Worksites Moving More Environments
The worksite is the perfect place to encourage physical activity because there are many built-in elements of the worksite that can be used to increase employees’ physical activity during the day. By capitalizing on what a worksite already has (usually stairs and a parking lot), employees can reap the benefits of being more physically active during the day. Use the following resources to change the worksite environment to encourage physical activity among employees.
Move More StairWELL Initiative
The Move More StairWELL Initiative promotes using the stairs as a way of incorporating physical activity into the workday of employees who work in multi-floor buildings. The initiative provides guidelines to encourage stair usage and easy-to-download, ready-to-use materials including posters, certificates and more.
Move More Path to Better Health
Creating a walking map and making it available to employees is an easy way to encourage physical activity at a worksite. Employees might be more willing to walk if they know where they are going and have a safe path. Distance markers will encourage employees to track their distance or steps and become more physically active at work. In large offices, measure and map an inside walking route(s) for both long (30 minute) and short (10 minute) walking breaks during inclement weather.
Park It and Get Moving Challenge
Almost everyone participates in the race to get the parking spot closest to the door, whether at work, shopping centers or other public places. Help employees at your worksite realize the opportunity for getting extra steps during their day by parking away from the entrances. Identify parking spaces further away from the entrance, and mark them by using the posters below. Think about counting the number of steps it takes to walk to the door from each parking spot and label that information on the posters using stick-on labels or permanent markers. Be sure to work with management to get permission and find regulations for posting signs in the parking lots. To make this into a challenge, post sign-up sheets and ask employees to chart the number of days they park in one of the marked spots. Offer a reward for the employee(s) who parks in one of these spots the most times during the challenge time period (set the time period for a month or several months).
