Yes, you should care about the well-being of your employees
Health programs and physical activity in the workplace lead to increased wellbeing and lower sickness absence, but often fail shortly after the first exercise bands are purchased. Implementation requires a cultural change and thus a management effort.
I was once visiting the HR department of a large Danish company when three female employees came into the office. They were there to pick up the shirts they had ordered ahead of the DHL relay race, which brings thousands of people together every year for exercise and socializing. But something was wrong. The shirts were much smaller than expected. They quickly put them down and left the office, and I don't think the three women participated in the race. In any case, their motivation seemed to plummet as they stood there and realized they couldn't fit into the clothes.
The experience is an example of how the low-level practicalities need to be in place if training and exercise are to be part of the workplace culture. Then there are the cultural and managerial aspects.
These are all parameters worth paying attention to, because the benefits of exercise are clear, as documented in my 2016 PhD thesis on the implementation of workplace health schemes. 400 office workers in the public and private sector were part of the trial. For two years, half of the employees trained one hour a week with sports students from SDU, and the effect was clear: After one year, the employees' health, fitness and blood pressure had improved significantly, and short-term sick leave had decreased by 56 percent, while productivity had increased by 10 percent. Conversely, there were no measurable changes in employees who didn't exercise. Most recently, the National Research Center for the Working Environment studied the health and working environment of 70,000 Danes and concluded that if all workplaces integrate small exercises into everyday life, 13 percent of long-term absence, i.e. absence over 30 days, can be prevented.
It sounds good, and it can sound easy. After all, you just need to organize some physical activity when employees need a break, right? But it's likely to benefit the people who sell exercise bands for the workplace first and foremost. Maybe 10 employees show up the first time, but research and studies show that after that, participation goes steadily downhill.
Why is it your leadership responsibility?
In some workplaces, managers believe that the physical and mental health of employees is their responsibility. So, is it okay to interfere with how employees feel? My answer is yes. When I attend conferences and visit private and public workplaces, I find that employees want that focus on their physical and mental health. It's the managers who are fumbling, even though it requires a management effort to make it work.
The manager must make sure that it is in Outlook that there is physical training from 10.00 - 10.15. When I'm out at workplaces to work with behavior around training, we have to bring the employees in for the training for the first long period. If it's a hospital, for example, we have to stand in the hallway where we meet the employees and then guide them to the training room. Once the behavior is in place, the support follows, because the employees feel the benefits.
The art of implementation
We offer management and organizational sparring, research-based training and presentations on implementation as well as training courses with a specific focus on giving you and your organization general implementation skills. Read examples of our services here.
It's not about coercion
It's not about forcing them to do it if they absolutely don't want to. There will always be people in the workplace who opt out of social activities, and that includes training, but we can get to 80% participation. When I see managers prioritizing training, it's a successful culture change. The manager needs to spend time explaining why training is important and talk to employees about what training they want, just like you talk to them about other changes in the workplace. There's a lot of practice. Some may not have exercised for many years. Others may want a shower after training or think the timing of the training is bad. Does an employee have an old herniated disk? A little stretching can quickly go wrong if it's not done by a professional. So there are two legs where professionals should be involved: The training and the implementation.
This also means that the manager doesn't have to be an expert in health or the work environment. But the manager must create the space and framework for working with health. The three women who were given sweaters that were too small is an example of one of the small barriers you can run into. In a culture and barrier analysis, you can look at the current culture and what barriers there are to incorporating movement and exercise into the workday. There may be employees or a layer of management who don't think it's a good idea, but the manager must try to understand the resistance. In this way, it may be possible to find a solution that goes beyond 'now some equipment has been bought and a passionate person will come on Thursday and get it started'.
It requires management to have the courage. Then we have a chance to succeed for the benefit of employees, workplaces and society.
