Wellness @ Work ...Make a Difference! Are you and your employees happy, healthy and inspired at work? Does your work environment value and respect individuals for their contributions? Learn how you can help build awareness and promote healthy living in your workplace!

WELLNESS @ WORK! Ideas for Healthy Living on the Job

How can Physical Activity help my Workplace?

Physical activity is associated with:

  • Increased energy
  • Better coping with stress
  • Meeting new people

So, what can you do to make your workplace more physically active?

Well, developing policies that support physical activity can help employees be more engaged in physical activity.

Here are some practical policies examples that can help encourage employees in your workplace to be more active:

  • Include flexible work day hours to enable staff to be active during their workday
  • Provide breaks at work specifically related to physical activity and stretching
  • Use available spaces for activities that promote physical activity
  • Provide support for active commuting such as:

o Promoting and encouraging the use of active transportation

o Providing bicycle parking, shower facilities, and locker rooms

  • Recognizing employee efforts and participation as well as the efforts and success of the organizers of the activities.

For more information about supporting physical activity at work, visit Physical Activity @ Work from the Alberta Centre for Active Living at http://www.centre4activeliving.ca/workplace/en/index.html

Information from/adapted from the following References:

  1. Alberta Centre for Active Living. (unknown). Why Be Active? Benefits of Physical Activity @ Work. Before You Start. Retrieved July 13th, 2011, from http://www.centre4activeliving.ca/workplace/beforestart/benefits-why-be-active.html
  2. Alberta Centre for Active Living. (unknown). Policy Level: What Policies Make it Easier to be Physically Active? Keys to Success. Before You Start. Retrieved July 13th, 2011 from http://www.centre4activeliving.ca/workplace/beforestart/keys-policy.html


Last Reviewed Jan 2012

 


Wellness at Work! Articles

Healthy Eating in Your Workplace Cafeteria

Many workplace cafeterias offer nutritious options.


What is Work-Life Conflict?

You may have heard the term “work-life conflict” and you may be feeling like you can relate to this term in your own life. But what exactly does work-life conflict mean? Where does work-life conflict come from?


Supportive Environments for Healthy Eating at Work

At your workplace are there pastries at meetings, leftover food and treats in the lunch room, or candy dishes on desks?


Reducing Work-Life Conflict: Organizational Interventions

Organizations or businesses focused on their “bottom line”, “streamlining”, or “downsizing”, rather than attracting and retaining employees, have been shown to have negative effects on both employees and the organization they work for (The Vanier Institute of the Family, 2009).


Mindless to Mindful Eating at Home

At home do you see dishes of candies, a cookie jar on the counter, large bags of chips in an easy to reach cupboard? 


Reducing Work-Life Conflict: Individual Coping Strategies

The Canadian Index of Wellbeing (2010) indicates a number of factors that contribute to work-life conflict are on the rise:


Reducing Work-Life Conflict: Family Coping Strategies

Canadians who live in family households represent 84% of Canada’s total supply of labour. Over the past 10 years, there has been an increase in labour participation by all members of the family, particularly among single-parent families and women with young children.


Ideas for Physical Activity Policies at Work

Workplaces can work towards developing policies that support physical activity at work.


Supportive Environments for Physical Activity at Work

There are a variety of ways that workplaces can provide a supportive environment that promotes healthy active living at work. 


Why is Change so Hard?

Understand the elements which make changes in the workplace so difficult.


Conflict in the Workplace...

The workplace is full of people with different wants, needs and expectations.


My Turn, My Time

Download the PDF.


Generational Differences in the Workplace – ‘The Veterans’


Eating, Sleeping & Shift Work

So when should YOU eat if you work shifts?


Shift Work & Eating Well

Did you know that studies have found that people who work shifts experience more digestion problems, and have poorer nutrition habits than non-shift workers?


    How can Physical Activity help my Workplace?


    Fit Physical Activity into Your Work Day!


    Physical Activity at Work?


    Drink Less Alcohol – It’s the Only New Year’s Resolution You Need!