Promoting fitness a smart business move
The Standard recently published a story about a department-wide fitness program that’s been implemented for McMinnville city firemen.
The program, now in its second year, allows firemen to exercise at the Civic Center weight room while they are on the timeclock. Firemen are free to concentrate on aerobic activities on the treadmills or bikes, or they can work on their strength with free weights or machines.
The idea is to get firemen in better shape so they can perform the job of fighting fires at an even higher level. And it’s a program that, according to local firemen, is working well.
What a welcome sight it would be if more local companies followed the city’s lead and jumped on the fitness bandwagon. Not only would such a program have the potential to make residents healthier, but it could also improve job performance.
A study released earlier this month during a conference of the American College of Sports Medicine found that a person’s quality of work, mental performance and time management were all better on days when that person exercised.
The study also revealed that employees who exercised returned to work more tolerant of themselves and more forgiving of their colleagues. In short, exercise produced more efficient and happier employees.
This is something Japanese companies have realized for decades, even going so far as to include gyms inside their factories and corporate offices. The Japanese have discovered healthier employees miss fewer work days and don’t file as many insurance claims.
McMinnville firefighters can certainly vouch for those results. Without hearing the results of the College of Sports Medicine study, firemen said working out had helped them both physically and mentally.
However, the plan of encouraging more local companies to allow their employees to work out does have its stumbling points.
For starters, there is the cost. Many businesses don’t have the resources to pay for their workers to attend a health club or visit the Civic Center’s gym. The city of McMinnville gets around this expense because it operates the Civic Center and city firemen can exercise there for free.
There’s also the chore of finding time in the work day, which simply isn’t feasible for some local businesses. In today’s economic climate, the mood is to get more work from fewer employees. Businesses are constantly trimming workforces and trying to milk more from the people on their payroll instead of hiring more workers.
To these businesses, allowing an employee to trot off for an hour of exercise may not seem like an option. But when you consider those employees are likely to return to work as more productive employees, the hour spent exercising could very well even out.
If an on-the-job workout is an unrealistic proposal, perhaps paying for a health club membership would be enough encouragement for local residents to exercise regularly. And promoting regular exercise is a smart idea.
All the statistics that show Americans are getting heavier and heavier have been well documented. We have become a largely sedentary society and we are encountering the health problems that accompany that lifestyle.
The city is on the right track by encouraging its firemen to get in better physical condition. That’s a philosophy more local businesses would be wise to adopt.