By enabling your staff to work on their wellbeing, you will also impact your business’ bottom line by reducing absence and turnover rates, and boost productivity, engagement, satisfaction and performance at work. Support from Tameside Council can help your business create a working culture that enables your staff to integrate wellbeing into their work and personal lives for the long term.
Sitting still isn’t good for us
https://youtu.be/h3do6c0aFDg
Lack of activity, sitting still most of the day and most of the time is leading to health problems and storing up health problems for the future. Desk based workers are often sitting for 6 hours a day and then consider the additional time sitting whilst driving to and from work.
Evidence shows the necessity to:
- Mix things up a bit while getting the job done
- Be active when travelling
Encouraging the workforce to be active can boost their physical and mental health, and is proven to increase productivity, focus and creativity.
Greater Sport, who want to get two million people moving across England, including Tameside, by 2025, backs this initiative.
What Can Employers do?
Making changes makes a difference: even a reduction of 1 hour to sitting time has been shown to lead to staff feeling more energised and engaged at work.
Get Britain Standing is a campaign to do just that!
Marie Hare, Community Initiatives officer can offer a bespoke service to your business to implement small changes to improve staff well-being and help you on the journey to become a more active workplace incorporating more movement at work and creating a live-well- day
Tameside Active Workplaces is all about simple steps to help your workforce move more, Starting with small targets such as just 10 minutes three or four times a week will start to make the difference.
As we spend 60% of our waking hours at work time employers have a huge role in supporting their employees to be active in and out of work.
The Chief Medical Officer recommends we should aim to be moderately active for 150 minutes each week. Currently 33% of the GM workforce do not meet these recommendations. Moderately active means that you heart and breathing rates are increased. If you are out on a walk with friends at lunch time you should be just about able to hold a conversation and be slightly out of breath.
Marie Hare, Tameside’s Community Initiatives Officer is working with businesses across Tameside to support employers to understand the short and long-term benefits of this approach being more active and looking at innovative ways to encourage this within the workplace.
We would love to support as many businesses as possible in Tameside to discover ways employers can take action towards allowing more staff movement within the working day. This can include support and advice for local businesses that have staff working from home.
“If you’re a local business in Tameside please get in touch and we’ll work with you to support your staff to improve both their health and productivity.”
To find out more about Active Workplaces or to get involved please email
Marie.Hare@tameside.gov.uk or call 07971 547 590.