Posts from — June 2009

Many organizations recognize the need for a comprehensive plan to help their workers be the best they are able to be. They also know that successful and sustainable wellness programs are much more than a few “lunch and learn” programs.

Your wellness program ought to include a wide range of key components, including:

• A clear agenda or statement of objectives.
• A plan characterized by passion.
• An effective leader who is creative and organized.
• A focus on short-term outcomes combined with an central vision.
• A measurable plan (what’s significant gets measured!).
• A policy of celebrating and communicating success.

Planning Your Workplace Wellness Program

Establish carefully to see that your wellness program is seen as part of a broad commitment to maintaining the health and safety of all staff members. Yes, creating a strong plan takes an abundance of effort and time (and sometimes resources). But planning is critical and well worth the investment necessitated. As the saying goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail.”

You might start by conducting a survey of employee needs and interests. If you take this route, pay attention to the outcome and plan accordingly. If you don’t, the staff members will not support the program.

Collecting information about what you already offer is also a good idea. For example, you might be surprised by your business or organization’s current wellness and health policies.

Another valuable step is to establish an agenda and/or measurable objectives and goals to help you come up with priorities, timelines and the resources necessitated to start the program. Be bold and creative in your planning, but also realistic.

Senior Management

The leader of your wellness program must be able to wear countless hats. The leader’s duties include:

• Developing a vision of the wellness program after receiving input from all interested workers.
• Communicating ideas and a rationale throughout the company (to senior managers and fellow workers alike).
• Keeping others enthusiastic about and committed to a wellness program.
• Serving as a role model and wellness coach.
• Developing and maintaining leadership skills such as giving effective presentations and being well-organized.

Good leaders avoid becoming overwhelmed by overly ambitious and complex plans. You may want to stick to short-term goals/objectives at the beginning so that you get immediate and visible results. These first steps are the basis for a thriving wellness program.

Good leaders involve as many people as possible in the program. By way of example, you’ll want to form a Company Wellness Program Committee made up of a diverse group of staff members to provide advice during the planning phase. This approach will:

• Assist you to obtain important information from all parts of the organization.
• Organize ambassadors who will help you start the wellness program.

Keeping Score and Celebrating

Always keep in mind how you will monitor progress and evaluate the success of your wellness program. Evaluation allows you to:

• Ascertain areas of excellence.
• Ascertain factors that affect participation in your programs.
• Gain management’s support for your efforts (and maintain that support).
• Better know issues that need attention.
• Learn from mistakes and change the program to keep it on the right track.

When you evaluate your program, you can measure such things as:

• Employee absences.
• Employee turnover rates.
• The expenditure of your Employee Assistance Program.
• The cost of benefits, including short-term and long-term disability payments.
• The expense of your prescription drug plan.
• Accident rates and safety records.
• Employees’ participation in wellness programs (and whether they’re staying in the programs).
• Changes in employees’ health habits.
• Level of employees’ awareness of healthy lifestyle issues.
• Results of your environmental wellness audit.
• Other perceivable changes in areas such as morale and job satisfaction.

A good communications plan supports ongoing information to employees (including senior managers) and fosters excitement about the wellness program. Positive reinforcement is critical in an effective communications plan. For example, you might recognize people who have helped established the program or offer tangible rewards for meeting goals and objectives.

Everyone needs to know whether employees are getting involved, enjoying the activities and getting some advance from them. Showing that a wellness program has financial benefits is frequently an important factor in maintaining strong reinforcement from the top.

If you focus on the key components of your wellness program and communicate openly and continuously while creating and delivering it, you will lay a solid foundation and leave a legacy that lasts.

How does physical exercise fit into a full-time employee’s busy schedule? Many times, it doesn’t.

One possible solution to this challenge is to make physical activity a part of the work day. Clearly, being active at work is productive for employees. But employers also advance from having fit, energetic and healthy employees who are more productive.

The challenges

Your job takes up an abundance of your time. In addition to the hours you spend actually working, there is the time required to get to and from work and take lunch and rest breaks during the work day. In the end, there are a limited number of hours left over for the rest of your life. This work life imbalance is especially true for Alberta, where statistics show that we work exceptionally hard.

Many jobs today are sedentary, and a myriad of Americans drive to work. The pressures of work may also cause us to eat lunch at our desks and skip breaks. Then, after work or on the weekends we juggle household chores, family responsibilities and social engagements.

Company Health Promotion Programs: Get started on a workplace physical activity program

Upper Management plays a key role in creating a culture that promotes health. The leaders at your workplace effect the various policies and the informal or formal practices, and these policies and practices affect your attitude towards healthy active living.

Begin by talking to your boss about the benefits of a healthy active workplace. The best way to ensure the success of a company fitness program is to have the management on side and cheering you on.

Ask your leadership to consider taking these actions:

• Send a memo or message about the significance of health and healthy living that encourages employee to take an active break each day.
• Provide for flexible work hours that assist employee to be more physically active. For example, they might need to take a longer lunch break to attend physical activity class, making up the time by arriving at work early or remaining late.
• Provide a meeting room or other suitable office space for noon-hour yoga or workout classes, and hire a teacher to lead them, or use videos.

If your boss agrees to support a workplace fitness program, do not forget to say thanks.

You do not need an onsite gym

Only very sizable employers have the potential to afford onsite fitness facilities such as exercise equipment or squash courts. Still, most employers have the potential to take other affordable steps to support staff members who wish to become more active.

For example:

• Arrange for discounted fees for staff members at a fitness club, recreation center or YMCA facility.
• Install showers and a place to hang a towel. (Make sure the showers are cleaned regularly and that women who use them will feel secure.)
• Provide bike racks or a locked enclosure that is safe, conveniently located and well lighted.
• Hold walking gatherings and set up lunch-hour walking groups
• Make staff members alert to safe and pleasant walking routes near the workplace, as well as nearby facilities that offer physical activity programs (such as walking, swimming, running, yoga, stretching).
• Find a certified instructor to instruct employee about health, fitness and how to become more active.

Any size and sort of workplace is able to encourage employees who wish to be physically active. It’s highly desirable to get senior staff on side. Even if your boss isn’t supportive, you are able to still learn ways to get moving more. Set up activities for groups and individuals, and advocate your co-employees to join in.

We all know that physical activity is an important part of health and wellbeing. But occasionally it’s tough to find time for physical activity. Lack of time is the leading barrier that individuals say prevents them from participating in physical activity on a regular basis.

The good news is that even short sessions of physical activity help your health. Research has determined that 10-minute sessions that add up to between 30 and 60 minutes a day are able to produce significant health benefits.

Also, there are numerous ways busy individuals have the potential to use to be more active. These strategies include:

• multi-tasking
• being active at work
• being active with loved ones
• scheduling activity into daily life

Different strategies work for different individuals. Being familiar with the different strategies is key to adopting and maintaining an active lifestyle.

Read on to check out strategies you can try. With sufficient responsibility, some of them are sure to work for you.

Strategy #1: Multi-tasking

The first strategy you have the potential to try is multi-tasking. This means doing things you already do, but in a more physically active way. This way you get done what you need to get done and you get physical exercise at the same time.

By way of example, you’re already travelling to work and other places. Instead of taking the car or the bus every time, try using active methods of transportation like biking, rollerblading, walking and skateboarding.

If you can’t use active transportation for a whole trip, try to be active for at least part of the trip. If you’re taking the bus, for example, get off a few blocks early and walk the rest of the way.

Active transportation benefits your body by expanding your activity level, and it also benefits your neighborhood and the environment by decreasing the number of cars on the road.

You are able to also get physical exercise while doing chores.

When you’re working around home, try to be creative and look for the active choice. By way of example, if you’re cleaning the crack between the fridge and the counter, why not move the fridge so you have the potential to clean the area better and build your strength at the same time?

For outdoor work, opt for the old-fashioned way of doing things, as they’re usually more active. By way of example, use a snow shovel rather than a snow blower.

Strategy #2: Be Active at Work

Many Americans spend eight hours a day or more working at a sedentary job. Here are a few simple ways to keep your body moving throughout work. The physical exercise will revitalize you and help you be more productive.

When you’re working at your desk, try sitting on a balance ball or disk for part of your day (30 minutes to an hour). This gives your back and abs a workout.

Take active breaks at least once a day. During your coffee break, try doing some yoga, stretching or taking a quick walk. You may find that walking up and down the stairs a few times does a better job of rejuvenating you than the java jolt.

Speaking of the stairs, take them rather than the elevator whenever you can. The stairs in your building are an opportunity to get your heart pumping.

Create walking gatherings at work. Getting outside and having gatherings in a less formal setting is a great way to be active, makes work more fun and encourages creative ideas for work projects.

Strategy #3: Be Active With Your Loved Ones

Do physical activity with your family, friends, neighbours and pets. With this plan, you and your loved ones are doing some great multi-tasking together: enjoying quality time with each other and getting some of the physical activity that you all need to be healthy.

Go for walks, swims or bike rides together. Play Frisbee, soccer and other games and sports together. When you take your little ones to the park, play with them instead of just watching them play.

Many neighborhood facilities offer classes that keep you and your little ones active at the same time. Research these classes and take one or two.

You can even be active when you’re watching your little ones do activities without you. By way of example, if your child plays hockey, take the opportunity to walk up and down the stairs in the stands a few times. If you feel self-conscious about doing it alone, why not gather a group of parents to do it together?

Strategy #4: Have Physical Activity into Your Day

Plan your physical exercise directly into your daytimer. Set a specific time and place for exercising. Make your physical exercise appointments a priority, just as valuable as any other appointment you put in your daytimer.

To help you stay committed to your physical activity appointments, you might want to make appointments that involve other people: such as by meeting with a personal trainer, taking exercise class or jogging with a friend.

If you’re not sure how many appointments to make or what you should be doing during your appointments, try consulting with a personal trainer. A personal trainer is able to help you advance a physical activity plan and schedule.

The bottom line: figure out what works best for you. Experiment with the strategies. Find inspiration by talking to other people about how they stay active and what strategies they employ. Be creative and patient while you learn what strategies work best for you. And be aware that your “best strategy” may change from time to time.

With enough effort, you will discover what works for you. Then, run with it!

• Commit to workplace physical exercise in policy statements and commit funding to physical exercise drives.
• Clearly communicating the benefits of being physically active during the workday reinforces the company’s commitment to assisting all workers be active. Use meetings, bulletin boards, newsletters and e-mail to reach as many workers as possible at least once a year.
• Provide flex time for physical activity. Invite staff members who actively commute to work or exercise at lunchtime to make up any missed time later in the day.
• Consider allowing staff members to work part time, so that they have the potential to participate in physical exercise.
• Include a physical exercise account in your benefit plan to pay for or subsidize fitness memberships, assessments, classes, counselling or instruction.
• Give interest-free loans for employees to buy bicycles or great walking shoes/runners.
• Conduct periodic employee interest surveys of employee physical activity preferences, and offer a variety of options to suit those interests and needs.
• Hire qualified individuals to lead stretch breaks or physical exercise programs or classes. For help in finding accredited fitness leaders, visit Alberta’s Provincial Fitness Unit.
• Recognize workers who take part in physical exercise. Survey workers first to determine how they prefer to be recognized, e.g., through business newsletters, appreciation lunches, rewards and/or thank you notes.
• Give child care and other family-friendly amenities during physical activities that occur after work.
• Avoid scheduling gatherings during lunch.
• Promote active breaks instead of coffee breaks.
• Have active fundraisers rather than bingos. For example, workers might climb the Calgary Tower stairs or take turns riding a stationary bike for 24 hours.
• Make birthday celebrations active times. Instead of a lunch, invite the birthday person to choose an activity. Options could include a session with a yoga instructor or an evening ski trip.
• Promote a casual dress day. One study observed that workers who dress casually were more physically active.

• Make sure that your building’s stairways are clean, attractive and safe, and post signs encouraging employees to use the stairs.
• Establish a wellness newsletter or intranet.
• Encourage the Activity Tracker and bolster employees 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.
• Provide physical exercise opportunities at different times to accommodate night-, shift-, and part-time workers.
• 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 individuals 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, exercise room, change rooms with lockers and showers, and safe and attractive grounds for walking.
• Have walking meetings.
• Encourage workers to walk to co-workers’ offices instead of 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.
• Give incentives such as shoe bags, ball caps, T-shirts or water bottles to reward employee participation.
• Loan out pedometers for three months, so that employees are able to find out how many steps they usually take and how much activity they need to add to get basic health benefits.
• Set aside 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.
• Plan 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 displays the organization logo.

• Organize a launch event to create 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.
• Implement a swim club at a local pool. Invite groups of staff members to swim the distance of a nearby lake. Convert kilometres to lengths and reward staff members who complete the swim. Set up a challenge between staff members 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.
• Establish a employer badminton tournament that lasts several months, with each employee playing once a week. Post the results as the tournament progresses.
• Establish 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 exercise equals one point. Set a target, and post a chart where all employees are able to track their points. Reward the first group to reach that target.
• Establish a stair climb challenge. Post a chart at the top of the stairwell, and encourage employees 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 promote a sign-up board for lunchtime walking groups.
• Establish a walk “across this country” Select a route, discover 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 cannot afford pedometers, track the minutes walked. Set up a challenge between staff members and managers to see who can walk across this country first.
• Design 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.
• Design 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 might compete with each other and with management.
• Challenge 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.

There is no one correct way to approach wellness programs but winning programs share common success factors. These include management support and responsibility, employee participation, adequate resources, and a policy concerning health that goes hand in hand with the organization’s mission, vision and values.

Workplace Health Promotion Program: A Range of Approaches

Although the objective is to eventually have a long-term, inclusive wellness program, some corporations prefer to start with a single program at a basic level. By way of example, the first steps might be as simple as offering lunch-hour sessions on first aid or healthy eating; or they might launch a pilot project to learn how interested employees are to ensure employees needs are being met before taking on anything more ambitious. This approach provides a chance to show the effect on employees and the workplace so senior staff will be more willing to consider a larger and more far-reaching strategy.

Other organizations plan a variety of drives to meet the needs of the different sorts of people that make up their workforce. And some decide to cultivate a sound organization case, complete with a health plan, before beginning any type of program. Employers want to ensure that a new program is totally integrated with their overall organization vision and mission.

Workplace Health Promotion Program: Success Factors

Whether your business chooses to think big from the outset or to start with something smaller, always keep in mind the following key success factors:

• support and participation from management;
• employee participation in creating;
• programs that meet employee needs;
• a realistic budget; and
• continuous review.

In sports, a game plan is a series of steps that a team must follow to accomplish its objective of winning. Most winning teams plan to win. Organizations also need game plans, even if they do not call them by that name.

Good planning will help to be sure that your wellness program happens the way you want it to, and that costs can be identified in advance and kept within budget. Good planning prevents small issues from becoming bigger.

Steps in Planning a Workplace Wellness Program

Get upper management backing. You may need to foster a corporation case to convince managers that the wellness program is a corporation strategy-that employee health and job satisfaction impacts their work rate. employees need to see evidence that upper management believes in and is committed to employee health.

Establish a planning committee. Members have the potential to include representatives from employee groups as well as from human resources, health and safety, and communications.

Accumulate information. To prove that your Employee Health Promotion Program is beneficial, establish a benchmark before the program begins. You may wish to look at employee satisfaction, absenteeism rates, stress levels, prescription expenditures or WCB expenses. Review what workplace facilities are available to support employees to make healthy choices such as showers and change areas or a secure place to store a bicycle. Review employee needs through a survey or questionnaire, suggestion box or focus group. Communicate the outcome.

Organize the plan to reflect the information gathered. Include program objectives, activities and how you are going to measure whether your objectives were met. Keep the plan flexible. You may have to change direction in response to employee feedback or changes in the company’s structure.

Get management approval. Support for employee time and a budget are necessitated.

Put activities in place. Offer a variety of activities that create awareness, broaden knowledge, advance skills, and support social interaction. (Activities might include walking clubs, participation in national campaigns such as Company Wellness Programs Week, SummerActive, WinterActive, corporate challenge, golf days, and newsletters that support information about neighborhood resources.) Workplaces can also make it easier for workers to make healthy choices by offering flextime to allow workers to fit exercise in when it is convenient or by subsidizing programs in cooperation with neighborhood or private fitness facilities. A policy on catering for gatherings has the potential to ensure that healthy foods are available.

Review the plan. Share your successes with others, learn from your mistakes and modify activities.

A wellness program doesn’t have to be complicated or a huge cost. Just do it. Get reinforcement from senior staff, bring a few committed people together to generate some ideas and get started.

How does it feel to walk into your workplace? Do people look content? Is the place well lit and cheerful? Do you feel welcome, wanted and energized? Or do you feel a dark cloud descend upon you, and count the hours until you have the potential to leave?
The power of the workplace environment on the health & wellness of employees is profound. First there is the physical look, feel, smell, and sounds of the place. Then you’re affected by the policies, like whether others are allowed to light up around you. As time passes, more subtle factors start to affect you. Do your attempts to adopt a healthier lifestyle get recognized at work, or are they sabotaged? Are your managers inspiring you by being healthy role models? Do you get regular opportunities to discover healthier behaviors?
In a supportive environment, employees feel that the business they work for supports them with encouragement, opportunity, and rewards for healthy lifestyles. And the spirit that results is highly contagious. Staff Members who feel cared are naturally more loyal and productive.
The following ideas will help you transform your workplace environment into one that actually supports the wellness of your employees and business.

Corporate Wellness Program Ideas for Fostering Supportive Environments

Wellness Friendly Facilities

When you arrive at a worksite, do you feel comfortable? Could you be happy working there? Is there sufficient light and clean air? Are there pleasant work areas, places to eat decent meals, take a walk before lunch? Close your eyes. How does it smell? Sound? Do the employees have sufficient space?
• Vending machines with healthy diet choices like low-fat milk, fruits, sugar-free and caffeine-free beverages and low-calorie snacks
• Workout area, walking paths, playing fields, basketball hoop, or other exercise opportunities workplace or nearby
• Cafeteria offers healthy foods including a salad bar with low-fat dressing
• Natural light is used whenever possible; all lighting is appropriate and adequate
• Heating and ventilation is adjustable, comfortable and healthful
• No cigarette machines, ashtrays, or smoking areas onsite
• Noise levels are safe and conducive to concentration
• Work station furniture conforms to ergometric standards
• Safety risks have been eliminated
• Lockers and showers are available for employees who exercise before work or while on breaks
• Stairs are clean and well lit, convenient and pleasant to use
Familiarity can make it hard to evaluate a workplace. People get used to hectic conditions and forget that conditions ever bothered them. It may provce useful to ask people who are unfamiliar with your workplace to walk through with you. Professional consultants can also help.

Proactive Wellness Policies

One clear way to impact behavior is through policies and procedures. If nurses aren’t permitted to work more than twelve hours consecutively, there will be less medication errors. If parents are afforded flextime to manage their children’s needs, they’ll be less stressed. If staff members have the potential to apply unused sick days to planned vacation time, they’ll save them up instead of calling in sick to use them all.

Supportive corporate policies may include:

• Seatbelt use necessitated in employer vehicles
• Drug and alcohol policies are appropriate to the industry
• Emergency procedures are developed, known, and practiced
• Flexible work schedules allow workers to exercise, go to children’s school conferences, etc.
• Nonsmoking policy is enforced
• Excessive overtime is discouraged
• Membership at fitness facility is partially reimbursed
• Shift workers are scheduled to allow adequate rest
• Health Care Costs coverage rewards good health
• Rates of Absenteeism policy rewards employees who don’t use sick days
• Employee Assistance Program(EAP) available to help staff members with chemical dependencies, depression, family problems
• Meaningful consequences are carried out for unsafe, unhealthy, prohibited behavior.  Your organization may have a policy against alcohol use during work hours, but if everyone looks the other way when someone comes back from lunch smelling like beer, the culture is one that permits drinking during lunch-and one in which written policies have the potential to be safely ignored. Prohibited behaviors must be confronted promptly. Otherwise your policies become mere lip service instead of springboards to health.

Consistent Recognition And Rewards For Success

Attention, praise, and rewards are provided for wellness achievements.
You can show you value the Company Wellness Programs by celebrating your programs and those who’ve made lifestyle improvements in corporation newsletters, on bulletin boards, and at yearly banquets, meetings, and celebrations. Incentives are a direct way to demonstrate appreciation, too.
Wellness mentors are sought and applauded, too. Employees who support others’ efforts to better their health are noticed and appreciated. Peer modeling and mentoring classes are able to promote those who enjoy assisting others to step forward into a new role.

Managers Model And Support Healthier Behavior

Nothing might say “We encourage you to exercise frequently” better than a manager going on a bike ride during the lunch hour–or your supervisor sitting next to you in a weight management class. Wellness activities reward relaxed interaction between people from different departments and at different echelons in the chain of command. That promotes relaxed communication and a feeling of solidarity that is pure gold.
Managers can also provide support for staff members who are working on working on their health. It doesn’t take anything fancy-just a “good job” or “nice to see you at the gym” is able to put a glow on the cheeks of most of us.
Managers can also help by allowing employees the flexibility to attend wellness programs.

Ongoing Company Health Promotion Programs

It’s valuable to give staff members the sense that the wellness program is a permanent and valuable part of the corporation, not a corporation fad. That can start as soon as a new employee is hired.
New employees are oriented to the wellness program as one of the employee benefits. Information about the program ought to be presented by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable person who encourages the new employee to take part.
The workers are familiar with the ongoing wellness programs.
The wellness programs and wellness coordinator are well known in the business. Opportunities to participate are abundant and it’s easy to sign up.
A wide variety of awareness classes are provided. There are issues of interest for everyone.

These are simple events that have the potential to be done within your corporation to excite healthy behaviors during a contest or during other times. The intention is to bolster employee participation. Some examples:
• Establish a sub-committee of enthusiastic staff members who will help promote the fitness program by offering ideas, ideas and encouragement to fellow staff members.
• Designate monthly mailbox flyers to promote a contest or support fitness-related education/encouragement information.
• Send a periodic voicemail on each member’s phone with encouraging wellness messages.
• Make available regular cumulative health progress reports.
• Provide reduced fat or heart-healthy lunch selections once a week in your cafeteria or have staff members bring a healthy snack to share, with a recipe book compiled at the end of the contest or specified time period (such as a National Nutrition Month in March).
• Distribute employee gifts (pedometers or other novelty item related to some aspect of your contest theme) as registration begins.
• Allocate for workers “Fitness 15-Minute Walk Breaks;” corporation time to walk, physical activity, etc. If appropriate, you could use a space not currently used to set up a treadmill, elliptical, bicycle, some no cost weights and relaxing music.
• Have a T-shirt design contest.
• Designate posters to map contest (or fitness) progress and to serve as reminder of your goals/objectives:
   • Use push pins or other identifiers for each individual to put up in the office showing how they have progressed – employees can get very creative with this and design pins that reflect their personalities.
   • Use a bar graph to compare progress.
   • Use a “thermometer” type graphic and illustrate progress – consider a different, fitness-related graphic all together and color it in as you progress.
• Provide aerobic dance or physical activity videos in your conference or break rooms.
• Compile a list of organized activities in the neighborhood that offer opportunities to get staff members working out by participating as a group (below are just a few):
   • Race For The Cure
   • March of Dimes Walk America event
   • Juvenile Diabetes Research
   • Foundation Walk to Cure
   • American Heart Association’s Heart Walk
   • American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life
   • American Lung Association’s Lung Run
   • Local marathons or special neighborhood walks or runs
• Create or attend a health-and-fitness retreat.
• Have a soup-and-salad luncheon followed by a hula-hoop contest!
• Use the mall as an alternate walking location during inclement weather.
• Designate “Move it Mondays” – allow staff members to take an extra ten minutes at lunch for exercise.
• Designate “Tasty Tuesdays” – support employees with low-calorie treats/snacks.
• Create “Walking Wednesdays”- allow staff members to take an extra ten minutes at lunchtime to walk, or “Wacky Wednesdays” that allow staff members to explore new exercises.
• Designate “Thirsty Thursdays” – make healthy smoothies or juice drinks for staff members.
• Designate “Fresh Fruit Fridays” for employee – offer seasonal fruit treats.
• Send weekly physical activity tips to workers via the most effective communications vehicle in your workplace.
• Partner with another organization representative for local media events coordinated through your advertising or communication department.
• Urge departmental teams to challenge each other (examples: Customer Service, Marketing, Medical Support).
• Create walking clubs with executive/supervisory leadership.
• Seek out local aerobic opportunities or classes through churches, community groups, college, YMCA, etc.
• Contact several local area gyms and ask if they can or will offer group discounts for exercise programs, waive enrollment fees, or set up a 12-week program as opposed to signing an extended contract.
• Hold a Frozen Yogurt Social – “Reap the Benefits of Fitness.”
• Map out a walking track around the facility including the number of laps necessitated for one mile.

These are brief informational “Health Tips” in an e-mail format on many different health-related topics. You have the potential to appoint someone within your employer to find specific topics on the Internet from sites that are in the public domain or topics can be purchased from organizations. Some qualified sources include:
• Hope Health
• Sound Ideas, Inc.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• National Institutes of Health

These e-mails are able to be sent daily, weekly or monthly. Our experience indicates weekly is the best frequency.

If the majority of your staff members do not have e-mail, consider providing the information to them through:
• Bulletin boards
• Check stuffers
• Mailbox stuffers
• Newsletters

SAMPLE #1 Worksite Wellness E-mail Messages

From: Corporate Health Promotion Program
To: Wellness Team
Subject: Layering for Exercise

One way to help ensure enjoyment of a winter walk (or run) is to make sure you’re dressed properly for the weather. And the secret to that, for a winter workout, is to dress in layers.
Layer 1 — Avoid 100% cotton in the first layer, next to your skin. Cotton holds perspiration. Wear underwear made from manmade fabrics to wick perspiration away from skin.
Layer 2 — A zippered sweatshirt and sweatpants will keep you warm. Just open the zipper if you get too warm.
Layer 3 — If necessitated, over the sweatsuit, you can add a waterproof and windproof jacket. If it’s very cold, you may want to wear a jacket made with goose down.
Hands — Mittens will keep your hands warmer than gloves.
Feet — Wear socks made from wool or manmade fabrics that keep your feet dry and warm. Avoid 100 percent cotton socks. Don’t wear sneakers or boots that fit too tightly … this will restrict blood flow and your feet will end up feeling colder.
Head — About 40% of your body’s heat is lost through your head. Wear a hat and cover your ears.
Lips — Don’t forget lip balm containing sunscreen … even in winter!

SAMPLE #2 Job Site Wellness E-mail Messages

From: Workplace Wellness Program
To: Wellness Team
Subject: Energy Boosts

Need an energy boost? Here are some ideas for tapping into your own energy sources — and most require little effort.
• Get an extra hour of sleep. No surprise here — it can make a sizable difference in your energy level the following day.
• Eat less more often. Have little, balanced meals or snacks throughout your day for a steady supply of fuel and energy. Make note of which foods seem to boost your energy level.
• Drink enough water. Dehydration contributes to fatigue, which you are able to offset by drinking water throughout the day.
• Avoid alcohol and caffeine. Both have the potential to contribute to dehydration and fatigue. They also seem to disrupt sleep patterns.