As children, we are encouraged to take part in physical activities, through which we learn motivation, determination and teamwork among a wide range of other positive skills. Parents are not always trying to create the next Chris Hoy or Steve Redgrave, but rather trying to encourage us to learn from activities that can be used throughout life.
As we get older, school and education takes over this responsibility and we are again encouraged to take part in a range of sports activities. Again, it is the same underlying reason that we all know how vital all of this is to our health, wellbeing and making us a well-rounded person.
When we take the step into the professional working world, our employer then continues to encourage personal development through lessons learnt from the sports world. It is usually less directly recognised, but many employers are now seeing and measuring the difference this important correlation makes.
For Visualsoft, transferring techniques used in sports, and putting them into practice to complement our benefits and reward package has been a successful move.
Direct benefits, including increased motivation and creativity, have been seen from encouraging staff to join a local gym and subsidising it, as well as offering free protein shakes, fruit, breakfast and weekly sporting activities. Visualsoft is also in the process of introducing a running club, fitness classes and even employing a chef to man our soon-to-be healthy working kitchen.
Emma Hart is HR manager at Visualsoft