Exercise at work: what employers can change, without pressure

Employers help most by making a regular slot easy to keep. That means time that's protected but can move within the day, breaks from long periods of sitting, and activities employees choose for themselves. Field studies with employees found that rigid schedules, trackers and payments raise activity for a while and then fade, so the aim is a routine that holds up once they're gone. Everything stays voluntary and private.

Why don't employees exercise, even when they want to?

Usually because the workweek leaves no slot that holds. A 2022 systematic review found that across studies built around public health guidelines, 48% of adults who intended to be active didn't follow through. One study it cites found the gap was far wider among adults just beginning (66%) than among those keeping up a routine (29%) (Rhodes et al., 2022).

Time is the barrier named most. In a 2017 survey of Australian adults aged 25 to 54, half of the 198 inactive respondents named a lack of time, and 43.9% a lack of enjoyment (Hoare et al., 2017). Worldwide, the WHO estimates that 31% of adults don't reach the recommended levels of activity (WHO, 2024). So a campaign that explains why exercise matters mostly tells employees what they already know. What a company controls is the workweek around the slot.

Does a fixed exercise time help?

Not if it's rigid. Katy Milkman, a professor at the Wharton School, co-wrote a field experiment with 2,508 Google employees who wanted to exercise more at their workplace gyms. Each chose a daily two-hour window and received a weekday reminder at its start. For four weeks, some were paid $3 or $7 only for workouts that began inside their window; others were paid the same for a weekday workout at any time. The flexible groups made more gym visits, both during the four weeks and after the payments ended (Beshears et al., 2021). In the weeks after, roughly half of the visits made began inside the window each employee had picked.

A regular slot does help a habit form, which is why the researchers tested it. But a workday moves, and a slot with no room to move gets lost to the next meeting. For employers, the lesson is to protect time without fixing the hour: a window in which a session can shift, and a back-up when the first slot goes.

Do fitness trackers and step challenges work?

For a while. The TRIPPA trial randomly assigned 800 full-time employees from 13 organizations in Singapore, aged 21 to 65, to no tracker, a waist-worn step tracker, the tracker plus donations to charity for weekly steps, or the tracker plus cash. Cash raised moderate to vigorous activity most at six months, but that gain was gone six months after the payments stopped. By month 12, only about one in ten participants in the tracker groups were still wearing it (Finkelstein et al., 2016). A 2007 review of walking programs found the same pattern for step counters: in the three studies that followed up longer, gains seen at 4 to 16 weeks weren't sustained at six months or a year (Ogilvie et al., 2007).

No study here tested step leagues or leaderboards at work, so this part is judgment. Ranking employees by steps makes activity a public score, and it singles out those who can't or don't want to join. If a team wants a challenge, keep it opt-in, count a group's total rather than individuals, and give no prizes for being top.

Should we pay employees to exercise?

Payments work while they're paid. At the headquarters of a US Fortune 500 company, 1,000 employees took part in a two-year field experiment. In the study's working-paper version, one month of $10 per visit to the onsite gym, up to three visits a week, roughly doubled the share of employees going at least weekly, from about one in five. Once the month ended, the effect mostly faded, though a lasting effect remained in the group also offered a commitment option, which few took up; the published abstract reports those long-run changes too (Royer et al., 2015).

Milkman's megastudy points the same way. It tested 54 four-week programs on 61,293 members of a US gym chain, and only 8% of them still had a significant effect in the four weeks after. The best performer rewarded members for coming back after a missed workout, and the authors warn that the top results are probably overstated (Milkman et al., 2021). Those were gym members, not employees, but the lesson carries: the return after a miss matters more than any single week.

What can a company do about long hours of sitting?

The UK's Chief Medical Officers advise adults to minimize time spent sitting and, when possible, to "break up long periods of inactivity with at least light physical activity" (UK Chief Medical Officers, 2019). They also say "any activity is better than none", and activity counts in bouts of any length, so the walk to a meeting and the stairs count too. For individuals, see do short workouts count?.

What makes moving ordinary at work is mostly defaults, and these are practical judgment rather than tested programs: one-to-ones offered as walks, meetings that end five minutes before the hour, calls taken standing, and no expectation of instant replies during a break.

Groups help when employees choose them. A 2013 meta-analysis of 19 studies with 4,572 adults found that walking groups increased physical activity, and groups led by volunteers did about as well as those led by professionals; weaker studies showed bigger effects (Kassavou et al., 2013). An employer can provide the time, a route and a sign-up, and leave the leading to volunteers.

When should we launch?

At a fresh start, and with a plan for the second month. "We saw spikes in the frequency of pursuing these goals at chapter breaks that include the start of a new week, the start of a new month," Milkman says of research on goals and dates (Hidden Brain, 2021, 21:56). Among 11,912 students at a US university, gym visits rose by about a third at the start of a new week (Dai et al., 2014). Fresh starts help employees begin; they don't keep anyone going, so the slot and the way back after a miss still have to do that work.

For individuals, see our guides on making exercise a habit and the best time to work out.

Where a program fits

The routine itself belongs to each employee, and that's where a program can help. The 1h Protocol to Build an Exercise Routine is an education program of about an hour, and the first chapter is free: a quick check, a few questions about how the last try at exercise ended, a pattern and one thing to do tomorrow. If the check suggests a word with a doctor first, the activity parts of the plan wait until that's done. Each employee leaves with a session tied to a moment they never skip, a short version for hard days, a plan for the slot after a miss, and a log that counts the week with planned skips, followed by four one-tap check-ins by email on days 1, 7, 14 and 30, if they're signed in. Nothing to buy: no gym membership, kit, tracker or app. It's new, so there's no outcome data on it yet.

Companies buy program credits. One credit unlocks one full program for one employee; the company decides who gets how many credits, and each employee chooses their programs. Our team works with HR to choose which programs to highlight, prepare the launch and review participation and the anonymous results. Your dashboard shows who has joined and each employee's credits, so you can manage them; everything else is anonymous totals for groups of five or more, never anyone's programs, answers, progress or plan. Pair a small pilot with the checklist and review both after a few months: request a quote, or see the programs.

Frequently asked questions

How can we encourage employees to be more active?

Make a regular slot easy to keep: protected time that can move within the day, breaks from long sits, and groups employees choose. Most inactive adults already intend to be active; time is the barrier they name most.

Do step challenges and fitness trackers work?

For a while. In a trial with 800 employees in Singapore, about one in ten still wore their tracker at month 12, and the effect of cash rewards was gone six months after they stopped. Keep trackers optional and challenges opt-in, with group totals and no individual rankings.

Should we pay employees to exercise?

Payments raise attendance while they're paid. At a US company, a month of payments for gym visits roughly doubled weekly attendance, and the effect mostly faded afterwards. Funding time and places tends to outlast funding visits.

What can a company do about long hours of sitting?

Guidelines advise breaking up long periods of sitting with at least light activity, and any activity counts. Walking one-to-ones, meetings that end early and calls taken standing make that ordinary.

How do we help without putting pressure on anyone?

Keep everything voluntary and private: no leaderboards, no tracking of individuals, no manager role in anyone's routine, and anonymous totals only. Make coming back after a missed week easy, with no catching up.

Sources

This article draws on field experiments with employees at Google, in Singapore and at a US Fortune 500 company, a megastudy of gym members, reviews of the intention gap, walking programs and walking groups, an Australian survey, WHO and UK guidance, and an interview with Katy Milkman.

• Beshears et al., Creating exercise habits using incentives (randomized field experiment, 2,508 Google employees, four weeks plus follow-up, Management Science, 2021)
• Finkelstein et al., Effectiveness of activity trackers with and without incentives (TRIPPA) (randomized controlled trial, 800 full-time employees from 13 organizations, Singapore, Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 2016)
• Royer, Stehr and Sydnor, Incentives, commitments, and habit formation in exercise (randomized field experiment, 1,000 employees of one US company, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2015; the figures here are from the NBER working paper w18580, revised 2013, as the published full text wasn't available to check)
• Milkman et al., Megastudies improve the impact of applied behavioural science (megastudy of 54 programs, 61,293 members of a US gym chain, Nature, 2021)
• Rhodes, Cox and Sayar, What predicts the physical activity intention-behavior gap? (systematic review, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 2022)
• Hoare et al., Exploring motivation and barriers to physical activity among active and inactive Australian adults (cross-sectional survey, adults aged 25 to 54, Sports, 2017)
• WHO, Physical activity fact sheet (fact sheet, 2024)
• UK Chief Medical Officers' Physical Activity Guidelines (government guideline, 2019, updated 2026)
• Ogilvie et al., Interventions to promote walking (systematic review, 48 studies, BMJ, 2007)
• Kassavou, Turner and French, Do interventions to promote walking in groups increase physical activity? (meta-analysis, 19 studies, 4,572 adults, 2013)
• Hidden Brain: You, But Better, with Katy Milkman (podcast episode, 2021)
• Dai, Milkman and Riis, The fresh start effect (archival field studies, including gym visits of 11,912 university students, Management Science, 2014)