Productivity is one of the pillars on which your business success rests. That’s why it is so important to invest in practices and ideas that add to it rather than diminish it. An example of one of such ideas is the idea fact that happier employees tend to be more productive—which is why it makes sense to focus on things like team building exercises and corporate culture.

But it isn’t enough for your employees to be happy. They have to be healthy as well. Healthy employees are far more productive than unhealthy ones, which is the reason why if you are not already prioritizing health and wellness in your organization within your organization you may be missing out.

Healthy Employees and Productivity: Some Useful Stats

There is a lot of research data that point to the fact that healthy employees bring more value to the table than they are given credit for:

• On average, employees who eat healthy (or at least make an effort to do so) tend to be about 25% more productive than those who don’t.
• Employees who take at least 30 minutes each week to exercise are 15% more likely to have higher job performance than those who don’t.
• Employees who eat healthy and exercise regularly take 27% fewer sick days than their counterparts who do neither.
• Overweight or unhealthy employees in the US cost US employers an outstanding $73.1 billion collectively each year, partly because they tend to file twice the number of worker’s compensation claims than their healthier counterparts.

That’s more than enough evidence to show just how important healthy employees are to your business. But knowing this is not enough; here’s how to put it in practice:

How to Value Health at Work

You don’t have to go to the ends of the earth to do this: little things will suffice. Begin by making sure that healthy snacks are available for employees who stay in the office later than usual. Consider restocking the vending machine with healthy snacks like fruits and vegetables, instead of potato chips and sweets. People are more likely to start eating them then, especially when they have no other alternative.

You also want to begin emphasizing health when talking about employee benfit packages and the like. Add a free gym membership while you are at it. Not everybody may take advantage of them, but those who do will benefit your business and themselves immensely.

Prioritizing health will also send a clear message that you care about the health of your employees, which is something which will not be missed when you try recruiting top talent in the future.

Don’t forget to allot some time for your employees to cool off and recharging their batteries—according to a report by Quantum Workplace, this causes employees to be 14% more engaged than if not implemented.

Here’s to better health and better business. Cheers!