Executive Summary

Key elements to introducing a successful active living at work program

There are a number of key elements that should be combined in order to introduce a successful active living program:

1. Strategic positioning of active living at work
2. Discussion and promotion of the benefits for employees
3. Demonstration of benefits for the organization
4. Use of the six-step model to initiate the idea in an organization
5. Program development and set-up
6. Critical components of program success

1. Strategic positioning of active living at work

The organization needs to create a 'quality culture' and work environment that supports individual employee health and productivity.  The program should be integrated with the organization's Human Resources strategy. It's important to foster partnership and cooperation with employees, their associations and unions. Employees must be engaged in the development of the programs - without employee involvement and participation no program will work.

2. Discussion and promotion of the benefits for employees

Programs should be introduced and promoted from the perspective of employees. They are unlikely to be interested in the corporate reasons for introducing a program. They need to fully understand and support the benefits to them. These benefits include: a better understanding about how to improve and manage their own health; access to important information that will help to keep them healthy and vibrant; learning self-mastery, self-care, self-management, self-responsibility and personal stress management; focusing on the needs of employees and their families; and contributing to individual employee satisfaction.

3. Demonstration of benefits for the organization

Benefits are not limited to the corporate world. All businesses, no matter what their size, can benefit from workplace wellness initiatives. For many small companies, it may not be feasible to establish facilities on the premises, but they can make arrangements for their employees to participate in community or health club facilities.  They can also use 'flex time' arrangements so that employees have more opportunities to be active.

Making active choices easy choices helps to improve employee health and every employer benefits if their employees are healthy and productive.  

Within every organization, wellness programs that include a physical activity component help to fulfill the need for 'sharing responsibility' between the company and its employees.  Wellness strategies can achieve a bottom-line payback from productivity improvements, less absenteeism, reduced benefit costs, higher retention and improved morale.

As a benefit, physical activity programs can provide a platform for union/management cooperation and support.  They also support the need businesses have for adaptive, resilient, self-motivated and responsible employees.  Physical activity programs support the organization's business case by making a contribution to controlling organizational costs in a concrete, demonstrable way.  Progress can be measured if benchmark research is undertaken before the strategy is put in place.

4. Use of the six-step model to initiate the idea in an organization

• Generate the idea
• Establish the rationale
• Form an employee committee
• Test the feasibility in your organization
• Check for employee interest
• Prepare the proposal

5. Program development and set-up

Choose a senior manager to champion the initiative.  Create a planning team made up of workers, managers, supervisors and disciplines like human resources, health and safety, health promotion, disability management, communications, as well as finance/compensation and benefits.  The team will need some energetic proponents of active living in the workplace and may well benefit from some professional help from a physical activity professional.

6. Critical components of program success

To be successful, the program must meet the needs of employees both in terms of their physical health and overall sense of well-being.  The process has to be well-planned, officially introduced and include a health education component.  Program positioning has to incorporate the idea that employee health and well-being is a shared responsibility of the employee and the employer, with thoughtful and sustained support from the organization and, where appropriate, the union.

The organization needs to be seen to be providing access to active living at work as a tool to help employees maintain and improve their health.  The program has to be flexible and allow employees to choose how best to incorporate active living into their daily lives and individual health management has to be seen to be visibly supported by senior management.  The best programs demonstrate that the organization links wellness to its overall business goals through its internal communications program, which promotes such things as adaptability, resilience, competitiveness, productivity, individual responsibility as valued attributes in the organization.

Effective programs include a strong educational/communications component.  As well, the corporate philosophy needs to incorporate employee health and organizational caring.  Measuring results is critical to long-term organizational support.  Therefore, establishing measurement criteria and benchmark research in the first phase of development are critical to long-term support from senior management.

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Showcasing success through case studies of businesses who 'walk the talk'

To see how employees and employers alike from other Canadian organizations are benefiting active living programs and policies, check out these success stories.

Using this site to prepare your own case study

Check out the Getting Started & Managing Initiatives section for the tools and information you can use to set up active living policies and programs for your organization. The Business Case Studies section provides a template you can use to present your case to management.