Work Prductivity and Exercise Link

If you exercise, you'll be happy to hear your level of work productivity can go up as a result. Read on, another interesting topic for candidate discussion in that next interview? As we all know, hospitality professionals often have positions that require physical stamina....

Exercise and Productivity Link Confirmed

New Australian research has discovered that employees who walk 10,000 steps a day, and work out in the gym three times a week can give their employer up to $2,500 in added productivity per year compared to non-active colleagues.

A clinical trial run by the Body-Brain Performance Institute, in association with Swinburne University’s Brain Sciences Institute, monitored 40 employees from Melbourne software company SAP earlier this year.

The trial, which ran from April to June, found a direct link between physical fitness and work participation, with productivity increases calculated at $2,500 per year per employee.

Monitored over an 8-week period, the employees were divided into two groups and given pedometers. One group was instructed to walk 10,000 steps a day and head to the gym for three resistance training sessions per week, and the other asked to walk the daily average for an office worker, just 2,000-3,000 steps.

Professor Paul Taylor, who led the research, said “The research showed that there is a very clear link between physical fitness and brain function, and reduced stress levels at work.” He added that there was a marked improvement in the employees’ mood and cognition from the exercise group, with the exercising group showing a 4% increase in overall brain function.

Elements of brain function, including the ability to plan, remember, make decisions, stay alert, as well as stress and anger levels were measured using new neuropsychological tests developed by the Swinburne institute.

Taylor said the findings confirmed previous studies which showed vigorous exercise significantly increases happiness, productivity and cognition, and employers should be harnessing the advantages of exercise more in the workplace.

Professor Taylor has conducted Neuroscience of Leadership workshops with various company leadership teams, which focus on maintaining a healthy work-life balance, good nutrition, stress optimisation, rest and regular exercise, all leading to an improvement in individual and team performance.

[Source: www.hcamag.com]