When talking with a colleague of mine, we both recounted that exercise is a vital part of our daily routine, and helps us maintain our productivity and creativeness. After hearing this from multiple professional acquaintances, I wanted to take a deeper look at the link between regular exercise and workplace productivity.  

As reported by the Harvard Business Review, our cognitive abilities are directly impacted by exercise, either positively or negatively. For example, if employee A has a regular movement regimen, they are more likely to experience faster learning, more energy, and quality concentration. On the contrary, if employee B rarely moves their body, they are more likely to experience burnout, mental blocks, and decreased productivity.  

It’s clear the link between regular exercise and workplace productivity is significant. As an employer, what can you do to encourage your employees to make time for exercise? There are a number of ways to reinforce the importance of exercise within your staff. One way that this can be done is by creating accountability groups within your organization. For smaller organizations with fewer staff members, this could be one group of all employees, and for larger organizations this could be based on activity type. By doing this, you would encourage your staff to follow through on their commitment to exercise on a regular basis.  

Another great way to encourage movement within your employees is to create an incentive program. For example, each employee could track their activity in a simple spreadsheet or something similar, and then the employee with the most activity at the end of the month could get a small prize or public recognition. This is an effective way to engage staff members in a little friendly competition.  

After all, it is vastly important that your staff’s wellness is a central pillar in your company’s culture. What will you do to move your body today? 

The key to a healthy life is having a healthy mind

Richard Davidson