Physical Activity As It Affects Workplace Performance

Problem and Purpose Statement

Workplace environments (offices and schools alike) provide little evaluation and remediation concerning employee wellness, thus negatively impacting employee efficacy and productivity. The purpose of this research project is to identify valid workplace assessments in order to provide reliable data for organizations so that they may make informed and appropriate decisions concerning health and well being of their employees. Qualitative and quantitative data will be collected, assessed, and analyzed; and from these new sets of data will emerge a deduction of how to remediate workplace wellness problems in order to increase employee productivity and efficiency in ways that are the most desirable due to their enjoyability, cost-saving attributes through policy changes in employee benefits, and effectiveness. Through the application of these hard researched suggestions for workplace wellness solutions through healthcare affiliation benefits for employees as well as the bottom line (in the form of productivity and lack of absenteeism due to health issues) can be maximized. 

Research Questions/Hypothesis

Research has shown that physical activity can be a contributing factor to an increase in work results (Salvas, 2009). The success of any company depends heavily on the productivity and performance of its employees, therefore many organizations have health and wellness promotion programs that are associated with lower levels of absenteeism and reduced healthcare costs. Most adults spend so many of their waking hours at work, therefore one could deduce that work would be an excellent environment for influencing healthy habits. Providing health education materials to employees can encourage them to take responsibility and transform their health; and health improvements, which are synonymous with cost savings, are achievable by the implementation of wellness promotion and disease prevention programs that offer said education and materials to employees. Providing education and motivation to improve individual health not only produces valuable rewards for employers, but also provides a higher standard of living for employees—which can in turn yield a stronger bond of employee loyalty as a result. This study seeks to answer the question as to why it is so important for the mind and body to be physically active and what benefits are followed by that condition, which is a benefit in itself. 

Methodology

In acquiring data, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were selected for a mixed methodology approach. First, regarding our qualitative approach, a sample size of 150 individuals was surveyed from three different organizations in Southeast Minnesota. Employees were randomly selected from each organization. The first, a small organization, Bopat Electric, has 30 or fewer employees. The other two organizations surveyed were State Farm Insurance and the Fredrick County School District. 

The survey employed was created electronically using Survey Monkey. Survey Monkey is an online tool used to create and customize surveys, analyze, print and export results, create graphs, and store your information in one location. For the purpose of small scale quantitative or qualitative research, this product is very efficient due to its customizability and ease of use. The survey questions were created based on our previous research, they were designed to free of bias and the objective was to give insight to the participant’s lifestyle and motivations. 

The survey was sent out via email to personal contacts at each of these companies. Contacts in Human Resources were asked to forward the surveys on to their employees as this seemed to be the most non-threatening way to survey the respondents. 

An analysis was done to determine what employees consider to be important in regards to health and wellness. The survey also collected employees’ eating habits, exercise habits, and family history. The intent of this methodology was to gather individual responses in order to make inferences on how to remediate workplace wellness problems for the purposes of increased employee effectiveness and productivity. 

Surveying employees on the effects of physical activity in their lives is important because ultimately it is up to the individual to decide their goals for success in physical fitness and wellness. If physical activity is one aspect that would help employees achieve their goals, it is likely that employers would like to know this information in order to influence a healthy lifestyle, and therefore an achieving of goals, for their employees. 

In regards to our quantitative approach, data from interviews will be reviewed and interpreted for an organization that used pedometers to track and monitor employee wellness: Parkdale High School in Riverdale Maryland (PHS) initiated an employee wellness program intended to improve employee efficacy and productivity. Because of differing levels of fitness of employees on the outset, PHS elected to focus on a basic level of fitness activity to achieve results. By having their employees walk while utilizing pedometers, PHS was able to track and monitor the number of steps each employee took throughout the day. This information was cataloged so that a track record could be kept of the individual's progress toward achieving their own personal wellness goals, and so that the school could also keep track of the overall progress made toward the school’s general employee wellness goal baseline. In this study, the pedometer data were analyzed and compared to state and federal wellness guidelines, which allowed us to determine (once federal state and wellness guidelines were matched by school employees) whether there is any correlation between previous claims made of employee wellness and efficacy and productivity. Parkdale High School’s specific use of pedometers was also examined in order to determine if this method of assessment provided reliable and valid results when held up against other verified pedometer use methods.

Analysis of Data

Our data were analyzed using the online tool Survey Monkey. Approximately, 150 surveys were sent out and 100 were returned. Of those surveys, 70 of the returned entries were from females and 30 were from males. The most common occupation reported was an educator. The other responses included a wide range of administrative and customer support jobs within the State Farm Insurance Agency. Using the Likert Scale and ranking questions on a 1 to 4 range, it was found that the respondents were generally healthy. This finding was established from the specific answers they chose in the health history question section of the surveys they filled out. Approximately half of the respondents said that they ate fresh fruit and vegetables either “sometimes” or “most of the time” and about 55% of respondents said that they currently participate in some physical activity. “Some physical activity” was defined as moderate to vigorous exercise for at least 20 minutes. In addition, 91% of respondents answered that they call in sick for work 0-5 times per year, which statistically would be considered a low level of absenteeism for an organization in comparison to national and statewide averages. 

The results of the survey suggest that healthier employees have a lower level of absenteeism. However, due to limitations in the study, it was difficult to determine whether companies use sick days as a way to measure if health programs are effective in increasing worker productivity. Additionally, the survey was not useful in assessing whether physical activity was directly related to an organization’s success, but more gave us insight on the participant’s eating habits, exercise habits, and family history.

While reviewing the research data of Parkdale High School (PHS), an organization implementing a program called “Steps to Wellness,” we determined that their method of collecting and analyzing quantitative data was appropriate and effective. Of the 350 employees of the organization, 267 employees participated in the program and were given digital pedometers to measure how many “steps” each person took per day. The pedometers were user-friendly, allowing for the accurate tracking of not only daily steps but weekly steps en route to one’s wellness goals via their health plan. When participants engaged in alternative fitness activities, employees were given conversion charts to allow them to convert the alternate activity into steps. In addition, PHS utilized a Google Docs spreadsheet accessible to all participants to track their pedometer readings and fitness steps. To remove bias and embarrassment factors, each employee was given a personal identification number to maintain anonymity throughout the process. Thus, BPS pooled results from participants to create a common method of data collection and review in assessing their employee’s wellness.

In interpreting how Parkdale High Schools collected wellness data, two inferences readily appear. First, by implementing a user-friendly method of collecting data resulted in the involvement of 267 of 350 total employees in the Steps to Wellness program, equating a 76.2% participation rate. Because state and national data on the percent of employee involvement in wellness programs could not readily be acquired, we were unable to predict whether or not a 76.2% rate of participation is higher than average for most organizations. However, it was accepted as an excellent rate of participation for the fact that the participation rate accounted for more than a three-quarters majority of the entire organization. 

Secondly, by offering participants conversion charts and an anonymous location to enter, display and compare one’s steps to the steps of other participants, the program created incentives to improve one’s level of fitness—competitive motivation. By removing bias and embarrassment while providing real-time data of all participants, the program resulted in an honest and valid assessment of each participant’s own efforts.

Benefits for Organizations

It is assumed as a basic understanding that organizations would like to provide the best for its employees, to keep them productive, energized, and motivated. However, the costs of wellness programs can deter companies from implementing them, despite a desire for healthy and happy employees. In consideration of this fact, one begins to wonder why it is that so many companies have made the decision to implement wellness programs such as these. What is an organizations motivation behind implementing such a program, and what benefits do such programs provide? Through the research of studies and reports, as well as through a conducting of interviews and listening to first-person accounts of business owners, it was found that wellness programs help with employee productivity and increased company revenue. The above research yielded ten specific reasons that serve as strong evidence for wellness program advocacy. These reasons follow below:

• Decreased Health Insurance Cost, with health insurance premiums rising every year, employers need to find new ways to reduce their health expenses and manage employee benefits. Wellness programs have shown incredible returns and remarkable results due to their focus on preventative lifestyle choices and changes. 

• Improved Work Performance, wellness programs cater to all manner of health and lifestyle problems. Doing so is aimed at promoting a healthier lifestyle to employees in order to reduce the amount of medical attention they may require in the present and future. Employees that partake in wellness programs show a substantial improvement in their overall work performance. 

• Reduced Sick Leave Wellness programs have a lasting impact on the reduction of company sick leave. 

• Increased Company Loyalty A major selling point for companies to implement a wellness program was loyalty. Organizations believe that this is an intangible that you can’t put a price on. Company loyalty means reduced cost in recruiting, training, and turnover. 

• Increased Responsibility When a company provides a wellness program for its employees, it has been seen that employees feel that they are being well taken care of and they then choose to take on a higher level of responsibility in their work. 

• Increased Productivity One of the main purposes of the wellness program is increased productivity. It has been proven that if an employee is healthy they will be more productive. Being healthy increases concentration, energy levels, and output, it also ensures you are able to consistently perform at the desired level. 

• Reduced Overall Costs Wellness programs have a range of benefits, both quantifiable figures and intangible results highlight these. Implementing them has ensured a significant reduction in companies’ overall costs. Those hard numbers are substantiated by benefits that are difficult to quantify—gains in increased morale, productivity, and work performance. But reduced costs are also contributed to with benefits that are 100% quantifiable—reduced sick leave, absenteeism, and lower health insurance premiums comprise a sizeable amount of cost reduction as well. 

• Reduced Absenteeism, Some factors that influence an employee’s health and wellbeing could include minor illnesses such as colds and flu, or other health risks such as obesity, or even some health risks as major as heart problems. All of these conditions, if handled appropriately, result in employees taking time off work. A wellness program provides the opportunity to reduce time off or avoid it altogether by lessening the likelihood of health events such as these. A wellness program provides educational tools to help employees learn how to avoid these illnesses and some wellness programs will go so far as to officially and medically identify and in some cases treat the problems with professional health care practitioners. 

• Work Place Morale Wellness programs cover a broad range of healthcare initiatives, from nutritional advice to exercise programs. When employees are healthy it leads to them being happier, which equates to maximized workforce performance. The number one reason that organizations implement a wellness program is 

• Decreased Health Care Cost The number one reason that organizations implement a wellness program is decreased health care cost. The implementation of a wellness program has proven effective in reducing company health care costs across the board. Facing rising costs in health care forced employers to look for new and untried ways to minimize the expense. The simple solution was to make sure employees never got sick. Although wellness programs do not reduce employee illnesses to zero, they do significantly reduce the company cost of employee health care by reducing the incidence of ill unhealthy employees and employees with unhealthy lifestyles. 

Although the organizations that implement wellness programs may genuinely care about their employees, the amount of money that the organization saves as well as the increase in productivity is a win-win scenario. Organizations that provide workout facilities at the work location saves employees time and money. This also acts as an added incentive since it makes it easier for employees to work out during convenient times—right before work, lunch hour, after work during rush hour traffic. Working for a company that has a wellness program ensures a well-cared for a workforce which will be more capable of providing excellent productivity because of that fact.

Reflection and Improvement

Some of the things we might have wanted to do differently would be to focus on one variable of physical activity. For example, what time of day people are most likely to exercise or how accessible the health facility is relative to the workplace and if that affects people’s desire to use it or not. We should have then drilled down asking the questions on health history and daily habits and used those answers to analyze future needs for physical activity in their everyday lives. I also think I should have used a mixed-method approach and accompanied my survey with interview questions. It was challenging to determine if physical activity was directly related to an organization’s because so many people define success in different ways. We did not ask anything about success directly on the survey, so that is where additional interview questions would help get more information and tie those together with the survey results.

Another change that would potentially help the results is in the way the survey was distributed. Since the contacts were instructed to forward the survey out to anyone they thought would be interested in completing it, we didn’t have much control over who the candidates would be. Maybe an alternative would have been to have a set number of participants for the sample size determined ahead of time. This, in turn, caused the range of occupations to be completely random and age groups to be anywhere from 20-60 years old. Using one business would have been the ideal option and if time allowed, we could have expanded our networking and increased the number of participants in the study.

Wellness has become a very popular topic over the past decade. Research has proven physical activity may help prevent diseases (Vitonis, 2010), prevent or reduce high blood pressure and can even decrease the risk of early death (Donaldson & Normand, 2009). These are all important things to be aware of as people get older. Commonly, more than half of adults do not participate in physical activity at a level recommended as beneficial to health (“Adult Participation…,” 2006). If adults received the right education and took time out of their day, they could reap the benefits of physical activity. The time that an individual invests in a healthy lifestyle would likely pay off for them, and in the long run, benefit the employees by lowering healthcare costs and absenteeism. 

Mini Literature Review

It is hypothesized that physical activity can positively relate to performance at work, but studies have proven that employees are more likely to be on the job and performing well when they are already in optimal physical and psychological health (Wellness Proposals, 2009). The following literature will support the idea of what a positive impact physical activity can have on success at work and overall wellness in life.

An article from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2010) examines the differences from 2001 to 2003 in adult participation in the minimum recommended level of physical activity, while additionally looking at the data for physical inactivity among adults within similar lifestyles. Comparatively, the Journal of the American Medical Association (“Adult Participation…,” 2006) had a similar study based on physical activity and analyzed data by looking at surveys in a two-year range. They used a random dialed telephone survey that studied population ages 18 years and older. It consisted of six survey questions about physical activity in three areas (household work, transportation, and leisure time) for the study. The findings indicated that more than half of U.S. adults do to not participate in physical activity at a level recommended beneficial to health (“Adult Participation…,” 2006). This study emphasized that the promotion of physical activity is integral to national health promotion programs. 

Another study (Donaldson & Normand, 2009) evaluated five obese participants based on calorie expenditure, goal setting, and how physical activity was related to these self-monitoring evaluations. The results showed that 4 out of the 5 participants had a weight loss and a decrease in their BMI. Although nothing was mentioned about calorie consumption in this study, it is still a vital part of improving health (Donaldson & Normand, 2009). Physical activity is associated with decreased health risks and the results of this study suggest that simple, cost-effective measures involving self-monitoring and individual feedback can be used to increase calorie expenditure in obese adults (Donaldson & Normand, 2009).

The next study ties closely to productivity and how it relates to an individual’s healthier lifestyle during the workday. A common belief of employers who implement physical activity programs at the workplace is that employees who exercise are healthier than employees who choose not to exercise, and therefore it is a common rationale that companies can benefit by encouraging employees to be active, therefore lowering health care costs and creating higher productivity (Burton, 2005). The intent of this study was to examine the associations between participation in a workplace fitness center and worker productivity. The results of the study found that nonparticipants in a workplace fitness center were more likely to report health-related problems and work productivity problems in regards to time management issues, physical work limitations, output limitations, and overall work impairment. This same study found that employees who participated in using the fitness center reported the fewer incidence of above-mentioned productivity problems and health-related problems (Burton, 2005). Fitness center participation also was associated with 1.3 days of fewer short-term disability days per year per employee and 0.39 fewer health risks (Burton, 2005). These results support the suggestion that worksite fitness center participants improved productivity and lowered short-term disability workdays lost (Burton, 2005).

According to the Wellness Councils of America (WELCOA), which is an organization that is dedicated to workplace wellness, there are seven practices to ensure comprehensive and effective results when employers create a corporate wellness program. These practices are known as “The Seven C’s” and are considered the best practices in the undertaking of corporate wellness creation (Wellness Proposals, 2009). These C’s will be covered below, and an analytical review of why these C’s were chosen to represent the “best” actions in forming corporate wellness plans will be discussed. 

The first “C” is: “Capture Senior-Level Support. Health initiatives of any type or size require absolute backup from the very top or else it is not assured that they will survive or be appropriately implemented so that efficacy is assured. Also, employees in a company and junior- and mid-level managers will take a wellness program more seriously if it is first taken seriously by the senior-level managers and given the resources that are necessary for seeing that it goes fully operational. 

The second “C” is: “Create a Health Promotion Team.” The team should be comprised of people who will have a role in the development of the program, as well as its implementation and evaluation. It is also important that the team members be chosen from all varying levels of fitness, wellness, and health. It is desirous to have a health promotion team that is a microcosmic cross-section of the employees already working in the company. Otherwise, out of shape, obese, ill, or elderly employees may feel unrepresented or even unwelcomed. Additionally, gender, race, and even sexual orientation can also play a role here as the same feelings of not being represented can occur with those groups as well. 

The third “C” is: “Collect Data that will Drive Your Health Promotion Initiatives.” This is a very important step as it ensures that the employees that the proposed health plan is looking to serve are also involved in its creation, purpose, and direction. Finding out what employees need and want will help organizers craft the wellness program to a specific workforce, but it will also get that specific workforce thinking in terms of having and using a wellness program to their own benefit. Surveys, risk assessments, and claims analysis can be helpful tools in collecting this data.

The fourth “C’ is: “Craft an Annual Health Promotion Operating Plan.” This step is based on the idea that without a plan, things are aimless, unfocused, and ultimately unproductive. An annual mission statement, goals and objectives for both the short term and the long term should be provided. Creating a plan also makes it easier to coordinate and implement the plan amidst all the other plans that are occurring within a large organization. And the plan can be referred back to when investigating to see if goals were attained, if any changes need to be made, or if accountability for shoddy plans needs to be discovered. 

The fifth “C” is: “Choose Appropriate Health Promotion Initiatives.” Choosing appropriate health initiatives seems like it would be a logical step, but it can be difficult for companies to do such a simple action. Initiatives must follow from the data collected. If a team starts deviating too much from the known needs and wants of a corporate workforce in regards to health and wellness, then that corporate workforce will not use wellness program as it does not meet the needs they so clearly stated within the surveys and other methods of data collection that the team so painstakingly compiled in the first place.

The sixth “C” is: “Create a Supportive Environment.” Setting up a project for success is an obvious choice, however, this can become obfuscated when dealing with issues of wellness because of the many long-standing bad habits in a work environment. Acknowledging that a need to think outside the box is necessary to break habits that steer away from health is the first step in creating a supportive environment, and then brainstorming to actually come up with those “outside the box” ideas would be next. Switching out candy bars for something with a lower glycemic index and higher fiber content in vending machines would be a good start. Nixing soda, coffee, cigarettes, and other such items on work premises would be another. Another good “outside the box” idea would be putting in a monetary bonus system that tracks when employees use the stairs over the elevator. These changes set people up to succeed. Couple them with a can-do team of supportive wellness staff and employees will find it very difficult to fail in meeting their health goals.

The seventh “C” is: “Consistently Evaluate Your Health Promotion Outcomes.” This step goes right along with the yearly evaluation plan. If a plan is not working or goals are not being attained, it is illogical to wait until the following year to catch up to those foibles. Instead, a constant check should be taking place so that successes can be compounded and so that failures can be remedied or cut.

If adults received the right education and took time out of their day, they could reap the benefits of physical activity. The time an individual invests in a healthy lifestyle would likely pay off for them, and in the long run, benefit the employees by lowering healthcare costs and absenteeism. The same is true for an organization. The time an organization invests into a healthy lifestyle wellness program will pay off for them, so long as they set proper and attainable goals and back those goals up with the appropriate planning and actions to ensure they are met (Wellness Proposals, 2009).

References

Adult participation in recommended levels of physical activity - United States, 2001 and 2003. (2006). JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, 295(1),27-29. 

Burton, W. (2005). The association of health status, worksite fitness center participation, and two measures productivity. JOEM, 47(4), 343-351. 

Donaldson, J., & Normand, M. (2009). Using goal setting, self-monitoring, and feedback to increase calorie expenditure in obese adults. Behavioral Interventions, 24(2), 73-83. doi:10.1002/bin.277.

Salvas, M. (2009, September 24). When overworking leads to underperforming. Positive Psychology News. Retrieved from http://positivepsychologynews.com/news/marie-josee-salvas/200909244675

Vitonis, A. (2010). Relationship between regular exercise and disease risk. Fertility Weekly, 6-7. 

Wellness Proposals. (2009). Health promotion. Retrieved from http://www.wellnessproposals.com/health-promotion.htm