Good health boosts business, but busy brokers can find it hard to stay fit. Should you add health goals to your business plan?
The link between good health and increased workplace productivity is an established one, but it seems that not everyone takes a healthy lifestyle seriously.
A recent Randstad Workmonitor survey, for example, showed that 21% of Australian workers don’t feel like they have enough energy to come to work each day and 62% of respondents noticed that the quality of their work improved when they exercised regularly. However, 93% of respondents believed maintaining a healthy lifestyle was their own prerogative, rather than a business matter.
So should you be implementing programs within your brokerage that support healthy eating and exercise?
Employment analyst Steve Shepherd explains that an increasing number of organisations are looking at bringing in such programs in response to the link between poor health and issues like absenteeism.
Implementing health and wellbeing programs in the workplace has clear benefits, he explains.
“If you eat well and you exercise, you're generally healthier, so you're probably going to have less time off work and you're going to have more energy to contribute while you're at work, so there are productivity benefits on both sides of the coin,” he says.
“I think more and more companies are seeing it as something they can add value to, particularly from that absenteeism perspective, which is a huge cost to businesses every year, so if we can encourage people to be healthier and have a better lifestyle, they're going to be at work longer.”
However, Shepherd adds that many organisations are trying to figure out how to balance the risk of sporting injury versus the productivity improvements that healthy lifestyle initiatives can bring.
And in an industry like mortgage broking, for example, a long injury layoff could have a big impact on commission levels.
The Workmonitor survey provides some evidence that a cautious approach is being adopted, with 68% of employees stating that they were not allowed to play in a sports team during office hours due to the risk of sustaining an injury during work hours.
Where do you think the balance between staying healthy and the risk of injury lies? Have your say by commenting below.
A recent Randstad Workmonitor survey, for example, showed that 21% of Australian workers don’t feel like they have enough energy to come to work each day and 62% of respondents noticed that the quality of their work improved when they exercised regularly. However, 93% of respondents believed maintaining a healthy lifestyle was their own prerogative, rather than a business matter.
So should you be implementing programs within your brokerage that support healthy eating and exercise?
Employment analyst Steve Shepherd explains that an increasing number of organisations are looking at bringing in such programs in response to the link between poor health and issues like absenteeism.
Implementing health and wellbeing programs in the workplace has clear benefits, he explains.
“If you eat well and you exercise, you're generally healthier, so you're probably going to have less time off work and you're going to have more energy to contribute while you're at work, so there are productivity benefits on both sides of the coin,” he says.
“I think more and more companies are seeing it as something they can add value to, particularly from that absenteeism perspective, which is a huge cost to businesses every year, so if we can encourage people to be healthier and have a better lifestyle, they're going to be at work longer.”
However, Shepherd adds that many organisations are trying to figure out how to balance the risk of sporting injury versus the productivity improvements that healthy lifestyle initiatives can bring.
And in an industry like mortgage broking, for example, a long injury layoff could have a big impact on commission levels.
The Workmonitor survey provides some evidence that a cautious approach is being adopted, with 68% of employees stating that they were not allowed to play in a sports team during office hours due to the risk of sustaining an injury during work hours.
Where do you think the balance between staying healthy and the risk of injury lies? Have your say by commenting below.
