Toolkit to help promote healthier staff

Business in the Community and Public Health England have published a toolkit to help employers encourage healthier eating and exercise habits among their staff, reports Personnel Today. The toolkit has reminded businesses that healthy staff can be more productive, take less time off sick, and stay in employment longer than those considered unhealthy. It has provided a checklist of actions that employers can take to support their employees in making healthier choices. It has argued that around a third of adults in England are ‘damaging their health through a lack of physical activity’, because of factors such as prolonged sitting in the workplace and making a majority of their trips by car. The toolkit said: ‘Employees are more likely to make healthier choices about physical activity and diet if they feel supported by their employer. An open and inclusive workplace culture helps to tackle the stigma of physical and mental health.’