Encourage staff to stand up at work to improve wellbeing says health expert

The National Director for Health and Wellbeing at Public Health England, Kevin Fenton has recommended that staff should stand for at least an hour a day. He says the working day should be broken up by holding stand-up meetings, coffees or lunches or by simply setting aside a certain amount of time to work standing up; which could help lower obesity levels and improve staff’ general health, reports HR Grapevine. His advice echoes that of campaigners “Get Britain Standing” which warns that statistics showing that British people sit for 8.9 hours each day (on average) has been found to be detrimental to health. Describing being active as the “miracle cure we’ve been waiting for” to reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease and improving mental health, Fenton said: “Globally we’ve become more and more inactive, in part because our jobs are making us more sedentary. We spend too much time sitting down at our computers.”

He added: “Standing has benefits for improving your posture and therefore back pain, it improves your circulation and therefore cardiovascular health and it also promotes greater mobility in general.

“If you are standing you are likely to be moving around a little bit more. I would recommend that people start standing an hour a day, half an hour in the morning, half an hour in the afternoon and then build that up gradually.”

He also recommended workers give money to charity every time they take the lift rather than the stairs.