Home > News and events > News > Latest news > Smokers think they are healthty

Workplace survey reveals 42% of smokers think they are healthy

24 August 2011

 

Figures from ORC International’s recent UK Healthy Workplace Survey have revealed that 42% of regular smokers report to be either healthy or very healthy. Just 17% perceive themselves to be unhealthy or very unhealthy.

The smokers were not the only group with optimistic illusions about their health. In a world where skinny is king and size zero dominates glossy magazine front covers, a worrying 65% of those who describe themselves as underweight would also say they are healthy or very healthy.

Other key findings of the survey include that:

  • Only 12% of the UK workforce would consider themselves to be unhealthy or very unhealthy
  • 24% of the survey respondents regularly smoke and 41% drink regularly
  • 39% would describe themselves as overweight
  • 60% do less than 3 hours of exercise per week
  • 27% of those who do zero hours of exercise a week would say they are very healthy or healthy

The UK Healthy Workplace Survey was conducted in partnership with former Olympic athlete, Sally Gunnell OBE. Sally is promoting her initiative to bring healthy living into the workplace and commissioned this research to gauge the attitudes of UK employees towards wellbeing at work. 

Sally Winston, Employee Engagement Expert at ORC International comments:

“Views on health don’t match the reality of behaviours. Employers can play a role in helping individuals to become healthier, through education, communication and by providing access to a range of healthy workplace initiatives. Our research highlighted a definite link between engagement and wellbeing. It suggests that if employers show staff that they care about their wellbeing, they are likely to be better engaged, committed and excited about coming to work.”

ORC International is expert in the employee engagement field. Utilising its 25 years of employee research experience, the company has developed a new Healthy Workplace survey tool, due to be launched in October 2011. The tool is designed to enable organisations to gather robust insights into the state of wellbeing in their workplace as well as the needs and desires of their workforces.

The data allows organisations to implement tailored, focused wellbeing programmes to help to improve employee engagement. The survey tool will be available to organisations of all sizes and uses tried and tested methodology and process to deliver insight into the attitudes and needs of organisations.