Contact our Wellbeing Team on 0800 170 1777

Obesity Week: how much is your business losing in productivity?

‘JanUary’, formerly known as National Obesity Week and running from 9th to 15th is a campaign to promote healthier lifestyles across the UK. It is aimed at making small but manageable changes to our daily habits that we can stick to, with the end result being a healthier ‘U’ this JanUary.

Currently 1 in 4 adults are obese and by 2030, the NHS estimates that 48% of men and 43% of women will be obese.  The predictions don’t get better as obesity could rise to 50% of adults by 2050. There are significant costs associated with obesity:

  • A workplace with 1,000 staff is estimated to lose around £126,000 in productivity, due to health issues linked to obesity.
  • In 2010 obesity accounted for 18 million days of sickness absence and 30,000 premature deaths. The indirect cost to business through loss of earnings due to sickness from obesity rose to £3.6 billion from £2.58 billion in 2004.

There are plenty of different activities and great ideas that can be run for any workplace health event, that can help give advice and strategies on how best to tackle the health challenges the UK (and worldwide) are currently facing.
Some of these ideas that your workplace could do to help promote awareness around obesity and the health issues associated with it include:

  • Running a sports day or lunchtime activity session
  • Holding a healthy cooking demonstration
  • Hold a healthy breakfast or lunchtime event with information stands
  • Obesity awareness workshops
  • Workshops/Health assessments on how to measure your Body Composition and risks
  • Download Health posters to put up
  • Create a health awareness group to get together for lunch-time walks or jogs, share health information and experiences to assist one another in making small, healthy changes
Obesity Week: how much is your business losing in productivity
Obesity Week: how much is your business losing in productivity

Educating staff on the basics of good nutrition is vital. Our Health Promotion Events & Educational Workshops are a great way to promote health and prevent stress.  Carried out on-site, our services are designed to take a proactive approach to corporate health and wellbeing and are delivered by professional and knowledgeable staff.
This article was kindly written by our Health Assessor, Dan Jeffreys.

Recent Posts

Time to Talk Day 2022

Time to Talk day was created by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, two of the

Search our website

Copy link
Powered by Social Snap