Some of the staff at FitSense Australia have an extended background in the sports science industry. The company continues to provide a small selection of sports science services to assist us in staying at the cutting edge of exercise physiology. One such area is the analysis of data captured from GPS units worn by AFL players. Since 2005, FitSense Australia has conducted an annual research project for the AFL looking at the physical demands of players and how they change from season to season.

For sporting fans it may be of interest to know that all 16 AFL teams use GPS technology in both games and training. Our job is then to use this game data to create a profile of AFL player demands. As with any technology usage was quite limited initially, with our 2005 research using only 80 gain files across the season. However interest in this area has increased rapidly and by 2008 our research encompassed almost 1500 files. The 2008 report is attached at the bottom of this post.

The AFL has recently released some of this research to the media and articles can be found here:

• Melbourne Herald Sun
• Real Footy

Similar research techniques are used in our work in the corporate health and wellness industry. Effective research is not always about simple statistics and straightforward analysis; instead that really exciting and beneficial information requires much more time and lateral thinking.

AFL GPS Reseach 2008 - By FitSense Australia

Smoking is an extremely difficult habit to kick. only about 3% of smokers who try to quit actually succeed. This is an extremely low number and obviously makes it very difficult for an organisation with proactively tries to reduce the smoking rate of their staff.

However, some recent research has provided a new way of increasing this success rate. It has been shown that smokers are twice as likely to quit successfully if they receive cash rewards of doing so. In an 18 month trial period, one group of smokers was paid $750 each for refraining from smoking. An amazing 9.4% of this group successfully quit over the 18 months, compared to only 3.6% of the control group.

This sounds like a very enticing investment for an organisation. Such an amount of money dwindles in comparison to the financial costs of lost productivity and increase absenteeism that smokers often bring to an organisation.

However, looking at this type of incentive from the other angle, how would non-smokers feel about their smoking colleagues being paid a substantial amount of money to quit. Many people may see this as an incentive to start smoking simply so they can quit and receive the financial rewards…………………………..

As with anything the cost of health and wellness programs can vary greatly. However, there are also large variations in quality of service and therefore the return on investment. There has been plenty of research to highlight the financial benefits of implementing workplace health and wellness program, so here we wanted to briefly discuss the price of getting an external provider to assist in the implementation of your program.

The pricing of the health and wellness service is generally based on a per employee basis. On the cheaper end of things, an organisation might get away with only $10-$20 per employee for something like a half day basic health expo. However, the real benefit of this must be questioned and perhaps such a small initiative will have no advantageous effect on the health and wellness of staff.

On the other end of things, a comprehensive health and wellness program implemented across the course of a year may be upwards of $500 per employee. For this type of investment, an organisation would be looking at a combination of effective services such as health and fitness assessments, one-on-one exercise programming sessions, physical activity sessions, and seminars and workshops.

In order to make a program beneficial it is recommended that the initiative be implemented continuously over a longer time frame. This means a spread of activities throughout the year. Implementing such a program may cost a minimum of $200-$250 per employee for the year. If your organisation is looking to make a real difference to their health and wellness of your staff, then this is the type of program that you need to consider. This is a relatively small investment in your staff which would equate to less than a 13c per hour pay rise if provided as additional salary.

To make it easier for you to get an idea of health and wellness program pricing, FitSense Australia offers an online quoting system on our website. This will allow you to select appropriate services and be provided with an instant estimate as to the total investment required to implement such programs. Please have a look here for more information.

With the new year comes a new website for FitSense Australia.

We have been working hard over the last month to prepare the content for our new site which you can now see at www.fitsense.com.au The new site clearly outlines the corporate health and wellness services offered by FitSense Australia and our approach to the delivery of these services.

Additionally, you will be able to get an estimated price for our services using the online quote generator, and view samples of our recently released online seminar series.

So please go to www.fitsense.com.au and have a browse around to see how Your Accredited Corporate Wellness Provider might be able to assist your organisation in improving employee health and wellness.