Your co-worker standing at the desk next to you may not be getting all the health benefits they think they are.

Sitting for long periods has been found to be detrimental to health, causing chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes over time. To combat this, companies have been spending thousands of dollars on desks that allow workers to have the option to stand or sit, as well as health education programs. However, there is little evidence these initiatives have been effective at increasing daily mobility, a study found.

The report, published last week by the Cochrane Work Group, an organization that analyzes occupational health issues, surveyed past studies on workplace interventions aimed at reducing time spent sitting — from sit-stand desks to complete workplace rearrangements. Evidence of increased employee mobility from these changes was weak or inconclusive, the group reported in the survey.

Over-sitting has become a growing concern as more connections have been drawn between a regular lack of mobility and public health issues. With more jobs requiring workers to sit in front of computer screens and rising obesity and heart disease rates, employers have been looking for ways to combat the trend — searches for “standing desk” have increased steadily since 2011, according to Google Trends.

The primary reason these methods have been ineffective is because they aren’t combined with health education or training, says Dr. Alan Hedge, a design and environmental analysis professor at Cornell University. “A lot of companies make the mistake of, when they get the equipment, they teach people how to use it, but not why they’re using it,” he says. “The key to any behavioral change is to get people to understand why it’s important.”

While introducing sit-stand desks and more activity-focused office equipment is a step in the right direction, Hedge says offices designed to keep people moving throughout the day are the most beneficial to long-term health. Changes like making the stairs more prominent than the elevator, moving trash cans away from desk areas — so people have to walk to throw things away — and creating mobile work stations can vastly improve employee health and prevent chronic disease caused by too much sitting. These modifications also cause workers to exercise more without having to think about it, he adds. For sit-stand desk areas, Hedge says the best routine is to cycle through 20 minutes of sitting, eight minutes of standing and two minutes of walking every half-hour.

In a study on office buildings in Australia, Hedge says workers in a building where the stairs were easier to access than the elevator walked about 1,400 steps a day more than average workers, adding up to an additional mile walked each week. Research has shown that walking helps facilitate the transport of oxygen to the brain, increasing attention and reducing fatigue.

“The world has gone kind of crazy with the standing desk, the treadmill desk, the hamster wheel desk,” Hedge says. “None of them are as effective as having people actually walk around.”