Wellness Programs and Exercise With Co-workers.
• Organize a launch event to create excitement about upcoming activities and to create a social climate that establishes being active as the norm.
• Organize and promote monthly or bi-monthly company events that are fun and active, e.g., picnics with physical games, staff tournaments and dragon boat racing.
Make sure to encourage families to join in by including all-ages events such as relay races, soccer matches, bocce ball and baseball games.
• Start 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.
Be sure to set up a challenge between workers and managers to see who covers the greatest distance.
• Post a sign-up board where staff can enroll in a group or find a buddy to participate in activities of interest.
• Arrange a business badminton tournament that lasts a few months, with each staff member playing once a week. Post the results as the tournament progresses.
• Organize an office Olympics, World Cup, Wimbledon or Masters Games. Invite teams to compete in several activities over a month. Reward everybody who participates.
• Create a point system in which one minute of activity is equivalent to one point. Make sure to set a target, and post a chart where all workers can track their points. Reward the first group to reach that target.
• Co-ordinate a stair climb challenge. Post a chart at the top of the stairwell, and encourage workers to track the number of flights of stairs they climb each workday.
Make certain to set up teams, and award a prize to the first team to climb the equivalent of Mount Everest.
• Post and promote a sign-up board for lunchtime walking groups.
• Organize a walk “across the United States ” Select a route, figure out how many steps it would take to walk that distance and challenge employees to do it.
Provide or loan pedometers to staff members, and ask them to record the number of steps they take. Or, when you cannot afford pedometers, track the minutes walked. Make certain to set up a challenge between staff members and managers to see who can walk across the U.S. first.
• Co-ordinate 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.
• Coordinate a million-step challenge. Form groups, challenge each group to walk a combined sum of a million steps and reward the winner. Departments or sites could compete with each other and with management.
• Challenge employees to walk 10,000 steps a day. Purchase pedometers for all participating employees or, if you can’t afford that, make pedometers available at a reduced rate.
Provide tips for increasing daily steps, and reward workers who succeed.