Why Add Sit-Stand Desk to the Workplace Wellness Program?

Employees are the most valuable intangible assets of a company, and the efficiency and talent of employees determine the pace and growth of a business. Keeping employees happy, satisfied, and healthy is the primary responsibility of an employer. It includes providing a healthy and positive workplace, flexible vacations, bonuses, and other employee perks, such as implementing the employee workplace wellness program.

What is the workplace wellness program? A workplace wellness program is a form of health benefits provided by employers that give employees education, motivation, tools, skills, and social support to maintain long-term healthy behaviors. It used to be the employee perks of large companies but now is being common among both small and mid-sized businesses. Large numbers of evidence show that a workplace wellness program has multi-benefits for employees, including reducing work-related illness and injuries, improving engagement and productivity, decreasing absenteeism, and saving health care costs. 

Many employers spend plenty of funds on the wellness programs but turn blind eyes on the sedentary behavior in the workplace. While, to a modern office worker who sits for over eight hours a day, illness related to sedentary behavior becomes a kind of prevalent issue. It may lead to cervical soreness, increase the risk of obesity, diabetes, cancer, and even early death, which gravely impacts the health of employees, and reduces work productivity. 

The health of employees is so related to the health of the business. So how can employers act to improve this situation?

To employers, instead of the measures of afterthoughts like injury compensation, it is more efficient to consider improving the office environment by adding ergonomic office furniture, such as height-adjustable standing desks. Adding the sit-stand desks to the workplace wellness program helps employees break sedentary work postures, providing them more opportunities to change from sitting to standing while at the desk. Also, the key to creating an active workplace is to raising employee’s awareness of ergonomic working. Sitting still for an hour or 90 minutes at a time is associated with a higher risk of death, a new study [1] finds, and if you have to sit, less than 30 minutes at a time is the least harmful pattern. So, it is essential for employers to educate their workers to move every 30 mins to counterbalance the risk that comes with prolonged sitting.

The sit-stand desk plays a significant part in the employee wellness program and has become the fastest growing benefits for employees according to the report from the Society for Human Resource Management in 2017. By implementing ergonomics, companies create a motivated workplace which enhances employees productivity and health, is a long-lasting beneficial and win-win program. Keep in mind that if you have any questions about the ergonomic office furniture, you can always get free advice from LUMI’s professional team.

[1] https://www.today.com/series/one-small-thing/sitting-bad-your-health-move-every-30-minutes-t116207