It’s a fair question: Why should companies pay employees to exercise when they have hours left in their workdays and weekends to devote to their own health if they choose to?
Yes, many leaders can, and do, argue that those hours to work out should be taken on their own time, but the reality of the situation is that often, they aren’t. And that’s the most obvious, and important, reason.
Employees spend a third of their lives at work, which is incredibly valuable time. Only 1 in 3 adults meet their physical fitness requirements every day, which means the other 2 in 3 are more sluggish in every aspect of their lives – including work.
Actually, the reality of the situation is that studies have found that employees are spending up to 8 hours every week doing activities that aren’t related to work at all. In recent surveys, 64% of employees say they visit non-work related websites during their work hours, and many of those websites are extreme time and attention black holes like Facebook and Google.
Why? Because people don’t focus in a vacuum. Ideally, people would be able to focus on one task, then the next, then the next, all day long without wasting any valuable (read: expensive) company time. But human brains don’t work like that, especially in recent years as social media and television consumption have drastically undercut our attention spans. Realistically, people can only be expected to focus, at most, for 40 seconds when using a computer screen. 40 seconds. And even then, people switch tasks, on average, every 2 to 3 minutes.
Obviously, most work tasks cannot be completed within that time frame.
Employees spend up to 8 hours every week doing activities that aren’t related to work at all, and 64% of employees say they visit non-work related websites during their work hours.
But there are also underlying work-related issues that go with this wandering eye. According to those surveyed, their reasons for slacking off at work are that they don’t feel challenged in their jobs, they work too many hours, the company doesn’t incentivize hard work, they don’t feel fulfilled in their career, or, simply, they’re bored.
So what can leaders do? They can give employees the tools to keep them engaged and fulfilled on the job. Exercise has been proven to help boost memory, productivity, focus, creativity, problem-solving and overall mood and sense of fulfillment.
So why is that the company’s problem when employees could use their own time for this?
Simply: Because they aren’t.
Instead of sticking to outdated notions of what employees “should” and “shouldn’t” do, it’s time to step up and be innovative in finding ways to give your employees the tools to improve their lives at work and at home.
By offering exercise classes through work, you’re ensuring that employees have access to healthy ways to spend their time – which is good because, as we’ve shown before, they’re likely going to waste that time anyway doing unrelated tasks. Instead, you’ll be directing that time and energy directly back into your company through their work.
At the end of the day, your employees, and your company’s bottom line, will thank you for it.