Wellbeing may not seem like an important topic in the day to day running of your small business but being actively engaged in improving the health and wellbeing of yourself and your staff can help to build a strong, resilient workforce ready to face a changing climate.
Together with ukactive and Sport England, we have designed a range of resources to help you and your staff to make small but sustainable changes to your working day. We'll take you through simple ideas you can start to use immediately to create a working environment that supports and enhances employee health, wherever you are based.

Why is workplace wellness important?
We all know that keeping active and eating well are essential for good health but that on its own is not always enough to get us moving or eating well, especially during the pandemic when positive habits can easily be disrupted. Given that we spend an average of 8.5 hours of every day working, one simple way to boost your physical and mental health is to find small, sustainable ways to be more active in and around the working day.
Physical activity, exercise and movement are vital elements of workplace wellbeing
Research from Sport England has shown 62% of adults currently consider exercise to be more important than ever and 65% of people believe exercise is helping with their mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The UK's Chief Medical Officer has continually stressed the value of physical activity: “Anything that can be done to encourage and to allow people to take exercise is clearly a good thing”.
Individuals who sit less and move more live longer, healthier lives.
Taking steps to include daily physical activity and movement while reducing the sitting time of yourself and your employees contributes to a longer healthier life.
Adults spending eight hours a day sat at a desk are up to 60% more likely to die early from diseases such as cancer and heart disease. This risk is reduced with regular, moderate physical activity
An active workforce leads to a more agile, productive and resilient team
Small businesses and sole traders can be hit hard by business interruption through illness and the costs this incurs
2019 research found that if the recommended physical activity guidelines were met globally, it could make employees up to 5 days more productive each year and boost the world economy by an estimated $100bn a year.
Only 6 in 10 adults currently achieves the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity per week.
24.6% of adults in England are currently classed as inactive, this means over 11 million people are currently doing less than an average of 30 minutes activity a week.
Government Guidelines state that being active reduces your chances of Type II diabetes by 40%, cardiovascular disease by 35%, joint and back pain by 25%, colon and breast cancers by 20% and can reduce the risk of mental illness by 30%.
Focusing on employee health and wellbeing creates an attractive workplace culture.
Research by CBRE showed that 80% of employees agree that a company’s culture will be crucial in recruiting and retaining them within the next 10 years.
Developing a wellness based culture doesn't need to be complex and expensive, simple solutions to encourage healthy behaviours such as boosting activity levels can positively impact on how your current and future employees perceive your organisation.
Sources: Sport England covid-19 Physical activity tracker | Government press briefing 15th April | The Lancet, July 2016 – physical activity series | Fitter bodies, fitter economies – Vitality and RAND, 2019. | Sport England Active Lives Adult Survey November 2018/19 Report, published April 2020 | Wellness in the workplace: Unlocking Future Performance – CBRE – occupier survey 2015 –2016

Where do I start?
In June, along with Sport England and ukactive, we explored how improved workplace health and wellbeing can boost business owners’ and their employees’ physical and mental health and how health and wellbeing can boost the level of your firm’s productivity. If you missed our webinar, you can watch it in full below.
During the webinar, people were keen to ask questions about how they can make positive changes for themselves and their employees. We didn't have time to answer everybody's questions but you can find the most frequently asked questions below.

What can I do?
Join the Movement is a great resource for finding something active to try, the site also includes links to a wide range of free, high-quality indoor workouts for all ages and abilities plus apps and ideas for things you can do outdoors.
Whether you add activity to the start of your day or in 10-minute bursts between tasks, the guides below along with the Join the Movement hub will get you moving in no time! We've got five suggestions below to help you get started!
Key Resources
Supporting mental health in the workplace through physical activity
Discover the link between physical activity and mental health with ukactive and Mind's guide
Reconnecting with your team through physical activity
Physical activity challenges not only improve health and wellbeing but can also help build relationships too. Read our guide to find out how you can get involved.
Active Travel: A guide for Employees and Employers
Squeeze some activity into your daily commute with our guide.
How to have an active working day in three simple steps
Download our guide to building activity into your working day.
Boost your productivity with an active working day
Keeping moving through a working day is vital to the wellbeing of individuals.
How to hold a moving meeting
Moving meetings held via phone allow you to catch up while talking a walk