Just about everyone I know wouldn’t mind shedding a few pounds. But staying fit may be as important to your business as it is to your waistline. Believe it or not, according to the Physician and Sports Medicine journal, it costs about three $330 per year in direct medical expenses for each inactive employee on your team — including you. That’s just about a dollar a day.
By the way, that doesn’t include indirect medical costs such as workers’ compensation claims or the loss of productivity when you or an employee is technically at work, but less focused because of an illness or injury. Want to check out how well your business is doing. There’s a resource available called the Physical Inactivity Cost Calculator. The calculator uses the latest research available that includes medical costs, workers’ productivity and workers’ compensation fields. See how your business compares.
Armed with this information, and realizing small businesses are time and resource constrained, I wondered if business owners and their employees would be willing to exercise together.
So we ran a poll on SBTV.com’s homepage asking the question: Would you feel comfortable working out with your co-workers? Sixty three percent of 617 respondents said yes. Thirty-two percent said no and three percent aren’t ‘interested in exercise at all.
What do you think? Any good suggestions for incorporating a wellness or exercise program into your small business?
I bought a treadmill on eBay for my office early this year. I thought I could walk on it several times a day for 10 or 15 minutes just to relieve a little stress. So far, I’ve been on it a total of four times. Not a very impressive track record.
I am interested in hearing your thoughts. Also, currently on SBTV.com’s homepage you’ll find a poll asking whether your business has a wellness program. Let us know.
