Now more than ever, movement and exercise is vital for the health of both employees and businesses and we hope some of the resources and challenges listed below, will help you and your workplace to support employee wellbeing. By offering employees physical activity opportunities or adopting good wellbeing practices, such as 50-minute meetings, coupled with 10-minute walk and stretch, will in turn increase productivity, reenergise staff and encourage employee retention. By implementing small changes, workplaces will see the benefits long-term for both their employees and their business.
Why is it so important?
Employers have an important role in permitting their staff time to pause during the working day and promote physical activity opportunities to help practice positive mental wellbeing. Company initiatives, help reduce health risks, enhances personal effectiveness, improve quality of life, and benefits the organisation’s bottom line through fostering teamwork.
What methods can be adopted?
Small steps can be taken, but we all hold the responsibility for looking after our workplace’s health. Simple methods such as holding team challenges using step counters and advertising free YouTube workouts to do during lunch can help to encourage movement and time away from the desk. Or, for those working from home, their usual commuting time could be used for a 15-minute run, walk or cycle to set staff up for the day or allow them to unwind after.
Essex Working Well
This campaign is in partnership with Essex Working Well – a service that provides Essex workplaces (excluding Southend-On-Sea and Thurrock) with free workplace health and wellbeing support. This support, commissioned by Essex County Council, offers the Working Well Accreditation (a holistic health and wellbeing accreditation, that allows you to build, maintain and evidence a robust wellbeing strategy and programme for your employees) as well as mental health support, Mental Health First Aid Training and on-site health and wellbeing services.
Check out the Essex Working Well achievements for 2024-25 here.
