Even if your corporate culture isn’t quite ready for a workplace physical activity policy, you can get things moving in the right direction with these ideas:
- Conduct a workplace walkability assessment to ensure a safe and pleasant environment for walking.
- Offer secure bicycle storage and showers for employees who actively commute.
- Implement flexible scheduling where feasible —making it easier for employees to carve out time for exercise while juggling work and home responsibilities.
- Make stairwells more appealing with paint, artwork, and motivational signage.
- Negotiate a corporate discount with local gyms; low-cost gym membership benefits are sometimes available through medical benefit vendors.
- Encourage workers to take brief, 2-3 minute fitness breaks throughout the day for brisk walking, stretching, or stair climbing.
- Offer free or reduced-cost pedometers to employees. Run a simple steps-per-week team competition to drum up peer support for increasing daily steps. No money? Invite your health benefit vendors or local businesses to sponsor this purchase in exchange for co-branding.
- Sponsor or promote employee participation in community events like 5K or 10K runs, basketball leagues, or charity walk-a-thons.
- Organize lunchtime walking, running, bicycling, or yoga groups.
- Encourage walking 1:1 meetings.
- Make standing or pacing vs. sitting at long meetings an acceptable option.
- Encourage workers to be active at their workstations as much as possible — by stretching, standing while on the phone or pumping out a few desk pushups while viewing a web conference.