Employee health and fitness programs within educational settings: An examination of job satisfaction and intent to stay

Teachers are at the frontline of education and student learning; districts and schools are investigating innovated, yet cost-effective, ways to positively address organizational variables such as job satisfaction and immediate intent to stay. The implementation of employee health and fitness program could be a relatively simple way to not only address these issues but also positively impact the health and overall well-being of all employees. Even with the supporting research regarding employee health and fitness programs, gaps and contradictions still exist; future research is necessary in order to draw conclusions regarding program value and justification. The present study therefore sought to contribute to the knowledge base regarding the correlation between employee health and fitness programs and job satisfaction and intent to stay in the public school settings. A number of district level directors and school level principals from public school districts in the state of Colorado completed an electronic questionnaire regarding the existence of an employee health and fitness program, details about such a program, reasons for sponsoring or not sponsoring such a program and whether or not incentives are linked to such a program. Descriptive statistics and correlations were computed to test several hypotheses. In general, employees in districts and school sites that sponsor employee health and fitness programs seem to have higher job satisfaction than those who work in district and/or school sites that do not sponsor such programs. There was no correlation between a sponsored employee health and fitness program and immediate intent to stay in education. School districts that sponsor health and fitness programs seem to have higher job satisfaction than employees of school sites that sponsor health and fitness programs. School districts and school sites that sponsor employee health and fitness programs have found a valuable way to impact job satisfaction among their employees. These findings have important implications for school districts and school sites considering sponsoring and implementing a health and fitness program for their employees.