According to a new study, it can work a lot for employers if they encourage their workers for workout.

In this company sponsored program, the participants (who were Home Depot employees) were supported to set their workout goals .The researchers found that it had considerably increased their levels of physical activity.

The study is expected to be published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, February issue.

The participants were assigned some personal as well as team physical activity goals that they followed for three months. Nearly half of these 1,442 participants were asked to have 30-minute moderate and 20-minute vigorous exercise session every week.

The participants kept their increased activity levels throughout the study, however, some people were dropped out.

Rod Dishman, who led the study, says in a news release, “we found a sustained and steady progress and it was the most pleasant surprise for us and it can be explained with the help of social support and incentives from individual goals and acquirement that seemed to impact directly on the success of the team.”

Katherine Alaimo, who is a professor at Michigan University, says in this press release, “The use of organizational and group goal-setting with personal goals was the basic reason behind the success of this program.”

“Team and personal goals seem to work best when they are settled by themselves and that are specific about the schedule and amount of activity,” said Dishman.