Working in an office can be bad for your health. You are chained to your chair and desk most of the day and if you don’t plan properly you end up getting takeaway food for lunch. Perhaps its time your company thought about introducing a corporate wellness program, which is something activity tracker technology vendor, Fitbit, highly recommends.
Man hoola hoop picture from Shutterstock
Fitbit’s bread and butter is measuring the health and fitness levels of people through their wearable tracking devices, so promoting wellness in organisations is a no-brainer for the company. According to Fitbit chief revenue officer, Woody Scal, there has been a lot of research done that shows that it’s within a business’ best interest to make sure their employees are fit and healthy.
“Active employees tend to be more optimistic and they have fewer missed work days,” Scal told Lifehacker Australia. “If you can encourage your employees to be more active less obese and get better sleep, the organisation will work better. Workers will have a more positive attitude and productivity will increase.”
Putting in place a cohesive plan to boost health and fitness in the office isn’t just about occasionally hosting a yoga class in the board room. A corporate welless program should provide education to employees on how to live a healthy lifestyle which encompasses what they eat and encourage physical activity through fun rewards.
“Right now here at Fitbit we’re actually running a competition with different departments to see who has the highest average step count,” Scal said. “It’s a combination of encouragement, tracking, rewards and making it a part of the corporate culture.”
Ensuring the wellness of employees is also something close to the heart of Virgin Group founder, Sir Richard Branson.
“If you’re not feeling fit or healthy, your batteries quickly run down and you’re not going to be able to perform at work and in general as well,” he told Lifehacker Australia earlier this month. “Everybody has to find half an hour or 45 minutes a day to make sure they keep fit and stay healthy.”
Spandas Lui travelled to San Francisco as a guest of Salesforce.
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One response to “Fitbit: Bring In Corporate Wellness Programs For Fitter, Healthier Employees”
Based on the image above, I have visions of the next Killer Interview Question being:
“How long can you hula hoop ?
The last candidate reached 10 minutes, though the average is 7.
Demonstrate how keen you are for this role. Singing gets you extra points“
I remember back in the late 80’s working as a corporate health consultant and listening to a talk by the then Canadian Health Minister explaining their fitness promotion program. He pointed out that after five years national fitness levels had actually gone down. The solution? They were doubling the funding for the same programs next year.
Goes around comes around.