Established in 1977, Sharples Group is a successful, award-winning, independent office equipment company based in the North West of England. Sharples Group specialises in Print and Electronic Document Management.
The physical and mental wellbeing of the team at Sharples Group is one of their company priorities. They recognise that their team is their strength, and are proud that their people have a wealth of knowledge and experience, a great team spirit and that staff turnover is incredibly low.
As a company, they have a history of taking part in active challenges to support local community initiatives. Some team members cycle and run together in their own time. They have a small gym and shower facilities on site, for those who want to exercise during lunch breaks. Sharples Group also competed as a work team to PlayFest 2018, against businesses from all across Cheshire and Warrington on the world’s longest inflatable obstacle course at Tatton Park!
They recognise and understand the positive impact physical activity can have on achieving business objectives; helping to improve productivity, fulfilment, satisfaction amongst the staff. As research suggests exercise can reduce absenteeism by 23.5% and staff turnover can be reduced by 16%. (BUPA, 2015).
In reality the workplace, many of us now spend a large proportion of our day at desks working on computers. Every day, British people spend as much as 60% of their waking hours sitting down, and this can rise to as much as 75% for people who work in offices.
Recognising this, Sharples Group admits they feel a responsibility to counter the effect of the sedentary lifestyle and incorporate opportunities to be more physically active during the working day. Sharples Group has engaged the services of Active Cheshire, an organisation working to a co-produced Blueprint designed to raise activity levels across the whole of Cheshire and Warrington. With Active Cheshire’s guidance, they have formulated an action plan aimed at achieving buy-in from their whole team to bring more activity into the workplace.
Implementing the Active Cheshire motto ‘small steps, big impact’ they have pledged to introduce motivational tools within the workplace to ensure their team get away from their desks on a regular basis. For example, they will hold standing or walking meetings. Well-being discussions will be introduced at every performance reviews and in staff satisfaction surveys.
If you would like further information or wish to pledge as a workplace, please get in touch by clicking HERE.