Spring is a time of budding trees, blooming flowers, and brighter days. Why not spring into better health by renewing your office efforts to focus on employee health and fitness?
Here are some simple ideas to promote health and fitness in your workplace:
Start a walking club – have your employees commit to logging a preset number of miles within a certain period of time and provide prizes for those who meet their goals.
Promote healthy eating – ask to have your vending machines stocked with healthy food options, or place complimentary baskets of fruit around the office. At MPAY, we provide healthy snack options for our employee potlucks or celebrations in addition to the normal goodies. For example, at one of our offices we sponsored a “Make Your Own Sundae” celebration where we provided low fat yogurt, granola, and fresh fruit for those employees who wanted healthy options.
Schedule fitness breaks into the workday – schedule regular fitness breaks that allow employees to walk a lap around the building or perform stretches at their desk.
Support a company team in a local 5K – support employee fitness by paying their enrollment fees to participate or provide t-shirts for the team with your company logo to make the most of the marketing opportunity for your company. For example, each MPAY office is participating in a local 5K in May to support a community fundraiser as well as provide an option to our employees to get moving! We will provide team shirts for all participants (employees and family) and we will take pictures of each team and post it to our company website to share information on our community involvement.
Educate your employees on easy ways to promote fitness. Did you know that you can successfully train for a 5k in just 9 weeks? The Couch to 5k program (C25k) is designed to condition your body to run, introducing running to your body gradually giving you time to adapt.
This program requires 3 days of training per week and allows you to pick any 3 days to train, just not 3 consecutive days. You will start and end your workout with a walk to warm up and cool down. The program is designed to have you trained to run your 5k in nine weeks but you can repeat weeks of training as needed to help you prepare better. The basics of the program are outlined below.
Key items to remind your employees about goal setting for fitness are:
- Set your goal – assign a date for completion of your goal
- Don’t give up – repeat activities or training weeks if necessary but keep on moving!
- Enlist support – train with friends or make plans to participate in an event with a group of co-workers or friends for support and fun
- Complete your goal – See it through to the end. You will be so happy that you did!
- Reward yourself for a job well done – you worked hard, now give yourself a pat on the back and a special treat!
Be consistent and have fun with it! Make your health and fitness opportunities fun for your employees to get involved in and make your efforts for them to participate consistent. The more normal it becomes the more they will be willing to participate. Follow us for more tips on investing in your employees, including their health, and ways to promote a healthy work/life balance.
Cheryl Tyler, PHR
Cheryl Tyler joined MPAY in August 2007 and has over fifteen years of experience in the human resources, benefits administration and payroll processing field. Prior to joining MPAY, Mrs. Tyler worked for CBIZ, a national payroll provider for nine years. Mrs. Tyler is an alumnus of Virginia Western Community College and Liberty University and holds a Professional in Human Resources certification. She is an active member of the national and local chapters of the Society of Human Resources.