With a morning tea culture based around cakes, cheesecakes and biscuits, the 11 staff members at Century 21 Combined real estate will be trading croissants with carrots in an effort to improve their eating habits.

The licensee of Century 21 Combined Andrew Vogler said their eating habits are probably the easiest thing to change.

“It’s difficult to find ways to become more active in our business because we need to drive to properties,” he said, “You can’t turn up to a house inspection on a pushbike.”

Mr Vogler said that many of his staff already take part in regular exercise after hours and none were smokers, it was their unhealthy workplace eating habits that they wanted to change.

“You get into that mentality that you’re too busy to have a proper lunch and you end up having a burger, chips and a soft drink,” Mr Vogler said, “We need to be more conscious of what we’re eating and be healthy examples for one another. We have to avoid slipping back into our bad habits.”

All the staff members at Century 21 Combined were offered a 15 minute confidential health check that assessed their risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Sustaining any healthy living program is always one of the greater challenges these initiatives face. To support the participants, OCTEC Limited will be following up on their initial assessments with an action plan.

“These action plans are tailor made for the participant,” said the Get Healthy at Work coordinator at OCTEC, Donna Gosper. 

“The plans are centred around smoking, obesity, inactivity and unhealthy eating and best of all, it’s free to be involved.”

Six businesses in Orange are participating in Get Healthy at Work and they range from construction and fabrication to retail outlets.

For Andrew Vogler, the benefits of a healthy workplace go beyond the personal.

“When your staff is healthy that flows through to improved morale and corporate image and lower absenteeism,” he said.