February 2, 2022
Over the past few years, organisations have finally begun recognising the importance of maintaining positive mental health. No longer commonly treated as taboo, mental health has begun to be recognised as just as key as physical health.
However, there is a school of thought that this has inadvertently caused a drop in emphasis on physical health. UK Active describes the recent drop in activity levels as 'alarming'. We at Cream HR were pretty shocked to read that office workers
spending eight hours a day sat at a desk are up to 60% more likely to die early from diseases such as cancer and heart disease.
This spotlight looks at what is driving this problem and how employers can make a positive on activity in the workplace.
According to UK Active workers spend on average half their day sitting at a desk. They also report that inactivity causes 37,000 premature deaths a year and cost the UK £20billion a year.
And what impact does this have on businesses?
In 2016/17, 1.3 million workers suffered from work-related ill-health, which equated to 25.7 million working days lost. This has been estimated to cost £522 per employee, and up to £32 billion per year for UK business.
Rather than worrying too much about what will and won't work, it's better to just get started. Talk to your teams about the risks of inactivity and ask them what they would like to do. Run competitions, share activity on social media and create a buzz around what you're doing.
And let us at Cream HR know and we'd be love to share your updates.
We deal with employee issues so you can deal with what you do best