subject: How To Encourage Health And Fitness In The Workplace [print this page] If you run a business and you want to try and encourage your employees to pay more mind to their health and fitness there are many routes that you could go down. A lot of the time, those working in an environment that is very lax on the topic of healthy eating and exercise can begin to become unconcerned with their own health, but as long as you set a good example and put the right measures in place to allow your employees to get fit and healthy, they should follow suit.
One of the first things that you might want to do is encourage your employees to eat healthier foods. If you work within an area where there are many opportunities for your employees to nip out to the shops at lunch to get something to eat, they might find themselves eating meals with a higher fat content than is recommended. It could be worth signing up to a meals service so that caterers specialising in healthier foods can visit your place of work every lunchtime - this way your employees will find it easier to pick up a nutritious salad or low-fat sandwich instead.
If you work within easy walking distance of a local gym you should speak to the owner or manager about the possibility of setting up some kind of special membership for your employees, so that you can encourage them to get more active. Many people would love to go to the gym but are put off by the prospect of paying costly membership fees every month. With your help though, they could join a gym for a price they feel comfortable with. You could also give those that visit the gym slightly longer lunch hours, thereby encouraging them even more.
However, you are sure to find that some of your employees aren't that keen on the gym, in which case you could offer them the chance to sign up to the government's Cycle2Work scheme. This is a scheme that is designed to get people cycling more and your employees would get a huge saving on a brand new bike that they could use to commute to work with. With this scheme, your employees would hire their bike from you while paying a small amount from their salary every month for either 12 or 18 months. Their payments would be exempt from tax and national insurance as well, so they would be getting a fantastic tax break.
