According to a new poll of 617 full-time workers by
Flex+Strategy Group and Work+Life Fit, about half of all U.S. workers take part in some kind of wellness initiative, while about a third of all workers participate in some kind of employer-sponsored initiative. So if half of employees are doing some kind of exercise, and a third are doing it with work, what’s everyone else up to?
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Another way to dice the data is to analyze teleworkers versus traditional office workers. Teleworkers are more likely to pursue independent wellness initiatives rather than an employer-sponsored program. This makes sense because teleworkers are already living independently of their co-workers and employers. Rather than going into an office each day and interacting with others who might share similar fitness interests, teleworkers remain virtually separate from colleagues and their daily routines. There’s little opportunity for coincidental overlaps in fitness, like runners discovering they both go out for a 5k after work. Teleworkers’ independent working style translates directly to their wellness initiative engagement.
Whether you’re focused on how millennials measure up to baby boomers and Gen Xers or your concerned about how your remote employees compare to your office employees, it is important to understand your individual workforce’s wellness habits. Understanding how your staff engages is the key to ensuring that you can create wellness initiatives that fit their needs. If every employer took time to audit this engagement we could significantly increase not only the number of employees who engage in wellness initiatives but those who engage through their employers, connecting their healthy living to their insurance premiums.