Move more and sit less to improve health and productivity
Encouraging desk-based staff to move more and sit less at work can not only improve their health, but also their work performance, was the advice from the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences (RISES), at a forum for contact centre employees.
The Physical Activity Exchange in RISES was invited by CallNorthWest to host a forum focusing on supporting and promoting the health and performance of call centre employees. CallNorthWest provides a support network for the 700+ call and contact centres in the North West, and their regular forums allow contact centre professionals to network, source information, highlight key industry issues and share best practice.
After being welcomed to the University by Professor Keith George, LJMU’s Associate Dean for the Faculty of Science, delegates engaged in an interactive keynote presentation delivered by Dr Lee Graves and PhD candidate Abigail Millard.
Jane Thomas, Managing Director of CallNorthWest, said: “Health and performance have long been recognised as one of the key indicators in successful businesses but achieving both in a productivity-driven industry can present a challenge. Dr Graves and his team questioned how contact centres could address this area, culminating in a high energy workshop session, where all delegates embraced the challenge to change current working practices. Sharing best practice is critical to ensuring that the contact centre industry offers staff the best options to create and promote health and well-being, and value them as priority performance indicators. I look forward to the industry working closely with LJMU and getting involved in the very worthwhile research Dr Graves and his team are undertaking to achieve this.”
The RISES team hopes the event will support research in more regional contact centres in order to develop, implement and evaluate interventions which promote health and performance in highly sedentary workers.
For further information, please contact Dr Lee Graves on l.e.graves@ljmu.ac.uk