How to Promote Exercise in the Workplace

by Spectrum Wellness

Wellness at work is an important concept; one that ensures your workforce is happy and satisfied with your company, but also one that encourages the adoption of a healthier lifestyle overall.

We’ve spoken about why exercise is an excellent way to increase productivity and to build a positive team-oriented attitude on our articles before. It’s easy to talk about why it’s good to promote exercise at work, but many people ask us how they can encourage it.

It’s up to each company to promote a culture of fitness, and different things can work for different types of companies, however, we believe there are five core ways to promote exercise in the workplace.

1 Go Digital

Make fitness fun by introducing the usage of virtual fitness games. In doing this, you can create fitness challenges that are easy for your colleagues to take part in. This is a cost effective and fun way to get your team moving, boost moods and create a team-building atmosphere. It also means that employees don’t feel obliged to take part in fitness activities that don’t suit them; not everyone likes a bootcamp class or hillwalking! They can simply do the exercise that they enjoy and watch their stats increase. Look at our Virtual Games App, which syncs with Apple HealthKit and Google Fit. It’s a fun, inclusive way of getting your employees involved in fitness in a way that appeals to them

2 Open Their Eyes

A lot of people aren’t aware of their health and fitness levels and therefore don’t see the need for exercise or a change in nutritional intake. Run a companywide report on health and wellness to open their eyes and to encourage them to get moving. Spectrum Wellness’ HealthScore provides both individual and organisation-wide reports on health and wellness, checking everything from Blood Pressure to sleep. Completely confidential, it sets a benchmark for your company’s health and wellbeing. This can give you good grounds on which to build a wellness programme. Most importantly, however, it empowers employees to take control of their own physical and mental health, making them aware of areas they may want to focus on improving and encouraging them to get involved in any fitness activities you might have organised.

3 Create Fun Incentives

We all love an incentive! Appeal to your employees’ want for a sense of achievement by rewarding exceptional effort when it comes to fitness and health. How about an extra day off for the most days of exercise at the end of the year? Or maybe a free lunch for most steps taken? Make the information available for all to see and it will encourage fun and healthy competition among employees.

4 Adoption from management down

A “do as I say, not as I do” attitude does not go down well with employees in any respect. If they see management getting involved in fitness activities and the HR department embracing the healthy lifestyle culture, it’s more likely to spread company wide.

5 Market your programmes and incentives

There are too many companies with fitness programmes and incentives that don’t market them visibly to employees. Availability is fantastic, but visibility is the most important thing; how can they get involved if they don’t know what’s happening? It’s down to Human Resources or Employee Relations to promote and encourage exercise in the workplace. Posters in common areas and regular email reminders of upcoming activities and incentives is a positive way to inform employees of programmes and events taking place.