Jim Woods is the Co-Founder and CEO of employee wellbeing platform BetterSpace. Here, he talks to FormScore about the importance of exercise for our mental health, and how employers can do their bit to encourage a healthier lifestyle amongst their workforce.

As a CEO, how important is exercise to you in managing your wellbeing?

It’s essential! Exercise helps me to manage stress and stay positive. It wasn’t until my 30’s that I realised running really worked for me, and I’ve run pretty much every morning since. I run at a very gentle pace and not for very long, so it’s easy to do each day (I’ve learned that fast and long can be a habit killer for me), and I usually listen to inspiring podcasts. I do my first hour of work still in my running clothes, with a coffee, savouring the positive mindset it creates.

Has this changed or evolved over the last 12 months?

Working from home has been a big positive for me in terms of how much I get to exercise. I’m lucky to live in the middle of a forest, so I can run without wasting any time. Lockdown has also allowed me to develop my vegetable growing skills, aided by my children, which has also been great for my mental health.

Exercise is one of the 6 pillars of the BetterSpace platform. Can you tell us what you are seeing in the data in relation to employee wellness

Exercise is our most active pillar at the moment. What we’re seeing is a big divergence in terms of what people want from their exercise. It used to be that everyone valued a gym membership; now, people want the choice of a much greater variety of resources. There are people who want home workout apps, others yoga podcasts, while some opt for equipment. If you truly want to help your employees to exercise more, you need to provide a lot of choice – there are no clear winners!

What would you say to someone who might be struggling to find the motivation to exercise regularly?

Start small and make it enjoyable. If that means walking down to the end of the road every day and back, that’s great. Once you’ve done it a few times, you might find yourself being up for a gentle jog. The same applies for other forms of exercise – focus on keeping it enjoyable, and find times of the day or prompts that help to turn it into a habit. The best book I’ve read on this is BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits: well worth a read. Or listen to the audio version whilst going for a walk!

How can employers encourage their people to exercise more?

Great question, and one I’ve thought about a lot in the past few years. The worst thing to do is to pick one form of exercise and pay for everyone to have access; whether that’s a leading fitness tracker or a great exercise app. You’ll make a few people very happy, whilst the majority will say “I was never going to do that”, and resent the paternalistic attitude. You’re also likely to waste a lot of money, as the take-up rate is going to be low.

Whilst the provider might give you a big discount on consumer prices, when you work out the price per active user you’ll typically be paying 5 times the consumer price. This model, in our opinion, is broken and undermining the ROI for wellbeing programmes – which in turn is resulting in a massive underinvestment in employee wellbeing.

A much better way is to use a wellbeing marketplace like BetterSpace, give your employees the budget, and allow them choice and personalisation. If you do it well, you’ll get 90% engagement rates and you won’t have wastage, so a much more efficient model. We want every employee to have access to holistic support, so we can turn the tide on mental illness.

Head on over to BetterSpace to find out more, or follow Jim Woods on LinkedIn