Leadership

Could Exercise Help Your Corporate Culture?

A media agency has hourly companywide fitness routines, which have improved the staff's productivity and set the company culture. Here's why more workplaces are promoting physical activity among their staffs.

Are you tired of sitting? Get up right now and stretch.

That’s how they do it at Overit Media. The entire staff takes two minutes every hour for a quick workout together in a program it calls OverFit. From jumping jacks to lunch walks, employees have a little fun and enjoy each other’s company while managing to fit in some fitness during their busy work schedules.

Overit has found that physical activity has increased worker productivity and improved company culture. More and more, organizations are approaching wellness this way. Here’s why:

Shedding the sedentary lifestyle: The average American spends at least eight to 10 hours a day sitting. As a health risk, some are even calling sitting the “smoking” of this generation. Standing up and moving for a few minutes on the hour improves circulation, and even short workouts help. “We’ve seen a big difference not just in terms of the way we look but the way we feel,” Overit managing director Jen Graybeal told Fast Company.

Working on your company culture: Don’t you think your staff would be closer and more chesive if you all danced to Michael Jackson for a few minutes every day? Because Overit already had a relaxed company culture, its 30-plus employees jumped right into the fitness routines. And, as Fast Company points out, a healthy company culture could mean fewer absences and more eagerness to work in the office: “As we undergo a Marissa Mayer-inspired debate about the merits of working in the office versus at home, it may behoove companies to bring many of the perks of the latter to the former—the ability to freestyle dance at your desk among them.”

Show your staff that you care: Take a cue from the Oncology Nursing Society. As Associations Now reported last year, ONS turned some empty office space into a full-fledged workout area for its staff. “We want our workforce to be healthy and happy and to know that we’re concerned about their well-being,” says Ellie Mary, CWWS. Promoting physical wellness has become a priority among associations and companies in general. Some have even put together wellness committees that tend to their staff’s health needs.

How do you show your staff the importance of physical fitness?

(Getty Images)

Anita Ferrer

By Anita Ferrer

Anita Ferrer is a contributor to Associations Now. MORE

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