Yet good food has never been more talked about: TV shows, newspaper articles and books are dedicated to the subject. So while we're getting broader, we're also becoming more concerned, and new research reveals that this is reflected in the demands we're making on our office environments.

BDGworkfutures, a strategic design company that focuses solely upon the design of working environments, commissioned BMRB to conduct over 1,400 face-to-face interviews for its ‘Food in the Workplace' survey which discovered that more than six in ten (62 per cent) office staff think it's easier to eat healthy food at home than at work.

What's more, Food in the Workplace reveals that a significant minority - over 30 per cent - of office workers think their health and well being are someone else's responsibility.

These findings have major implications for businesses. Levels of productivity, staff retention, absenteeism, insurance premiums, morale and image are all affected by your workforce's health.

Food in the Workplace suggests there is an opportunity for savvy employers to embrace these health issues and transform them into business benefits.

Is your workplace making you fat?

Professor Julian Le Grand, chair of Health England, blames ‘excess consumption'. Basically, it's not easy for a sedentary office worker to burn off calories. In his new book, The Fattening of America, Eric A Finkelstein says that someone weighing 11 stone burns off just 105 calories an hour doing office work. This compares with the 176 that person burns an hour on a leisurely walk. And office work can be pretty static.

Michael Pollan, author of In Defence of Food, believes that in future we should focus on unprocessed food. He puts much of the blame for the current crisis at the feet of the modern food industry and its cohorts: "What is driving such relentless change in the American diet? One force is a $32bn food-marketing machine that thrives on change for its own sake."

Nor is he particularly enamoured with the diet brigade: "Most of the nutritional advice we've received over the last half-century has actually made us less healthy and considerably fatter," he says, adding "that eating should be foremost about bodily health is a relatively new and, I think, destructive idea."

Contrary to popular belief, obesity is not restricted to the poorly-paid, it affects everyone in the workplace. When the UK-based executive health care company i-Health studied the results of clients' recent medical checks, it found that 60 per cent of senior executives had high levels of cholesterol, 50 per cent were overweight, 40 per cent didn't get enough exercise, 30 per cent had high blood pressure, and 20 per cent had abnormal liver functions due to excess alcohol.

What are the implications for a business?

In just 20 years' time, at least 86 per cent of men and 70 per cent of women will be overweight in the UK, predict health experts at Oxford University. This has major cost implications. The bottom line is fat people are also often sick people. In the UK, obesity accounts for 18 million sick days, and that is likely to rise. According to the Government's 2007 Foresight report, in 40 years' time our ever-expanding waistlines will cost the country £46bn. That contrasts with 2002, when the cost of medical treatment and state benefits reached £7bn.

The US income protector UnumProvident, which charts even more alarming trends in the US, warns that there's the risk of a rise in group income protection premiums due to obesity-induced ill-health. So by losing days, employers are losing money. Finkelstein echoes: "A study conducted at Toulouse University Hospital suggests that maintaining a higher BMI can have a negative effect on cognitive function... if obesity contributes to presenteeism (absenteeism in British English), through increased illness or cognitive decline, productivity and the firm's bottom line will be adversely affected."

Conversely, health and well-being consultancy VieLife estimates that healthy employees can be up to 20 per cent more productive than their unhealthy peers. Also, physical fitness leads to fewer accidents, less sickness absence and higher morale. "You'll find it easier to retain people if you care about their health," says a VieLife spokesperson.

The employer's responsibility

The survey Food in the Workplace demonstrates that while most older employees and those in the AB bracket see their health and well being as their own responsibility, a minority expects someone else to carry the can. This 30 per cenrt comprises 16-24-year-olds and many respondents who rate their lifestyle as unhealthy. This is particularly relevant for businesses trying to attract graduates. As Tracey Meade, Operations Director at catering company Searcy, points out:"The food offer is particularly important for law firms, management consultants and consultancy firms. There's a lot of competition to get the best graduates, and they could be eating their main meal of the day in the office." Searcy provides the restaurant and vending facilities for clients including law firm Allen & Overy.

The message from ‘Food in the Workplace' is that good investment in staff health will reap rewards. Key areas for action are the on-site food and drink offers and the encouragement of exercise.

BDGworkfutures' study reveals that staff are normally eager to take up anything their workplace offers. So 78 per cent who get free fruit eat it, 70 per cent with a canteen selling healthy food dine there, 38 per cent of those with in-house gym facilities use them, 33 per cent take advantage of sports or gym membership.

At the same time, Eurest's survey found that the staff restaurant or cafeteria is the most popular place to buy lunch (16 per cent). And yet half of those polled by Eurest don't have a canteen or cafeteria.

To add grist to the (wholefood) mill, 33 per cent of workers say they'd pay more for healthy food and drink options from a vending machine, 1 in 10 would pay more for organic, and 61 per cent of workers say they would be willing to pay more for Fairtrade, local or organic products, according to Eurest. This last figure breaks down well for office-based businesses, as 72 per cent of ABs would be happy spend more on such food.

Finkelstein questions this, suggesting that a carrot and stick approach may be needed: "Access alone may not be enough to sufficiently shift consumption. It may be necessary to encourage consumption of the healthier options by subsidising their costs and/or adding a ‘tax' to the less healthy alternatives."

Siemens

1600 employees operate from Siemens UK HQ in Frimley, spread over a four-building campus. The stylish restaurant, coffee areas and gymnasium provide key social spaces that ensure a dynamic atmosphere is maintained. A wide range of healthy and wholesome dishes are served throughout the day in the restaurant, amidst the lively banter of colleagues taking a break from their primary workspace. Visitors to Siemens can take advantage of its VIP lounge, which provides clients with quality refreshment in a salubrious environment, whilst they prepare for meetings.

Jim Norris, Executive Chef at City law firm Allen & Overy's Square 1 Restaurant, operated by Searcy's, says that it is possible to change people's eating habits by using incentives in a company cafeteria or vending machine where choices are limited.

He cites research in France where a 25 per cent reduction in the price of healthy choices in a vending machine resulted in a 50 per cent increase in their sales.

As well as providing healthy, natural, unprocessed fodder, offices should also create restaurant areas that are conducive to this new attitude to mealtimes. Perceived wisdom states that meals are best eaten in a communal, stress-free area. This could even see the increasing return of the big cafeteria offering a choice of hot meals.

Phil Hutchinson, Joint Managing Director of BDGworkfutures, explains: "Efficient and creative workplaces are those that provide the right environment conducive to the activities and the people. When we look at restaurants the approach is no different, we need to consider the customers and the potential opportunities for enhancing the overall workplace experience. A well-designed space will work on an operational level, provide a well balanced choice of food and be a place for shared experiences in a relaxed setting."

Such an approach has been proved to pay off. When MTV redesigned the dead space behind its Camden office reception into a good-looking restaurant area, turnover increased by 300 per cent, with both visitors and staff using it.

Running alongside food is exercise. Even an apple doesn't burn itself off. There is now a raft activity packages that big organisations are encouraged to buy into, all of which promise to lower their workers' weights. Nowadays, these are often linked to health insurance premiums.

UnumProvident's report, Disability Management - Obesity, explains the link. "The work site can be an effective part of an overarching public health approach for the prevention and treatment of obesity, as a large number of people can be reached a relatively low cost."

Dr Mike O'Donnell, chief medical officer for UnumProvident expands on this: "We would encourage employers to help their workforce stay fit and healthy in as many ways as possible. Providing facilities for cyclists and access to exercise equipment or membership of a nearby gym are worth considering."

And again, the statistics suggests results for business. Vielife published findings in 2007 of a year-long study of more than 600 Unilever employees. The company found that workplace wellness programmes, reduced employers' health risks by 15 per cent and led to a 10 per cent increase in productivity at work - that's the equivalent of an extra week per year per employee. Vielife calculated Unilever's ROI at more than six euro in benefits for every one euro spent. Over the course of the research, Unilever's wellness programme cost around 100 euro per employee.

Employers as healthy-eating and healthy-living role models

The report ‘Food in the Workplace' demonstrates that employers could be doing more, from reviewing on-site café menus and scrutinising the contents of the vending machines, to organising gym membership and putting in showers for the cyclists (cycling is up 3per cent in London since 2000, after all).

But companies must also take a lead from their staff, whose attitude to food has changed dramatically in recent years. According to Eurest, 68 per cent of workers are more concerned about eating healthily than two years ago. This jumps to 78 per cent in the 16-24 age group. Meanwhile, two out of three workers say They now eat more fresh and fewer processed foods. And yet that average UK lunch ‘hour' is just 28 minutes, and 60 per cent of people in big organisations regularly eat lunch at their desks.

As Gill Parker, Joint Managing Director of BDGworkfutures, points out: "Workplaces centre around people - if they don't then they should do - and people need food, so food and the workplace is intrinsically linked. From a breakfast meeting to a reception after work - food often dictates the flow of the day."

The company believes that employers have an opportunity not only to create a healthier - and hence more productive - workforce, but to actually drive positive changes in our relationship with food. Which one of the following is currently made available to you by your employer?

Food for thought

Meal times punctuate our day and some employees, whether it is due to lack of time or inclination - or both, will find themselves starting their day in the staff restaurant as well as consuming their main meal there. As a consequence, the space dedicated to the facility is vital, and the ambience must contrast with the office environment in terms of look, feel and pace.

As the vending industry well knows, one size does not fit all. Modern workplace catering needs to reflect, in terms of choice and quality, what one would potentially find on a high street. Variety is the key - in some instances it is less appropriate to have one large restaurant but more suitable to have a series of cafés, depending on the nature of the workstyle.

http://www.bdgworkfutures.com/

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