It's great that pubs are reopening but what next for gyms and pools? - Mark Casci

Usually the topics I am inspired to write about come from what I have been reading over the weekend or from contacts, professional and personal.

However, this week it did not come from any of these usual sources but rather from British boxer Tony Bellew.

On the Soccer AM show on Saturday morning, the Liverpudlian former WBC Cruiserweight world champion launched into a rant about how aggrieved he was that pubs were opening this weekend but gymnasiums and other indoor fitness venues remained shut for the foreseeable.

As heavily on the front foot as he was during his fighting career, Bellew opined that during a time of a worldwide health crisis, drinking alcohol would damage your immune system whereas exercise would strengthen it, and that this course of action was sending the wrong message to the public.

Now, to be clear, I support the reopening of pubs 100 per cent, as indeed I do for all businesses, large or small, in Yorkshire or elsewhere.

As well as a source of people’s livelihoods, the British pub remains a cornerstone of British life and a vital social point of contact for millions. That they are to reopen this weekend is a significant milestone in our battle to get our economic and social way of life back on track. I salute all landlords for the incredible hard work they have done to get to this point and wish them well.

However, the wider point stands and provides for me a valuable lesson for all businesses concerning employee wellbeing.

There has been excellent work done in recent years on the mental health of staff and this region has produced some outstanding leaders on that front.

While this work is more important than ever under the spectre of Covid-19, there now needs to be a comparable level of work done on ensuring physical health gets its due care and attention.

Regular readers of this column will be aware of my advocacy for active travel and the myriad benefits it brings.

The excellent Government-backed Cycle to Work programme has allowed thousands of people to obtain bikes at an affordable price and flexible rate of reimbursement but the scheme could be augmented to make it an ever more appealing option.

Business has a role in ensuring that changing and shower facilities are available for those making the switch and should, wherever possible, encourage people to get into work under their own steam.

Discounted gym memberships are offered as an employee benefit by some firms but not enough. The more bosses who take this step the more people will emulate them.

Such moves will not just keep your teams fit, it will make you more of a desirable employer.

As flexiworking becomes part of the lives of us all under lockdown are there ways of making the working day post-Covid more adaptable to allow staff to work out during the day? I think there are.

And then there is diet.

I would never suggest a business should mandate what its staff should eat but there are subtle variations we can develop.

Those of us of a certain age remember the staff canteen in days gone by as very much of the pie, peas and mash variety.

Those days may have gone but there remains an imperative to offer something more beneficial to one’s physical health than a bacon sandwich first thing in the morning.

We do hear all too often about how the coronavirus pandemic offers a chance to change things for the better.

With so many of us having lost loved ones during this time there has to be an increased focus on what truly matters. And one of the first ports of call lies with ourselves and making sure we equip ourselves as best as we can to maximise the brief time we are given on this planet.

So yes, let’s reopen the pubs and restaurants that play such a crucial role in our lives but let’s work hard to get the gyms and pools open too, as well as amateur sporting clubs, so that people can work out and train safely.