The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Corporate Bahamas has been urged to “step up and lead the charge” towards a wellness and fitness culture that could improve workplace productivity.

Ethan Quant, principal of Elite Fitness, told Tribune Business: “I really feel that corporate society needs to step up and lead the charge. Companies would invest hundreds of thousands of dollars on software, or hundreds of dollars on throwing a party, but wouldn’t entertain a conversation about how they could improve the health and well-being of their employees.

“If people spend the majority of their working hours at an institution, I think the institution should have some sort of responsibility to ensure that these people are at least physically, mentally and emotionally well enough to cope with the stress on the job, and that’s not even talking dollars and cents.”

Elite Fitness last year released a study which found that 90 per cent of the Bahamian workforce was either overweight or obese.

It added that the lack of a corporate wellness and fitness culture was significantly reducing workplace productivity and ultimately impacting businesses’ bottom line.

“Diet and exercise is a great way to deal with stress, and you wonder why people are calling in sick all the time. Everyone doesn’t have to have a gym membership, but we just need to initiate the conversation, engage employees, find out what their needs are,” said Mr Quant.

“Ninety per cent of the workforce is overweight or obese, and we know that reduces workplace productivity. We don’t know what a healthy workforce is capable of because we have always been this way.

“There is no contrast. There needs to be a multi-tiered approach to change the mindset of the people, and that means starting from the schools because childhood obesity is a serious issue.”