The link between mental, emotional and physical health is oft touted, but in practice often ignored. ATP Personal Training's Alex Hunter is embarking on a crusade to make the connection clear—that everything from showing up sick to using the wrong lightbulbs can have an effect on employee effectiveness
It's fairly basic knowledge that a happy employee is a good employee—but while the theory has never been in doubt, for most corporates that means taking the team out for drinks on a Friday night or sponsoring cake when it's a colleague's birthday. Rare is the case that fitness comes into play, and even rarer is it that other factors that affect employee wellness are taken into consideration.
Alex Hunter launched ATP Personal Training last year in Hong Kong as an evolved version of a fitness studio, and has been specifically looking to partner with corporates to improve their wellness goals. Yes, that means group fitness programmes that he believes can help improve morale and productivity, but it also means consultations to see what suits each particular office—everything from the colour of the paint on the walls to the noise level on a daily basis can affect an employee's well-being. Here, he shares a few surprising statistics about how much poor mental and physical health is costing companies in lost productivity, as well as some of the solutions.
It's not a new theory that mental and physical health are linked. What's new that we need to know?
A recent survey of 394 employees at 11 professional services firms in Hong Kong conducted by the City Mental Health Alliance showed 35 percent of employees experienced symptoms of poor mental health in the workplace. From that figure 21 percent admitted that their own work productivity suffered as they were not performing at optimal levels.
Another recent study showed about half of teachers and secondary school pupils in Hong Kong are showing signs of depression. You can extrapolate this figure to a much larger working force—loss of production due to absenteeism is reported by Forbes to cost US companies as much as US$227 billion each year.
The average employee is not satisfied with their work environment or position. Increasing hours, lack of divide between work and personal life and increasing responsibilities compound this. These elements can lead to an unstable mental state which can destabilise the immune system.
You combine this with the generally poor exercise and dietary habits of many individuals in the city, this leads to further issues with overall health that can impact mental and physical well-being. All these factors add up can lead to loss of productivity, decrease in workplace morale, [overuse] of sick days, [higher] cost of medical coverage and loss of customer service due to employee shortage.
