To really motivate your staff, you could offer running clubs from the convenience of the office. With no additional travel or hassle, staff can simply go running with other members of the club before, after, or even during, their working day. Running clubs boost staff fitness levels, health and well-being – and your business will be boosted as a result.

The ‘fight or flight’ mentality created by stress can be a good thing, forcing you to take action and propelling you ever forward. However, like many things in life, too much stress can be bad for the mind and the body. If you feel stressed long-term, it can cause anxiety or depression: the two most common mental health issues in the UK. Physically, being overstressed can lead to raised blood pressure and heart rate, and reek havoc with your immune system, due to the accumulated chemicals your body releases to try and combat stress including adrenaline and cortisol. But the good news is there are a number of measures you can take to help relieve your feelings of stress and calm the negative effects of the emotion.

In the fast-paced, high-stress and results-driven environment that many companies thrive on, staff health is vital for continued success. Corporate fitness is becoming a key part of the business week as companies bid to shape up.

Corporate fitness is one of the most cost effective ways to achieve staff health and wellbeing. The benefits to business are multi-fold and include increased motivation, reduced stress, raised loyalty to the company and enhanced team working. With an estimated 85 of the 100 Times Top 100 Companies having a corporate fitness programme or membership scheme in place, the link between successful companies and healthy staff is clear. Particularly in the current economic downturn – which has seen additional pressures placed on company workers – it is vital for staff to stay fit and healthy if businesses are to stay competitive.

Many chant the same phrase year after year: “I’m going to join a gym and eat healthy”. These are the famous New Year’s resolutions that traditionally topped the list of New Year’s resolutions, but 2009 saw sorting debt top the pile. And around 60% have quit by Valentine’s Day.

With the approaching Christmas and New Year celebrations, many will have to see to the various gatherings, family, eating and other “busyness” than most of us can handle. Unfortunately one of the most common victims of all of our holiday stress is our own health and well-being. Undoubtedly, this time of the year our waistlines will expand. It is hard to turn away good food and sadly we find little time to work it off. So it may seem to be going downhill and people tend to feel 5 to 10 pounds heavier after the holidays.

Common health problems like stress, depression and mental health in the workplace are costing employers millions of pounds in lost productivity according the NHS watchdog.

More employees are adopting to a culture of long hours and “presenteeism” — where workers feel obliged to come into work and staying long hours although they may be unproductive. This act is seen as damaging small businesses and the wider economy according to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

Founded on a growing evidence base that various health programmes help improve overall health, NHS has seen a decline of hours lost due to staff sickness.

Addressing various key issues such as stress, the board has attributed to decline of lost hours to the launch of a Positive Steps guide earlier this year. The Scottish Government gave more than £300,000 to NHS boards to aid in reducing the rates of sickness absence.

Increasing evidence supports the need for workplace wellness programmes and many organisations are seen implementing health programmes in line with the government-led initiative to improve the health and well-being of working age people.

A recent study conducted by the Work Foundation led a partnership with RAND Europe and Aston Business School revealed that the health workplace interventions are useful to mitigate health risk factors and reduce the work-related cost associated with poor health and well-being in British workplaces and the NHS in England.