Posts from — July 2009

Prior to kicking off your Workplace Physical Activity Program, summarize the information you’ve collected and plan your next steps.

At this point, you have

• gained backing from upper management for the Workplace Physical Activity Program
• formed an Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee
• assessed what is possible in your workplace
• found out what employees want and need in a Workplace Physical Activity Program.

Based on this information, you’re now ready to develop your action plan to stimulate physical exercise at your workplace.

With the Company Wellness Program Committee, take the following steps.

• Combine the results of the employee survey with the workplace environmental assessment, and report to upper management and workers.
• Prioritize the possibilities at each of the “levels” (individual, social, corporation, community, policy) in the workplace listed in “Keys to Success”. By way of example, suppose a large group of employees show an interest in biking to work. Since these individuals may want to shower and change after their commute each day, you might give showers and changing facilities priority in your workplace. Bike racks might also be valuable for making employees’ bikes secure during the workday.
• Consult the list of practical ideas found this website.
• Create a mission statement (one which aligns with your organization’s central mission statement) to define your purpose and help guide your process. Setting goals/objectives will help you achieve your mission statement.
• Put together a plan or blueprint approaching what you have learned. Make program and activity recommendations with timelines, identify resources and assign responsibilities. Revisit the list of tasks outlined in “Step 2: Forming an Employee Committee.” Seek senior staff approval to move ahead.
• Once your plan is in place, it’s important to encourage it to employees. Organizing a launch is a great way to do this. A formal kick-off additionally demonstrates senior staff responsibility. If employees don’t know about the plan, they can’t take advantage of it!
• Decide what you need to track to show that you have accomplished your goals. Measure these factors before you start. This way, when you evaluate later, you will know if there has been a change.

To succeed in encouraging physical exercise during the workday, you must discover what workers need and want. They are the people whose behavior you are trying to impact, so it’s critical to understand their needs and gain their backing.

The Employee Interest Survey

Ask workers questions that allow you to assess such key characteristics as age, sex, social relationships, family responsibilities and current physical exercise participation.

It’s important to know this information so that your physical exercise initiative meets employees’ needs. Staff Members will not take part in something they’re not interested in.

Ask employees what they want, and then implement changes that fit with their needs and working conditions. For example, employees may not wish to do activities that make them sweat, because they do not want to shower at work.

Ask employees what the corporation might do to make it easier for them to be more physically active during the workday. If there’s a common behavior throughout your organization, a single change might affect much people.

By way of example, suppose a big group shows interest in biking to work. They may want to shower and change after their commute. You might give priority to installing workplace showers and changing facilities. Secure bike storage might be valuable as well.

If you’re starting a program that requires going outside, start in the spring. By the time winter arrives, participation is already a habit.

Involving workers is key to increasing physical exercise participation rates. People are more willing to take part in and support physical exercise drives when they are involved in decision making.

The following tips will help you produce your own employee interest survey:

• Keep it short (no longer than 10 minutes to complete).
• Make sure workers know why you are doing the survey.
• Rather than using all open-ended questions, which can be long and tough to analyze, ask people to choose from a drop-down list of possible responses.
• Ask for comments and recommendations in one open-ended question at the end.
• Make it confidential and anonymous. Do not request information that may identify a person.
• If you’re including a list of potential programs or environmental changes, be sure your workplace has the facilities and resources to offer them.

Workplace Physical Activity Programs: Forming an Employee Committee

Although support from the top is critical to a successful program, support from other staff members is also important.

Once you get the go-ahead from upper management, identify others who are interested in the project and form a Worksite Wellness Program Committee to help determine the next steps. Depending on the size of your workplace and the amount of employee time management is willing to contribute, this Worksite Wellness Program Committee may be advisory or may plan and carry out the initiative.

The Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee could include employees from human resources, occupational health and safety and finance. It’s also a good idea to involve employee from other areas who have an interest in promoting physical exercise. Terms of reference will define the boundaries of the project. By way of example, it’s valuable for the Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee to have clearly defined and understood tasks. Possible tasks include the following:

• Assessing your workplace environment
• Carrying out an employee interest survey.
• Creating a mission statement and objectives and goals.
• Writing a physical activity or wellness policy declaring the organization’s responsibility to physical activity.
• Brainstorming program ideas.
• Promoting, communicating and marketing the plan.
• Coordinating specific activities.
• Deciding how the initiative will be evaluated.
• Continually assessing what is or isn’t working and adjusting the plan.

Before making plans to advocate physical activity during the workday, it’s significant to find out what is “doable” in your workplace.

You do not want to raise employee expectations by offering something that’s impossible due to funding or space limits. For example, it’s not realistic to suggest putting in a gym if there’s no space for it. Be open, however, to creative ways around limitations.

Workplace Physical Activity Programs: Discovering What’s Feasible in Your Workplace

Check with recreation departments or fitness facilities for maps of the local walking trails or underground pedways. Great walking trails may be right around the block from your workplace.

Below are some inquiries to help you evaluate your workplace:

• What facilities or opportunities does your work space have that make it easier to be physically active during work? By way of example, do you have stairs, bike racks, showers, space for a fitness facility, factory walking lanes?
• What nearby facilities or opportunities might employees use to be more physically active during work? Are you close to sidewalks, walking trails, area centres, bike lanes for active commuting and/or exercise facilities?
• What resources are available?
• Can the program access funds, personnel, space, equipment, facilities?
• What is the structure of your corporation? For example, consider employee size, working hours, number of sites, unusual shifts, length of lunch breaks and ability to use flex time.

Gaining upper management backing is essential to the success of a physical exercise program.

Whether the changes you’d like to make involve the work environment, overall policies or specific programs, successfully launching your ideas is dependent upon senior staff reinforcement.

Support from senior staff is vital for 3 reasons:

• You need their support to involve workers in a workplace plan.
• When senior staff pays attention to and supports initiative, employees also view the initiative as worthwhile.
• Senior Leadership has the authority to give work time and money to support the initiative.

It’s significant to keep senior staff involved throughout a physical activity plan, but at three points you’ll need reinforcement for:

• An central concept, including a go-ahead to evaluate what workers want to do within the limitations of your workplace environment.
• A detailed plan (based on the assessment above) coupled with resources to carry out the plan.
• Analyzing the program to improve it along the way or to advocate for continuing or expanding the program.

Approaching Upper Management

Before going to senior staff to gain initial reinforcement for promoting physical exercise during the workday, do your homework.

• Prepare a company case clearly outlining how the company will advance by promoting physical activity during the workday.
• List the individual, social and corporate advantages of physical activity and the advantages of being active during the workday.
• Present some general ideas about what the program could include. See the Success Stories and Ideas sections on this website to highlight what other workplaces have done.

Expect questions such as the following from senior staff:

• How will this help our corporation?
• How can we motivate employees to participate?
• How much will it cost to operate this program or make this change?
• How are we going to know a year from now whether or not this was a meaningful use of time and resources?

Ask managers about the types of activities they would support. Often managers have ideas of their own they would like to see acted on to improve the workplace.

Remember to include middle managers when gaining reinforcement for your plan. They can be very helpful when you need volunteers to lead teams in corporate physical activity challenges.

In today’s business environment, the health of employees is frequently related to the health of the business. Increased job satisfaction, improved morale, reduced illness and injuries, and increased work rate are just some of the benefits of having healthy employees. Promoting health in your workplace does not have to be be complicated, expensive or time-consuming. Any business, big or small, can reward healthy eating and active living in the workplace. Here are some ideas:

Healthy Eating

• For breakfast meetings, rather than serving donuts, sizable muffins, cookies, tea and coffee with cream and sugar, offer healthier alternatives such as bagels, small muffins, fresh fruit, water, 100% fruit juice and milk with coffee and tea.
• For lunch meetings, avoid serving chips, fried foods, rich pastas, and salads loaded with dressing. Instead, offer sandwiches, bagels, whole grain low fat crackers and cheese, 100 % fruit juice, water, salads with dressing on the side, vegetable and fruit trays.
• Reimburse workers workers for items purchased to better their health (e.g. healthy eating cookbooks, consultation with a Registered Dietitian).
• Arrange for the cafeteria or food vendors to offer healthy diet choices.
• See that you have healthy choices like bottled water, 100% fruit juice, fruit bars, and raisins available in vending machines.
• Offer a means for individuals to share healthy recipes with each other (for example, posting recipes on the Intranet, on posters or by e-mail).

Active Living

• Create events and group activities to encourage workers to become active, such as walking programs, contests and challenge activities, stretch breaks, team sports or participation in local or provincial activities.
• Offer onsite health professionals (e.g. personal trainers, fitness instructors) or incorporate this service in EAPs to help workers work towards physical exercise goals.
• Offer a supportive environment in the workplace that makes healthy choices simple: bike racks, shower facilities, clean, safe and accessible stairwells, walking or running routes in the vicinity of the workplace, and gym facilities.
• Provide|Offer|Give} flex time so that workers have more opportunities to take part in fitness programs as part of their working day.
• Fully reimburse (or partially reimburse) gym membership fees, fitness class registrations, and fitness equipment purchases.
• Offer corporate gym memberships to lower costs of individual memberships.

Keeping It Fresh!

Find a champion to:

• Develop lunch ‘n learn sessions to provide information and motivation for healthy eating and active living.
• Invite demonstrators to provide cooking lessons or tips for making healthy foods.
• Display a list of local restaurants that offer healthy meal choices on their menus.
• Distribute information to educate staff members on portion sizes.
• Include physical exercise and nutrition information in newsletters, pay check inserts, bulletin boards or e-mails.
• Establish activities that promote healthy eating and physical exercise. By way of example, start a year-round lunch-time walking club, and special activities

Can a small employer support workplace wellness? Absolutely! In fact, in some ways it is easier to create a healthy workplace in a small employer than in a large employer.

Limited resources, especially in small businesses, can keep a company from setting up a Corporate Health Promotion Program. Reasons can include:

• lack of fiscal resources;
• lack of employee;
• lack of senior-level backing;
• little knowledge of the wellness concept and;
• problem about making wellness available to all employees.

According to the Wellness Councils of America, some small organization owners may have a flawed idea of what is involved in running a Company Health Promotion Program. Some employers aren’t certain that a program would truly work and others feel that trying to change personal lifestyle behaviours is intruding and “none of their business”.  Perhaps they do not understand that it need not be costly and that they do not need special employee. They may not realize that some employee would like to see some healthy changes and would help make things happen in their workplace.

It Can Be Accomplished

Many small businesses have found ways to have a Employee Wellness Program that works for them. They keep the expense and effort to a minimum and still have results that are beneficial for everyone. In 2006, Graham Lowe wrote a report on the best places to work in Calgary. He said that healthy workplaces often have a “positive workplace culture”.  In a workplace with a beneficial culture, people feel appreciated, valued, and trusted.

Dr. Lowe says it is easier for a small workplace to have a beneficial workplace culture than for a large workplace. Many staff members prefer to work for a small corporation, he says, because it supplies more opportunities to work closely with others and develop a sense of community.

In his report, Dr. Lowe says the most efficacious employers with fewer than 100 workers have:

• excellent employee benefits;
• policies that promote a balance between work and personal life;
• flexible schedules;
• competitive salaries;
• great leadership with an emphasis on teamwork;
• environmentally responsible corporation policies;
• procedures for seeking employee input; and
• a focus on placing employees’ personal wellbeing ahead of the personal gain of Senior Management.

All or most of these elements are also pieces of a good Employee Wellness Program.

Tips and Ideas

There are multiple ways to include wellness and health in a small organization. You do not necessarily need a wellness professional or a fancy fitness center. What you do need is backing from senior staff and a Workplace Wellness Program Committee of a few committed people. Here are some ideas that your workplace can consider.

Communications and Promotion

• Send out a regular “wellness” newsletter on paper or online. Or send out a simple message such as the weekly Healthy U Hot Tip.
• Utilized promotions that are already designed, such as Healthy Workplace Week.

Active Living and Healthy Eating

• Encourage employee to sign up for the Stairway to Health stair climbing contest.
• Get pedometers for employees and track their steps.
• Rent a nearby school or community gym and offer physical activity classes.
• Bring in a local fitness instructor to give classes or lead stretch breaks. Expenditures can be shared with workers.
• Install secure bike parking.
• Offer healthy alternatives at company meetings and lunches.

Policy and Company Plans

• Hire an ergonomics expert to evaluate workstations.
• Create policies to support work-life balance (for example, mandatory vacations, flextime, limits to work and e-mail on personal time).
• Give a wellness subsidy for a variety of health and leadership activities and courses.
• Provide monetary rewards and incentives to be healthy.
• Provide wellness incentives and rewards as rewards and recognition for a job well done.
• Conduct an company health audit.
• Become a partner with the neighborhood (for example, daycare, gyms, festivals, parks, restaurants).
• Distribute the workload. Set up a Employee Health Promotion Program Committee.

Small corporations may not have much time, money, or human resources available for a Workplace Health Promotion Program. But they often have a huge advantage over big companies-a positive workplace culture. That is a good foundation for a Workplace Health Promotion Program. When employees are satisfied, enjoy their work environment, they are more advantageous, and tend to be healthier.  With a bit of creativity and passion, small corporations can advance thriving Workplace Health Promotion Programs. Get backing from senior staff, establish a Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee of two or more and discover the possibilities!

Workplace wellness is in the process of evolving.

Early efforts to establish healthy workplaces focused on safety at the worksite and injury prevention for employees.

More recently, programs are designed to assist  staff members to choose healthier behaviors like increasing physical activity levels or quitting smoking. Campaigns to spread awareness, educational sessions to broaden knowledge, opportunities to learn new skills, and changes to policies to make it easier for staff members to make healthy choices are frequently included. This approach is taken because the workplace is a good way to reach people, since most adult Canadians spend a sizable part of their day at work.

While safety and lifestyle programs are 2 aspects that contribute to the health of workers, workplace wellness is more effective when a third factor is brought into the equation-the environment at work.

How the workplace affects health.

Increasingly, it is understood that the workplace itself has a powerful affect on people’s health. When individuals are satisfied with their job, they are more beneficial and tend to be healthier. When employees feel that the environment at work is negative, they feel stressed. Stress has a big impact on employee mental and physical health, and in turn, on productiveness.

Consultant Graham Lowe has identified five components of workplace culture that directly affect employees’ health and the health of the business overall-credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. The underlying idea is that companies must truly care about the well-being of their staff members.

Organizations today who want to attract and retain good workers have leaders who be aware of the importance between employee satisfaction and employee health and believe that workplace wellness is a organization plan.  Their management practices include making reasonable demands on time and energy, involving workers in decision making, rewarding work well done, openly communicating, and providing support to balance life at home and work.

Employers know that employees are looking for jobs that pay well, have great benefits, are interesting, and include great health and safety programs. So in today’s competitive hiring market, it’s become more important than ever for businesses to enhance job satisfaction and make sure that employees enjoy being on the job. Workplace wellness benefits both employers and employees.

How does workplace wellness profit the corporation?

A workplace wellness initiative can help a business to:

• attract and keep employees;
• decrease the costs of disability, prescription drugs, and absenteeism;
• decrease the effects of a stressful workplace;
• decrease health expenditures or keep them contained; and
• better morale by creating a happy, supportive environment.

How Do Employee Wellness Programs Benefit employees?

employees of organizations that have a Corporate Wellness Program are likely to have:

• increased awareness and knowledge of ways to better their health;
• a better (less stressful) workplace;
• increased protection from injury;
• improved health and wellbeing;
• higher morale and greater job satisfaction;
• increased productiveness and performance at work;
• reduced personal medical care costs; and
• a more relaxed/flexible approach to health issues.

Both employers and employees have a responsibility for planning a healthy workplace. Staff Members are expected to arrive at work in good health, and the business is expected to offer an environment that allows employees to maintain good health, enjoy their work, and contribute to the company’s success.

Workplace wellness is much more than a “lunch and learn” program. It’s about creating a “people first” approach to doing business. It’s about taking care of employees, adopting a beneficial work environment, and paying attention to the factors that keep employees healthy and happy at work. A good Workplace Health Promotion Program has an influence on employees’ mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wellbeing.

Ideally, you will advance an overall plan for a Corporate Wellness Program before beginning to plan specific wellness programs. For example, you have the potential to start by getting the following components in place:

• reinforcement from senior staff
• a Company Wellness Program Committee or group
• information about the wellness needs and interests of staff members
• a budget
• program objectives
• an evaluation plan

Even if you have few financial and/or human resources, you can still take a “micro” approach. By way of example, you might focus on only one specific issue. Creativity, enthusiasm and planning can help you overcome limitations.

This article will provide you with some ideas for setting up Corporate Health Promotion Programs. Even the smallest steps can have an effect.

Whether you choose to begin with a single program or advance something larger, planning is essential. First think about the big picture and then look after the details.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Identify an action. What health-related program will fit the bill and best suit the staff members and employer?
• Promote. How can you most effectively spread the word to staff members? What are the opportunities for promotion? Consider everything, since staff members have access to and pay attention to different types of messages. In a typical workplace, staff members get information from e-mail, newsletters, bulletins, brochures, meeting announcements and fellow staff members.
• Deliver. Who is the best individual or group to put the program into action? Ask other companies about approaches they have utilized. Solidify your budget before making a decision.
• Assess. What must you evaluate to determine success? Do you need hard data and/or testimonials from individual participants?

We recommend the following when organizing your program:

• creating and communicating clear objectives
• targeting your audience
• deciding on the sort of program or campaign

The Elements of a Employee Health Promotion Program

Plans to promote wellness in the workplace don’t need to be restricted to one area. You might think workplace wellness only involves promoting beneficial personal health, e.g., Blood Pressure clinics, brochures on heart disease, “lunch and learn” sessions on eating habits and short-term physical activity programs.

These activities are significant, but workplace wellness ought to also be part of business’s business plan and go beyond traditional programming.

Taking a broader approach, the National Quality Institute recently detailed 3 key elements of a healthy workplace:

• physical environment
• social environment and personal resources
• health practices

Specific Program Ideas

Physical Environment

Look after workers’ health and safety and establish regulations to support their health and safety. Consider providing the following:

• Safe bike storage and shower and/or change facilities for cyclists and other commuters.
• Fridges for workers to keep snacks and meals fresh and/or healthy snacks in vending machines and cafeterias.
• Ergonomic assessments.
• Subsidies to help staff members join local recreation centres.
• Classrooms/conference rooms available for booking activities such as yoga, pilates, tai chi, meditation and aerobics.
• Safe and pleasant stairways that invite employees to use them.
• Assessing the potential for violence at work with plans to deal with such risks.
• Good lighting and sound and air quality.

Social Environment

Human relationships and communication, as well as ways of doing business, have the potential to affect an employee’s mental and physical health. Corporations must consider the following:

• respectful workplace policies that offer safe worksites
• policies on flex time
• policies on working from home
• employee satisfaction surveys
• leadership coaching
• resiliency training
• EAPs

To cultivate a positive social culture or climate, consider employees’ needs, which include:

• being respected
• a sense of belonging, purpose and mission
• freedom of expression
• protection from harassment and discrimination

What you’ve “always done” may not address current employee needs. Seeing to it that people enjoy being at work is not an easy task, but making the right changes can have a huge effect.

Health Practices

Offer programs and set policies that help staff members remain healthy or better their health while at work. Consider offering the following:

• “Lunch and learn sessions” on healthy habits such as sleeping better, eating on the run, healthy snacks, using a pedometer, pole walking, work-life balance, time management, stress management, resiliency, parenting and reading nutrition labels.
• Stop smoking clinics or subsidies to help employees quit.
• Health risk appraisals, including fitness assessments.
• Programs to address the issues raised in the health risk appraisals.
• Healthier snacks offered at meetings and conferences.

Personal Company Health Promotion Program Tips

If there is no wellness program at your worksite, do not let that stop you from keeping healthy. Perhaps your example will spark a movement toward a healthier workplace.

Here are a few ideas to think about:

• Be active at work. There are countless ways to bring exercise into your workday. Walk to work, even if it’s just one way. Hold walking meetings. Bike to work. Use the stairs. Walk to a workmate’s office rather than sending an e-mail.
• Eat smart at work. Pack a healthy snack. Place a bottle of water at your desk or workstation. Eat breakfast and eat regularly during the day. Take turns bringing a basket of fruit for co-workers’ snacks. Order healthy snacks for meetings.
• Maintain work-life balance. Work efficiently so you can leave on time. Conduct short, effective meetings. Leave your work at work and be sure not to take it home. Minimize social chit-chat. Arrange your office to enhance your work. Avoid clutter. Create and prioritize to be sure that the most significant things get done first.

There is no limit to the number or variety of Employee Health Promotion Programs. A key to success is planning well and ensuring that you can evaluate the results so that you can sustain momentum.

Talk to other wellness practitioners to learn what works well for them. Listen to your co-workers to determine their needs and interests. And do not forget to promote, promote, promote.

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

Your wellness program must include a wide range of key elements, including:

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

Creating Your Company Wellness Program

Create carefully to make sure that your wellness program is seen as part of a sweeping commitment to maintaining the health and safety of all employees. Yes, creating a good plan takes much work and time (and occasionally resources). But planning is important and well worth the investment necessitated. As the saying goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail.”

You might begin by delivering a survey of employee needs and interests. If you take this route, pay attention to the results and plan accordingly. If you don’t, the employees won’t support the program.

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

Another valuable step is to establish an agenda and/or measurable goals to help you come up with priorities, timelines and the resources required to kick off 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 a myriad of hats. The leader’s duties include:

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

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

Good leaders involve as many individuals as possible in the program. For example, you’ll want to form a Workplace Wellness Program Committee made up of a diverse group of employees to provide advice during the planning phase. This approach will:

• Help you to get important information from all parts of the business.
• Develop ambassadors who will help you enable 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:

• Determine areas of excellence.
• Ascertain factors that affect participation in your programs.
• Grasp management’s reinforcement for your efforts (and maintain that reinforcement).
• Better be aware of problems 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(EAP).
• The expenditure of benefits, including short-term and long-term disability payments.
• The expenditure of your 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 staff members (including senior managers) and creates excitement about the wellness program. Positive reinforcement is part of an effective communications plan. For example, you might recognize people who have helped established the program or provide tangible rewards for meeting goals.

Everyone needs to know whether staff members are getting involved, enjoying the activities and getting some profit from them. Showing that a wellness program has financial benefits is often an significant factor in maintaining strong backing from the top.

If you focus on the key elements of your wellness program and communicate openly and continuously while planning 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? Often times, it doesn’t.

One possible solution to this challenge is to make physical exercise a part of the work day. Clearly, being active at work is beneficial for staff members. But employers also benefit from having fit, energetic and healthy staff members who are more beneficial.

The challenges

Your job takes up a lot of your time. In addition to the hours you invest 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 tough.

Many jobs today are sedentary, and many 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 exercise program

Upper Management plays a key role in creating a culture that promotes health. The leaders at your workplace influence 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 guarantee the success of a corporation exercise program is to have the management on side and cheering you on.

Ask your higher-ups 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 catch physical activity class, making up the time by arriving at work early or staying late.
• Make available a meeting room or other suitable office space for noon-hour yoga or exercise classes, and hire a teacher to lead them, or use videos.

If your boss agrees to support a workplace exercise program, don’t forget to show appreciation.

You do not need an on-Site gym

Only very large corporations 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 employees who wish to become more active.

For example:

• Arrange for discounted fees for workers at a gym, 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-lit.
• Have walking gatherings and set up lunch-hour walking groups
• Make staff members knowledgeable about safe and pleasant walking routes near the workplace, as well as nearby locations that offer exercise program (such as walking, swimming, running, yoga, stretching).
• Hire a certified instructor to teach employee about health, fitness and how to become more active.

Any size and type of workplace has the potential to promote workers who wish to be physically active. It’s highly desirable to get management on side. Even if your boss isn’t supportive, you can still discover ways to get moving more. Set up activities for groups and individuals, and advocate your co-workers to join in.