself, creating a culture where healthy, happy staff perform at their best.
“Organisations that sign up to Workplace Movement will also be giving back to their local communities by supporting Living Sport’s targeted projects which aim to improve health, happiness and wellbeing across the county by increasing activity levels.”Feedback to the Workplace Movement programme has been strong nationwide.
A spokesperson from Barbal Ltd, a software company that has accessed the programme, said: “Workplace Movement is designed to help your business see the benefits of an active workforce. Thank you for a great session, it was exactly what we hoped it would be. We have made some changes already and are keen to ingrain these good behaviours into our organisation.”
To sign up for the Workplace Movement scheme, or to attend one of Living Sport’s series of free introductory webinars being held over the coming weeks, please get in touch with Kelly Vickers on kelly.vickers@livingsport.co.uk 01487 841559 ext. 3021.
ENDS