Together for health: Exercise in the workplace
During a busy workday, it can be difficult to find the time and motivation to be active. But a healthy lifestyle isn't just reserved for leisure time - it can also be integrated into the workplace. Being active with colleagues can improve health in the workplace while bringing colleagues closer together. It's good for teamwork and overall wellbeing in the workplace. Below, we take a closer look at a few suggestions on how you can incorporate some collegial exercise into your workplace.
1. Integrate exercise into working hours
Of course, an effective way to stay active in the workplace is to try to make exercise a regular part of the daily or weekly routine. This can be done by introducing walking meetings, combining meetings with a walk in the fresh air. This way you can discuss work tasks and make decisions while getting exercise, fresh air and hopefully a bit of sunshine, the importance of which we've covered here before. Additionally, you can make arrangements in the office to use sit-stand desks so that there are set routines around workstations. It's also always a good idea to take the stairs or otherwise extend the distance you move. Do it together, it's more fun.
2. Social exercise activities
Being active with colleagues can make exercise more fun and motivating, but it can be harder to say no to colleagues than to yourself when motivation is low. That's why organizing social exercise activities in the workplace can help build a sense of community and increase motivation to be active. This can include all forms of exercise and corporate fitness. There are many possibilities, but one example could be active breaks with rubber bands. Whatever you want, we at health group can help you along the way to make sure you have the best exercise environment for you. This way, all you have to think about is moving together in the workplace.
3. Motivating challenges
To motivate employees to be more active, you can organize motivational challenges in the workplace. One option is to organize activities such as tournaments, stretching, yoga, running or cycling days where you encourage each other to participate in joint exercise activities. A little peer competition is always a great motivator, but it's important to embrace everyone and some may get lost in the shuffle. Here it can be important to create challenges that can motivate as many people as possible, such as daily steps at work or time spent standing up at your desk. These challenges can be fun and motivating, while also contributing to a healthier lifestyle in the workplace.
4. Create a supportive culture
To encourage physical activity in the workplace, it's important to create a supportive culture where exercise is prioritized and valued. This starts with management, who should formulate a clear workplace exercise policy and actively support it. In addition, it's important to have collegial support, where people support and encourage each other to be active. Finally, you can create a positive work culture where exercise is seen as a natural part of the working day and where people encourage each other to be healthy and active.
5. Keep an eye on the effects
Before launching a bunch of different initiatives to promote health in the workplace, it can be very interesting to have some kind of baseline measurement. This could be by collecting data on employee activity before and after the initiatives. It could also be a more in-depth collection of measurements of wellbeing and health in the workplace, such as a health check. In this way, you can directly monitor the effects of the initiatives on health and well-being in the workplace.
