3 WAYS YOU CAN HELP YOUR EMPLOYEES LEAD HEALTHIER LIFESTYLES
The physical health of your employees will not only have an impact on their day-to-day lives, but it will also affect how they perform at work. Poor employee health in any business can lead to absenteeism, presenteeism and will likely cause employees to feel unmotivated and disengaged.
To tackle this, businesses should support their employees’ physical health and encourage them to make small lifestyle changes, to ensure they feel their absolute best every day. So, what can you do?
We’ve come up with three simple things your business can do to help your employees get active, eat healthier, and be more conscious of their physical health.
Make healthy food and drink accessible
If you have biscuits, chocolate and sweets dotted around the office, it’s fairly likely your employees are going to choose to snack on them as opposed to healthier, more nutritious food. Sugary snacks are tasty and provide us with a short-term energy spike, but too much of it will cause weight gain and is linked to an increased risk of serious health issues such as heart disease and diabetes. So, help your employees make healthier choices by simply making healthy food and drinks easily accessible to them at work.
For example, if your business has vending machines, fill them with nutritious snacks rather than sugary treats, if you have an on-site canteen, make sure there are plenty of healthy options available. You could also place bowls of fresh fruit around your business so employees can help themselves whenever they fancy a snack. You might even want to invest in some water coolers, so employees are encouraged to stay hydrated throughout the day. These are small changes that will make a big difference to the choices your employees make.
Obviously, when an employee celebrates a Birthday, there really is no replacement for a celebratory cake, but you can ensure that employees always have the option to choose from a wide range of healthy food to make it easier for them to look after their wellbeing.
Start a competition
As we all know, a great way to motivate people is to add an element of healthy competition to the mix. So, why help your employees get into healthier habits by giving them all a clear goal to work towards.
For example, you could run a competition to incentivise your employees to walk more throughout the day. You could give out awards every week or month to the employees who have done the most steps. You could even create an online leaderboard to share around the business to show employees how well they’re doing compared to their colleagues. This will make employees feel more accountable for their health and conscious of the level of activity they’re doing every day.
At peoplevalue, we run a weight loss competition at the beginning of every year to encourage our employees to kick-start healthier lifestyles following the indulgence of Christmas. Our employees are not in any way obligated to get involved, but it’s a fun and light-hearted way of giving people that extra push they need to make small lifestyle changes.
Discounted gym memberships
Some of your employees might want to embark on a fitness journey but may be discouraged by the price of gym memberships, which can often be expensive. Providing your employees with discounted gym memberships is therefore a valuable benefit that will make it easier for your employees to pursue their fitness goals.
Incorpore are a key provider on our health and wellbeing hub, the zone. Their scheme, My Gym Discounts, is a voucher-based or discount code scheme which offers employees in the UK the opportunity to benefit from discounted gym memberships at thousands of gyms, leisure centres, health clubs and class studios.
My Gym Discounts is comprised of many of the UK’s leading gym chains, leisure centres, hotel health clubs, independent gyms, boot camps and yoga studios. The wide variety of choice allows employees to choose the gym they actually want, no matter where they live or work.
Some of the clubs available include David Lloyd, Virgin Active, Nuffield Health, Be Military Fit, Soho Gyms, Third Space, Bannatyne’s, Gymbox, Pure Gym, The Gym and many more. Discounts are also available on a variety of contracts, meaning employees don’t necessarily need to commit to a 12-month agreement.
Rachel Barber, Head of Partnerships at Incorpore, commented:
“THE WELLNESS SUPPORT THAT PEOPLEVALUE PROVIDE TO THEIR CLIENTS REALLY RELATES TO THE INCORPORE VISION. WE ARE SO PLEASED THEY SHARE OUR ETHOS OF CREATING A FITTER, HAPPIER AND MORE PRODUCTIVE WORKFORCE, NOW AND FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS. OUR GYM OFFERING IS JUST ONE OF MANY WAYS IN WHICH A WORKFORCE CAN BE ENCOURAGED TO LIVE A HEALTHIER LIFE, HOWEVER WITH OVER 3,500 GYMS IN OUR NETWORK, WE CAN PROVIDE A GYM OFFER FOR ALL EMPLOYEES, REGARDLESS OF THEIR LOCATION, BUDGET OR REQUIREMENT FOR DIFFERENT GYM ACTIVITIES.”
To find out more about how we can support your employees’ wellbeing, discover the zone.
Nigel Chambers
Remus Rewards, a division of People Value Limited, is an FCSA Business Partner, a TEAM Service Provider, an APSCo affiliate member and a market leading provider of reward and loyalty solutions to the temporary labour and recruitment market across the UK. By using our technology, businesses can improve their employee proposition, performance and increase employee morale and loyalty. Employees can take advantage of savings on high street shopping, including 7 major supermarkets, eating out, special rate cinema tickets and discounted gym memberships.
