Addressing Sedentary Behaviour in the Workplace: Insights and Strategies
In today’s digital age, when work is commonly tethered to desks and screens, we often find ourselves engaged in prolonged periods of inactivity. Both our environments and our individual lifestyle choices can significantly influence how much we move throughout the day which, in turn, can impact our physical and mental well-being.
Sedentary behaviour, or sitting for long periods of time, has become increasingly common and is a major health concern in the modern workplace. Prolonged inactivity can have serious negative health effects including increased risk of cardiovascular disease[1,2], type 2 diabetes[3], certain types of cancer[4], heightened anxiety[5], and psychological distress[6].
Fortunately, increasing daily movement is a simple yet effective way to reduce these health risks[3], and both employees and employers have the power to make individual choices and structural changes that facilitate more movement. Below are a number of strategies to help combat sedentary habits in the workplace.
1. Take regular movement breaks throughout the day.
Employees can choose to use break time for physical activity like walking, stretching, or quick workouts. Choosing to take movement breaks, instead of catching up on emails or scrolling social media, is an accessible and relatively simple way to incorporate more movement throughout the day.
Employers can encourage these choices by creating work schedules that allow for regular short breaks or longer lunch breaks that create time for movement.
2. Create movement-friendly work environments.
Employers, or employees who work from home, can incorporate standing desks, under-desk treadmills or bikes, or exercise balls at workstations that allow individuals to work while standing, walking, cycling, or balancing.
Where possible, consider open-plan office designs that encourage employees to walk around a workplace, and provide dedicated spaces for physical activity, such as in-office gyms, wellness studios, or movement rooms.
3. Promote and engage in physical activity outside of work.
Employees can choose active transit options like walking or biking to work, using the stairs, or parking further from work to encourage more steps. Employers can ensure that bike racks, storage lockers, and showers are available for employees to use at work, which may make walking or cycling to work more feasible for employees.
Employers can also encourage more movement by offering in-house fitness classes, movement breaks (e.g. lunchtime yoga classes), a health spending account, gym memberships, or scheduling flexibility for employees to attend fitness classes.
Employers can set up office-wide physical activity challenges (e.g. for the total distance that employees have run or cycled within a given month) to foster motivation and promote movement within the workplace.
4. Use technology to help promote movement through reminders and accountability systems.
Employees can track their steps, create movement goals, and set reminders for themselves to stand up and move on wearable fitness trackers and certain smartphone apps.
Employees can join or use fitness apps that show their movement statistics, along with the statistics of others in the app group (e.g., friends, co-workers). This can help promote motivation and accountability for achieving movement goals.
Employers can arrange virtual meetings, so that employees may attend meetings while standing or walking.
5. Learn from a health and wellness expert.
Health and wellness experts are committed to educating and empowering people through evidence-based information.
Research shows that when employees are educated and motivated to incorporate daily movement, their wellbeing, work satisfaction, and perception of their employers’ care improve[7].
Hiring a health and wellness expert to speak to your workplace (such as through a corporate wellness training talk) about physical activity and its impact on health outcomes can encourage employees to improve and manage their own wellness.
Interested in learning more about the health and wellness challenges of modern offices and how to overcome them? Looking for more in-depth or individualized recommendations for employee mental health and wellness?
WellIntel Talks is a collective of qualified, professional Speakers who provide engaging talks on a variety of mental health and wellness topics to businesses, organizations, and community groups across Canada, including Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, and Toronto. All of our mental health and wellness Speakers have achieved at least a Master’s degree and are experts in their field of wellness, so you can have peace of mind that our wellness education is reliable, objective, and science-based. Talks can be delivered in-person or virtually across Canada, and are customizable in content and length to best suit your audience and specific education needs. Visit our website to learn more and begin the booking process.
Written By:
Jordan Beck, BA., WellIntel Talks Volunteer
References:
[1] Pandey, A., Salahuddin, U., Garg, S., Ayers, C., Kulinski, J., Anand, V., Mayo, H., Kumbhani, D. J., De Lemos, J., & Berry, J. D. (2016). Continuous dose-response association between sedentary time and risk for cardiovascular disease. JAMA Cardiology, 1(5), 575. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamacardio.2016.1567
[2] Vasankari, V., Husu, P., Vähä-Ypyä, H., Suni, J., Tokola, K., Halonen, J., Hartikainen, J., Sievänen, H., & Vasankari, T. (2017). Association of objectively measured sedentary behaviour and physical activity with cardiovascular disease risk. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 24(12), 1311–1318. https://doi.org/10.1177/2047487317711048
[3] Bao, W., Tobias, D. K., Bowers, K., Chavarro, J., Vaag, A., Grunnet, L. G., Strøm, M., Mills, J., Liu, A., Kiely, M., & Zhang, C. (2014). Physical activity and sedentary behaviors associated wiith risk of progression from gestational diabetes mellitus to type 2 diabetes mellitus. JAMA Internal Medicine, 174(7), 1047. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.1795
[4] Shen, D., Mao, W., Liu, T., Lin, Q., Lu, X., Wang, Q., Lin, F., Ekelund, U., & Wijndaele, K. (2014). Sedentary behavior and incident cancer: A meta-analysis of prospective studies. PLOS ONE, 9(8), e105709. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0105709
[5] Allen, M. S., Walter, E. E., & Swann, C. (2019). Sedentary behaviour and risk of anxiety: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 242, 5-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.08.081
[6] Hamer, M., Coombs, N., & Stamatakis, E. (2014). Associations between objectively assessed and self-reported sedentary time with mental health in adults: An analysis of data from the Health Survey for England. BMJ Open, 4(3), e004580. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2013-004580
[7] Patel, A. K., Banga, C., & Chandrasekaran, B. (2021). Effect of an education-based workplace intervention (Move in Office With Education) on sedentary behaviour and well-being in desk-based workers: A cluster randomized controlled trial. International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 28(3), 1655–1663. https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2021.1916221