by Health Promotion on August 22, 2009
• Make sure that your building’s stairwells are clean, attractive and safe, and post signs encouraging staff members to use the stairs.
• Create a wellness newsletter or intranet.
• Encourage the Activity Tracker and bolster staff members to track their physical exercise every week.
• Be creative, and make the most of the workspace you have. By way of example, mark off a safe walking path inside or around the building. You might also set up a training circuit, highlighting features of the workplace such as stairs.
• Offer physical activity opportunities at different times to accommodate night-, shift-, and part-time staff members.
• For staff members in remote or satellite offices, offer equal access to key pushes via the intranet. Adapt challenges to suit their environment and take advantage of local facilities and resources.
• Make physical exercise available to workers with special needs. Adapt information and activities for any employee who are visually impaired or physically disabled as well as for people who speak English as a second language.
• Educate workers about physical activity using information from reputable sources such as the Alberta Centre for Active Living.
• Offer facilities that invite worksite physical exercise. Possibilities include bike racks, physical activity room, change rooms with lockers and showers, and safe and attractive grounds for walking.
• Have walking gatherings.
• Encourage staff members to walk to co-workers’ offices rather than e-mailing or phoning.
• Set up a stretching room. This low-cost initiative requires only a room, stretching mats, stability balls and medicine balls. Put up posters that show stretches and exercises.
• Offer incentives and rewards such as shoe bags, ball caps, T-shirts or water bottles to reward employee participation.
• Loan out pedometers for three months, so that workers are able to learn how many steps they usually take and how much activity they need to add to get basic health benefits.
• Make space for employees to plant and maintain a flowerbed or garden at the workplace. Use any resulting produce for meetings and potluck lunches or donate it to charity.
• Establish a workplace wellness and health fair.
• Hire a qualified fitness specialist to design and manage an onsite fitness facility.
• Supply employees with active wear that shows off the corporation logo.
by Health Promotion on August 21, 2009
• Develop a launch event to establish excitement about upcoming activities and to set up a social climate that establishes being active as the norm.
• Design and encourage monthly or bi-monthly corporation programs that are fun and active, e.g., picnics with physical games, employee tournaments and dragon boat racing. Urge families to join in by including all-ages programs such as relay races, soccer matches, bocce ball and baseball games.
• Begin a swim club at a local pool. Invite groups of employees to swim the distance of a nearby lake. Convert kilometres to lengths and reward employees who complete the swim. Set up a challenge between employees and managers to see who covers the greatest distance.
• Post a sign-up board where employee can join a group or find a buddy to take part in activities of interest.
• Organize a organization badminton tournament that lasts several months, with each employee playing once a week. Post the results as the tournament progresses.
• Design an office Olympics, World Cup, Wimbledon or Masters Games. Invite teams to compete in several activities over a month. Reward everyone who participates.
• Create a point system in which one minute of activity equals one point. Set a target, and post a chart where all staff members are able to track their points. Reward the first group to reach that target.
• Create a stair climb challenge. Post a chart at the top of the stairwell, and advocate staff members to track the number of flights of stairs they climb each workday. Set up teams, and award a prize to the first group to climb the equivalent of Mount Everest.
• Display and encourage a sign-up board for lunchtime walking groups.
• Design a walk “across this country” Select a route, figure out how many steps it would take to walk that distance and challenge staff members to do it. Give or loan pedometers to staff members, and ask them to record the number of steps they take. Or, if you can’t afford pedometers, track the minutes walked. Set up a challenge between staff members and managers to see who has the potential to walk across this country first.
• Establish a walk to work club. Acknowledge workers who either walk to work or walk to public transit.
• Have a volunteer group leader guide weekly lunchtime power walks.
• Develop a million-step challenge. Form groups, challenge each group to walk a combined total of a million steps and reward the winner. Departments or sites could compete with each other and with management.
• Encourage staff members to walk 10,000 steps a day. Buy pedometers for all participating staff members or, if you can’t afford that, make pedometers available at a reduced rate. Provide tips for increasing daily steps, and reward staff members who succeed.
