Health Wellness Newsletters

To succeed in encouraging exercise during the workday, you must determine what workforce need and want. They’re the people  whose behaviour you are attempting to influence, so it’s crucial to understand their needs and gain their support.

The Worker Interest Survey

Ask workforce questions that allow you to assess such key characteristics as age, gender, social relationships, family responsibilities and current exercise participation.

It is important to know this information so that your exercise initiative meets employees’ needs. Employees aren’t going to take part in something they are not interested in.

Ask staff members what they want, and then implement changes that fit with their needs and working conditions. for  instance, staff members may not want to do activities that make them sweat, because they do not want to shower at work.

Ask workers what the organization could do to make it easier for them to be more physically active during the workday. If there’s a common trend throughout your organization, a single change could affect a lot of individuals .

For example, suppose a big group shows interest in bicycling to work. They could want to shower and change after their commute. You could give priority to installing workplace showers and changing facilities. Secure bike storage could  be important as well.

When you’re launching a health promotion program that requires going outside, begin in the spring. By the time winter comes around, participation is already a habit.

Involving workforce is key to increasing physical activity participation rates. Individuals  are more willing to take part in and support physical activity programs when they are involved in decision making.

The following tips will help you produce your own worker interest survey -

o  Keep it short (no longer than 10 minutes to complete).

o  Let workforce know why you’re doing the survey.

o  Rather than using all open-ended questions, which could be long and difficult to analyze, ask individuals  to choose from a drop-down list of possible responses.

o  Ask for comments and suggestions in one open-ended question at the end.

o  Make it confidential and anonymous. Don’t request information that may identify a individuals.

o  When you are including a list of potential wellness programs or environmental changes, be certain your workplace has the facilities and resources to offer them.