When I started a corporate sales career in 2005 I was one of the only people in the office who left work and headed straight to the gym. I did this for a few reasons. One, I was young, single and didn’t have anything to rush home for, two physical activity offset my mental stress and three I needed a routine where I could focus on myself in a scheduled and predictable way. Today however, I would be part of a huge fitness movement thanks in part to the explosion of the wellness industry and the growing collective of people who understand exercise is critical to our mental and physical health.
Huge amounts of people now hit the gym straight from work, or at least intend to. This slow shift towards a healthier society might be heading in the right direction but now that I have kids (and a dog) working out after a full day is tough to pull off. Single parents and parents of pets and young kids make up a large portion of the workforce and without the scheduling flexibility these folks may miss out on the benefits a movement practice enriches our lives with. Forward thinking organizations have recognized this and see it as an opportunity to improve employee wellness, increase employee retention, improve employee loyalty and even improve on the productivity of its workforce through corporate wellness programs.
What is a corporate wellness program? It’s a organized and structured offering to employees as part of a benefit that might include classes at lunch-time, discounts at local gyms, workshops on nutrition or mediation or any other type of service meant to improve health by making it accessible and during the hours when you are in the office. This can be a huge draw for perspective candidates choosing their next position since it provides options for better living through the organization and fosters a sense of caring at the corporate level. When in office workout sessions are offered, people who can’t factor in extra time at the beginning or end of their work day have the option of attending classes at lunch paid for by their employer . This benefit cuts some cost in their lifestyle budget and solves the never ending problem of time. In addition to the benefits at the individual level, employers who consider adding a corporate wellness offering into their employee packages can see the upside go far beyond making their company stand out from the others. There are real and tangible productivity benefits to exercise, that organizations can tap into.
When we work we need our minds to be present and focused on the activity at hand in order to reduce mistakes and increase problem solving capabilities. In today’s world however, the influx of competing demands and short, fast bursts of video and images is designed to grab your attention and distract you. Add in sitting in one position for long periods of time and the build up of tension through shoulders, faces and torsos reduces blood flow to our brain and limits our oxygen uptake further stressing our nervous system and making it harder to focus. The result is often an inability to complete tasks in a prescribed time, or to accuracy. Exercise improves mental clarity and focus by pumping blood in the body, sending oxygen through the system with deep breaths and releasing built up tension. Focus is also a skill, something most of us have lost in the digital landscape. Fitness classes, in particular those curated for workplace settings, are designed to be body weight classes with less props and require a certain amount of focus on the task at hand and control of the body. When we concentrate, breathe and control our bodies we are also doing the same for our minds and that can translate into the tasks we take on afterwards.
Mental clarity and mental health are also tied to mood. It goes without saying that our mood has a profound affect on our ability to tolerate stress, communicate with others and collaborate. If we are in a level place with our emotions we are able to hear others and respond instead of react, listen to different ideas and opinions with a more open mind and see the bigger picture with respect to strategies and projects. Mood also affects our energy levels and productivity. Good moods can provide us with the energy needed to sustain excitement and insight when we are creating or help provide us the energy for patience and intuition when we are working through difficult tasks.
Physical exercise provides muscular strength and improves posture which can reduce incidence of injury. One of the most common injuries that requires time off work is back pain, a condition often associated with lack of strength or poor posture. A well designed exercise program for all ages and levels takes into consideration building postural strength and teaching participants to improve their posture which has often been thrown off by sitting at their desk for several hours. Other common injuries, like those in shoulders and neck, can be improved or avoided with exercises designed with the intention in mind. Thoughtful, well designed corporate classes will address these common pain points and aim to reduce pain while strengthening the muscle chains around these areas. Again, our nervous system , related to our brain and its ability to function well, is connected through our physical body and any work we do to strengthen the spine, neck and balance the tension created from being in one position for long periods of time will help to support a healthy and well functioning system and improve the overall resilience and health of the participant.
Group classes, workshops and events where employees come together for extracurricular actives, often foster a stronger team environment. Playing together allows people to see another side of a personality they may otherwise only know behind emails. Once we see each other as people, not addresses, we learn to respect other people’s time and feel more comfortable asking for and providing help. Working as a true team is a huge productivity and moral boost and working towards a common goal above ourselves helps corporations meet goals that might otherwise be trumped by individual needs. Growing teams through providing places for people to come together and encouraging socializing can be a way to build a healthy brand who’s goal is to be a good employer and provide a service or good through people on the ground who care about what they do and how they do it together.
In an economy where the smallest advantage can translate into incredible success employers are constantly looking for ways to improve communication, reduce redundancy, increase productivity and automate processes. Millions can be spent on automation and optimizing projects to meet these goals but unfortunately most of the dollars invested aren’t improving the human experience in the workplace. Simple and small investments in people and their health can support corporate goals while helping the actual person at the other end of the equation be better. The next time you look for ways to optimize your processes and make your organization a great place to work you might consider corporate wellness not as an add-on to the benefits but as a way to impact on the quality of work that’s done every day at the ground level.