Summer should be the easiest time of year to stay active. The longer days, warmer weather, and appealing greenery of the great outdoors naturally encourage movement. But for many employees, activity levels actually go down over summer – despite their best intentions.
According to the YouGov ‘Work is Health’ survey commissioned by EGYM Hussle, British employees have a strong desire to stay active, but 70% admit their current work routines actively reinforce a sedentary lifestyle. This poses a major problem for workplaces focusing on employee wellbeing. The workforce is highly motivated to move, but they lack the structural support to turn that intent into consistent action, spending much of the working day sitting at desks, in meetings, or in front of screens. Because of these static work environments, over half of British employees currently fall short of NHS physical activity guidelines, highlighting an urgent need for employers to help bridge the gap.
Sedentary by design: why intent needs structural support
The survey highlights how common and problematic sedentary working has become. Employees surveyed identified the biggest workplace wellbeing challenges as:
- long hours sitting and looking at screens negatively affect their wellbeing (61%)
- being indoors for most of the day has a negative impact (55%)
- their work routine actively contributes to a sedentary lifestyle (70%)
While British employees have a strong desire to lead active lives, over half are currently falling short of the NHS physical activity guidelines. The motivation to move is clearly there, but a fundamentally static work environment acts as a major barrier, preventing this intention from becoming a consistent action. Movement shouldn’t be a constant struggle that employees have to painfully squeeze in around a depleting schedule. To bridge this gap, employers must step in and provide the structural support and accessible fitness benefits needed to empower their teams to make movement a seamless part of their daily lives, especially during the summer months.
The business impact of summer stillness
Sedentary working isn’t just an individual employee health issue – it also affects organisations. When employees spend long periods sitting indoors, particularly during summer when they’d prefer to be outside, energy, concentration, and motivation can suffer.
The ‘Work is Health’ survey found that:
- 52% of employees report their job has negatively affected their physical health
- 41% say work has negatively affected their mental wellbeing
- 34% say health issues have reduced their work performance over the past year
- 50% report disturbed sleep
Dynamic work design for a healthier employee experience
Providing flexible fitness benefits is a highly effective foundation for workplace wellbeing. To maximise the impact of these benefits, forward-thinking employers are also rethinking how the workday itself is designed.
This doesn’t require expensive office redesigns—it can be as simple as providing a flexible fitness pass, normalising active micro-breaks, and leading by example.
Five ways to build movement into the working day
1. Make walking meetings the default: Not every meeting requires screens or a meeting room. Informal catch ups and brainstorming sessions often work just as well. And walking meetings can promote fresh thinking, especially during summer months when natural light and movement offset desk time.
2. 10-minute movement breaks: Employees rarely question taking a coffee break, but many still feel weird about stepping away from their desk for a walk. Normalise short movement breaks throughout the day to reduce prolonged sitting and give employees a chance to reset.
3. Create outdoor working spaces: Encourage employees to use outdoor seating, courtyards, or nearby green spaces. Checking emails, holding informal meetings, or eating lunch outside can break up long periods indoors and give people access to fresh air, sunlight, and biophilia.
4. Offer employees flexibility: The survey identified flexibility around time and location as the biggest driver of workplace wellbeing (cited by 75% of employees surveyed). Allow employees flexibility to take a lunchtime walk, exercise before work, or adjust their hours around physical activity – this will make healthy habits easier to maintain.
5. Flexible wellbeing and fitness benefits: The days of offering a single gym membership have gone. Today’s workforce are fitness-literate and want to exercise in their own way. Make sure your fitness-as-a-benefit allows flexible access to gyms, fitness centres, pools, spas, sports, and group exercise classes.
Small changes for healthier workplaces
Creating a more active workplace isn’t about telling employees they have to exercise a certain way – it’s really about reducing the amount of time they spend sitting still. The ‘Work is Health’ survey shows that UK employees already value physical activity. Your challenge and opportunity is in helping them move more during the hours they spend at work.
Summer provides the perfect opportunity to rethink workplace routines and encourage habits that will hopefully last all year round. When movement becomes part of the working day instead of something employees have to fit around it, everyone benefits.
EGYM Hussle helps organisations offer flexible fitness and wellbeing benefits designed for all employees, with access to 1000s of gyms, pools and spas around the UK.
To find out how flexible fitness benefits can help your employees stay active, book a call with EGYM Hussle today.
This survey was collected on the YouGov Panels among 1,000 employees of private companies in each country. Fieldwork was conducted from 19th to 27th August 2025 in France, Germany and the USA, and from 25th February to 6th March 2026 in the UK.
The figures have been weighted and are representative of employed adults aged 18 and over in each country.
About the author:
Pauline Alonso is the Corporate Sales Director at EGYM Hussle. She works closely with HR teams and business leaders to make workplace wellbeing simple and accessible. With experience across organisations of all sizes, and a background shaped by living in France, Germany, and the UK, Pauline brings a global, people-first approach to helping partners build healthier, more engaged teams. Staying active is a big part of her life, from gym training and running to reformer Pilates, alongside more than 20 years of competitive showjumping.
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