Are you looking for a surefire way to decrease company healthcare costs and increase employee enthusiasm and personal effectiveness? Perhaps you should consider leading the crusade to install or update the fitness room at the office or to offer discounts for your employees to join local health clubs. Indeed, improving the fitness of your workforce could actually result in improving your bottom line as well.

According to the Mayo Clinic, exercise is proven to have wide-ranging benefits. These health benefits could help your organization in a variety of ways. Thirty minutes of exercise each day can increase energy, improve mood, decrease weight, increase health, improve sleep, and much more. Encouraging your employees to exercise could result in lower company health insurance costs and higher employee enthusiasm for their work.

Many employees already bike to work, choose to use the stairs instead of the elevator, bring tennis shoes for a lunch hour stroll, or lift hand weights at their desk during a conference call. But squeezing 30 minutes of daily exercise into an already busy schedule can be difficult for many people, especially those who work long hours, have a long commute, or otherwise struggle to maintain work-life balance.

Offering an on-site fitness center might involve a high initial investment, but it will quickly pay high dividends for both you and your employees.

6 Benefits of Better Work Life Balance Through Increased Exercise

1. Improved employee health means lower health insurance costs and fewer sick days used by increasing overall health.

2. An on-site fitness center offers a productive way for employees to release stress levels or boost energy levels in the middle of the day.

3. Offering free or reduced cost access to an on-site or off-site fitness center is a strong selling point in a benefits package, and it could help attract and retain talented employees who are seeking to improve their work-life balance.

4. An on-site fitness center allows employees to make the most of their lunch hour. Without having to leave the office, they can have time to exercise and eat lunch as well, thus being ready to jump back into working productively in the afternoon.

5. Increased exercise could result in increased personal effectiveness and motivation for many more sedentary employees who needed a little encouragement to start exercising.

6. An on-site fitness center offers the opportunity for colleagues to get to know each other outside the confines of the conference room or the break room, and these relationships could improve company collegiality.

How could you encourage improved fitness at the office?