Employers "should promote physical fitness" to staff

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has released guidance warning that, because people of working age are not active enough to benefit their health, employers should encourage employees to increase their levels of physical activity.

The guidance is aimed at employers in all organisations or those that have a role in improving health in the workplace; i.e., staff responsible for occupational health or human resources, and includes the following recommendations:

• Develop a plan or policy across the organisation to encourage and support employees to be physically active, then introduce and monitor a programme based on the plan. This could be part of a broader programme to improve health.
• Encourage employees to walk, cycle or use another mode of transport involving physical activity to travel part or all of the way to and from work.
• Help employees to be physically active during the working day; for example, by providing information about walking or cycling routes or putting up signs to encourage them to use the stairs rather than the lifts.

According to NICE:

“Many employers recognise that they have an obligation to the health and wellbeing of their workforce. Investing in the health of employees can also bring business benefits such as reduced sickness absence, increased loyalty and better staff retention.”

The guidance concedes that these recommendations alone will not reverse the current obesity epidemic or other health trends associated with a sedentary lifestyle. However, it says that “efforts made in the workplace, alongside wider strategies to increase physical activity levels, could help improve health significantly”.

There is no current legal requirement for employers to promote the wellbeing of their staff and, as Greta Thornbory points out when discussing health surveillance in Occupational Health 2008: making the business case - special report, employers should be careful when it comes to watching over their employees' health:

“It is important to remember that the ‘watching over’ only applies where there is a known hazard in the working environment that scientific evidence has shown is a risk to health.

“It is also important to remember that health surveillance should not be used for any other reason without specific permission of the individual. Employers who seek to check to see if someone is under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or has a disease caused by a blood borne virus transmitted by sexual means could be construed as in breach of the Human Rights Act 1998, unless there is a specific need identified by the risk assessment in that particular employment.”

For more information about the NICE guidance, click here »