At the beginning of this year, The Times released an important piece of work called The Times Commission Health Report putting together a tangible action plan to help save our NHS. Amongst many great recommendations they made, was one that talked about the role of the business community in healthcare. The message resonated with us so strongly, that we wanted to take some immediate action. Working with many health and wellbeing clients, we are lucky to have access to some of the greatest experts in this space – so we reached out and together with Nuffield Health wrote down some simple small steps that businesses can take to help improve population health.
Talking to Alex from Nuffield Health Newcastle, we agreed that looking after your health and the health of your employees and community should be a no-brainer for businesses – you’ll get healthier and more productive employees, fewer sick days, and a better-functioning healthcare system. So, if you are as excited as us to get involved, let’s have a look at some of Alex’s suggested actions:
Moving employee = happy employee
Evolutionarily, we were not designed to spend hours and hours in a sedentary position and doing so for 8 hours or so, 5 times a week, can have some seriously detrimental effects on our health including increased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and musculoskeletal conditions, as well as adverse impact on mental health.
If you are a business where much of the work is done sitting at the desk in front of the screen, you might want to consider some ways to encourage your employees to break the seated periods in shorter intervals and integrate some movements in between. A recent study has shown that exercise can boost cognitive skills including concentration and problem-solving capabilities – making your employees work more efficiently and with greater quality.
Here are some easy ways to integrate movement in the office environment:
- Standing desk station to reduce time spent sitting. You can even introduce one of the walking pads to encourage movement whilst still working.
- Plan for breaks in between meetings. Allowing at least 10 minutes between any diarised meeting will provide an opportunity to get out of the meeting room and get a few steps in or take it a step further and swap some of the meetings for outdoor walking meetings.
- Flexible working is a great tool to encourage better work-life balance and it also allows employees to replace commutes with workouts or move during their lunch breaks.
- Get involved in incentives or competitions that are based around physical activity, from Couch to 5K, “10K steps a day” or “Cycle2work” scheme. You can increase motivation by tying the activity to a selected fundraiser.
- Improve access to exercise. Some of the key barriers preventing people from moving more are time, equipment, access, and knowledge. Consider what you can do to remove these – it could be a weekly yoga session for all employees, interactive workshops with personal trainers or simply set a lunch walk initiative.
Be proactive in prevention care.
Prevention is always better than a cure, so understanding any health-related risk factors will allow your employees to take preventative action. Many of the most common health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and musculoskeletal conditions all have preventable causes. Empowering your employees with a knowledge of their health status as well as evaluation of their lifestyle can make a transformational impact on your business and your community. So, what are the actionable steps you can take?
- Provide an annual health assessment session such as Nuffield Health 360 Health Assessment to give your employees insight into their health.
- Encouraging blood tests, investigations and analysis that can identify underlying health conditions and allow for adaptations to take place.
- Offering evaluation of lifestyle, diet and exercise levels that can lead to positive change if required.
Healthy Eating to Healthy Working
Our bodies and our digestive system best respond to whole foods. Whether your employees are vegan, vegetarian, or carnivores, the most important health factor is the type of food they eat. With the current cost of living crisis, there are many barriers for people to eat whole foods but you, as an employer, can take some easy steps to offer health-promoting food during work hours such as:
Where possible reduce the amount of ultra-processed foods on display within your workplace. Whether that’s a vending machine in the office filled with crisps and chocolate bars or the soft drinks in the fridge. Instead replace those with fresh fruits, nuts or vegetables.
- Work together with your HR to develop educative campaigns about nutrition and the impact it can have on health.
- Provide a hydration station and encourage people to drink enough water during the day.
- Set up a cookbook library within your office where people can bring and swap different cookbooks to encourage cooking from scratch.
All in all, our workplace plays a huge part in our lifestyle, and it is businesses that can decide whether it would be a health-promoting or health-advertising environment. If every business in the country implemented just one of the above suggestions, it would make an enormous difference to the health of our population and the state of our health care, so are you ready to join?