“Healthy People is a good Business,” a quote from Active Inspiration, and one that GSH believes is important for our employees to follow.
Active Inspiration’s mission is to get employers to motivate their teams to exercise more, eat better, sleep more, and generally reduce stress levels.
GSH’s UK Regional Manager, Mickey Rooney, has joined Active Inspiration’s C-Suite challenge in an effort to achieve Active Inspiration’s mission. GSH is the only FM provider participating in this challenge. The C-Suite Challenge is a two-week challenge, where a team of executives throughout the United Kingdom is participating.
GSH and Active Inspiration are working together through an app-based technology, that is linked to energy reduction as part of an integrated wellness offering. Competitors can track their daily exercise and health data which is then analyzed by Active Inspiration. In turn, GSH can use the data to determine more efficient building use and reduce energy usage and costs. Mickey Rooney’s goal during this C-Suite challenge is to top the leaderboard. The data drawn from the trial becomes invaluable in understanding the impact of our working environment, work practices, and workplace culture.
Why is Exercising Important?
The impact of declining health, low exercise and a team with low motivation is crippling to a business, and it is an effect that can go largely unnoticed. In the UK, The Stoddard Report emphasizes the positive impact of increased wellness and high motivation, which can improve business productivity by 3.5% and ultimately add £70 billion to the UK’s economy.
According to the Health at Work, Economic Evidence Report 2016:
- An average London firm of 250 employees loses around £250,000 a year due to ill health
- A manufacturer with 20,000 employees made a cost savings of £11m over 3 years due to savings of 1% absenteeism reduction
- The productivity loss as a direct cost of cardiovascular disease is £8 billion each year
- Physical inactivity has major healthy consequences and is estimated to cost the UK economy about £8.2 billion each year
Former economics correspondent for BBC Newsnight, Duncan Weldon, states, “A 1% productivity gain would add almost £20 billion to our national output. Such an increase could reduce the annual government deficit by about £8 billion, add £250 a year to the average wage packet and increase annual profits across the country by almost £3.5 billion.”
To determine the impact on your business, a calculator has been developed by the British Heart Foundation, which can indicate how wellness has a positive influence on reducing absenteeism, presenteeism, and turnover costs.
So, Let’s See How Mickey is Doing!
Mickey’s Week 1 Data:
- Total Steps: 100,221 steps
- Total Floors: average climbed was 10.2
- Heart-rate: Resting average was 58bpm and high average was 139bpm
Mickey’s Week 1 Targets:
- Steps – 10,000 a day (70,000 a week)
- Heart-rate – 50 beats per minute (at rest) and 127 beats per minute (starting)
- Stair climbs – 10 a day
For week 1, Mickey’s target was to see how the workweek met the average, while still making sure he is still on top. The 2nd week has just begun so stay tuned to see Mickey’s progress and how his personal records compare to the average.