When IT employees meet with Texas Health Resources CIO Edward Marx, there's a good chance they'll be riding an exercise bike or walking on a treadmill during the meeting. That's because their newly renovated Arlington, Texas, office now has two conference rooms outfitted with exercise equipment. One room features eight spin bikes facing one another and the other has four treadmills. Employees can also reserve them for their own meetings.

Texas Health Resources, a network of 25 hospitals, needs to lead by example in making it easy for employees to stay healthy, said Mr. Marx. Yet the move was also partially inspired by the extremelycompetitive market for healthcare IT employees. 'We wanted to make our environment as attractive as possible for recruitment and retention,' he told CIO Journal.

Research shows the deleterious effects of sitting for more than three hours per day. Standing desks and even treadmill desks are making their way into the workplace. A number of companies such as Roche Holding AG 's Genentech unit have also designated conference rooms without furniture for standing meetings. But few companies have actually gone so far as to equip conference space with treadmills and spin bikes. The Mayo Clinic says it has worked with a few companies including staffing firm Sálo, LLC to put exercise equipment in meeting rooms and look at the impact on employee health. Sálo's effort was first reported in The New York Times.

'If you have a group of employees sitting for 40-60 hours per week, you should get them up and doing something or you'll pay more on the back end for knee replacements [for overweight employees],' says Gabriel Koepp, projectmanager at Mayo Clinic who has worked on some of these corporate exercise efforts. Some studies have shown that companies can lower their medical costs and reduce employee absenteeism with corporate fitness programs, he said.

Mr. Koepp works at a treadmill desk walking at slow pace of about 1 mile per hour for several hours throughout the day while wearing a collared shirt. 'I don't a break a sweat,' he says. Exercising while working or meeting with colleagues is more about moving slowly for longer periods rather than striving for a 6-minute mile.

Still, exercising at work isn't for everyone. Some people have trouble typing, for example, when they're on a treadmill. Others use the equipment initially but then it starts to collect dust much like a stationary bike in the bedroom.

The exercise rooms at Texas Health currently have about a 25% utilization rate. Mr. Marx says he thinks it's simply a new concept and employees will adjust to it. He tries to schedule meetings in the exercise conference rooms as much as possible. It's easy, he says, for him to walk and talk to colleagues at the same time. Yet, employees are welcome to bring in a chair if they'd prefer to sit during meetings, he said, adding, 'nobody is forced to do it.'