Workplace biometric testings can take a selection of forms. Common screening components might include –

• Blood pressure and heart rate.

• Cholesterol (typically a finger-stick total cholesterol test, either fasting or non-fasting).

• Blood glucose (diabetes screening).

• Height and weight.

• Percent body fat and/or Body Mass Index (Body Mass Index).

• Fitness level.

• Bone density.

• Posture assessment.

Considerations when offering worksite screenings –

• Biometric testings should be conducted by certified, and at times, certified person.

• Biometric screenings should be conducted in a location that allows for privacy and confidentiality.

• Time for discussion and explanation screening results should be allowed as part of the screening process.

• A process should be in place for referral for participants whose results are indicative of a need for further medical examination.

• Screenings could be very costly to the overall wellness budget OR there could  be no cost to the wellness program if participants are willing to cover the cost of the assessment themselves.

For example, cholesterol and glucose testing usually costs twenty to twenty-five dollars per person, per exam. Workers may  be willing to pay for screening in exchange for the convenience of having the screening at work.

• It usually works best to have scheduled appointments at intervals sufficient to allow time for the assessment and a brief discussion of results. Thus, a registration and scheduling process should be devised.

• Some kinds of screening, such as fitness testing, require participants to bring casual clothes in which to do the testing. Staff Members ought to be notified of the need to dress in a specific manner for the screening.

• To ensure high attendance at screening events, it’s advisable to coordinate promotion of the event with reminders to workforce.

• Supply workforce with “screening preparation” guidelines to remind them how to prepare for the most accurate screening results.

Resources for worksite screenings –

1. Consult with a wellness advisor or health screening business.

2. When worker participation is low for on-site Healthy Benefits screenings, or if offering additional workplace screening is an option, check with the community health or outreach department of your local hospital, health education department, occupational health department or workplace health department as to screenings they could offer.

3. Local fitness centers might also have qualified staff for some kinds of screenings, like fitness testing or body fat assessment.

Make safety a key concern when planning physical activity in your worksite.  An accident or injury won’t “sell” the wellness program and might end up costing the corporation. This section will help you take the necessary steps to avoid an accident or injury.

Points to Consider

Using Certified Specialists

Hire expertly certified instructors to lead fitness courses (whether on or offsite) or to run worksite lunch and learn sessions. It’s also a good idea to ask the instructor for references.

When you hire instructors, be certain that your insurance protects both the instructor and your corporation.

Risk Management

Regardless of whether we like it or not, liability is an issue these days.

Risk management plans don’t have to be complicated or expensive. for example, part of the plan might require that staff complete fitness appraisals and sign statements accepting the possible risks involved in exercise.

It pays to be prepared. Safety and emergency policies and procedures reduce the risk of loss both to person and to your organization.

Ask employees to sign a waiver when participating in both on-site and offsite activities. for liability reasons, employees must understand the risks involved in participating in the activity and understand that they are waiving their right to sue.

The employee should not be asked to sign the waiver just before the activity.  The waiver could  be invalid when workers claim that they did not fully understand the risks.

Other Safety Tips

Here is a list of some other safety tips to rememberwhen planning physical activity.

Look at the environment where personnel are active –

• Sidewalks ought to be clear of ice and snow, away from falling debris or snow, and have obviously marked curbs and safe crosswalks.

• Stairwells ought to be well-lit and in good condition and have handrails and safety features, so that staff are not locked out of floors.

• Fitness facilities should’ve proper flooring, good ventilation, and access to water and an emergency telephone.

Give health testing for staff members participating in activities –

• PAR-Q

• PAR-MEDX for Pregnancy

Following are some other important safety factors –

• First-aid kit and automated external defibrillator on site.

• Emergency Action Plan (EAP) in place and practised.

• Commercial grade fitness equipment (not donated, “hand me down” equipment).

• Documented equipment inspection and maintenance schedule.

• Orientation of equipment and health promotion programs done by certified specialist with a exercise background.

To make a difference in the lives of your fellow employees, you first need to understand that getting active is not simply a matter of choice. Some things are within our individual control, but others are shaped by the individuals  and circumstances in which we live and work.

It is Easier to be Active When…

• We know what to do and have the confidence, skills and opportunity to do it.

• It’s fun. “Working out” at the fitness club does not appeal to everybody. Activities need to reflect what people  enjoy.

• Our friends, family or colleagues are active with us (or at least support us).

• We feel safe, thanks to well-lit streets or stairwells.

• Sidewalks, walking/bicycling trails, parks and gyms are nearby.

• We have money to pay for equipment, instruction or memberships.

• We can walk, bicycle or take public transit to work.

• Active options like taking the stairs, having stretch breaks at meetings and going outside during lunchtime are “normal” in the workplace.

• Managers support and recognize employee efforts. Better yet, they participate.

• We can juggle our work hours to fit in physical activity.

Think about how you might develop some of these conditions in your workplace. By taking these steps, you’ll make it more likely that staff members both want and are able to be active during the workday.

Workplace exercise programs that focus only on individuals have limited success. Research studies show that reaching individuals  in various ways gives the best chance of long-term success.

A strategy directed at multiple levels is also called an “ecological approach.”

The type of examination you pick depends on when you do it and the type of information you collect.

This section describes when to use three kinds –  formative, process and summative examinations.

During the Planning Stage

Use formative examinations in the planning stages to ensure that your wellness program is based on solid information. These examinations also help you to create effective and appropriate materials and procedures.

Examples of formative examinations include –

• records of senior level management commitments to the health promotion program

• staff member interest surveys

• worksite environmental assessments

• pre-testing of wellness program materials

During Your Program

A process evaluation is used when the program is underway. These investigations help you –

• Track what’s going well and what isn’t (and how to revise your wellness program)

• find out if you’re reaching the staff you want to reach

• describe the program to others

• monitor who’s participating in the program

During or After Your Initiative

Summative evaluations happen when the initiative is already in place or completed. Use this type of analysis to measure what workforce like about the initiative and what can be improved.

All three types of investigations are useful.  The evaluation you choose depends on the time and financial resources you’ve available.

What Do You Want to Achieve?

Think about why you are evaluating  and what your investigation is going to measure.

When you are trying to figure out whether an initiative has been successful, see when you followed your mission statement and met your goals and goals.

If you do not have a mission statement or goals or goals, decide with senior management and your staff member committee how your corporation will measure success.

For example, you are able to measure success by changes in –

• Physical measures (e.g., strength, flexibility, waist circumference of employees).

• Psychological measures (e.g., worker morale, satisfaction levels, stress levels).

• Productivity measures (e.g., decrease in absenteeism rates, increased staff member productivity).

Thinking About Employees

If you’re considering making improvements to the initiative, think about whether the initiative is still relevant and appropriate for staff. Find out when there are any barriers to participation in the wellness program or to participation in physical activity during the workday.

As workforce are the ones participating in the health promotion program, it is vital that you give them a chance to provide feedback on the physical activity initiative.

Picking an Examination Method

Decide on your examination method. Both measurable results (e.g., absenteeism rates or questionnaire responses) and descriptive results (e.g., one-on-one interviews or focus groups) can be used to evaluate.

The method you choose will depend on the time and funding available and what you want to measure.

Deciding Precisely how to Do the Evaluation

Plan when and where you’ll do your investigation (and who’ll be assessed). for additional information, read the “Types of Examinations” section on this website.

You could want to pilot test your investigation (e.g., with members of the worker committee) before sending it out to workers.  The worker committee might also want to evaluate the program’s planning process.

Doing the Investigation

• Compare your results to baseline information (i.e., examination results from before the launch of your program). If you don’t have this information, save your examination results to compare with later results.

You can also look at other information you could have, like staff member satisfaction survey results.

• Analyse and share meaningful and easy-to-understand results with senior level management and employees.

• Evaluation results can be used to improve the current exercise program and/or to create new health promotion programs in future.

Before launching your Worksite Physical Activity Program, summarize the information you’ve gathered and plan your next steps.

At this point, you have

• gained support from senior management for the Worksite Physical Activity Program

• formed an worker committee

• assessed what is possible in your worksite

• found out what staff members want and need in a Worksite Physical Activity Program.

Based on this information, you’re now ready to create your action plan to increase exercise at your worksite.

With the staff member committee, take the following steps.

• Combine the results of the worker survey with the worksite environmental assessment, and report to upper-level management and employees.

• Prioritize the possibilities at each of the “levels” (individual, social, organizational, community, policy) in the workplace listed in “Keys to Success”. for example, suppose a large group of employees show an interest in biking to work.

Since these people  may want to shower and change after their commute each day, you might give showers and changing facilities priority in your workplace. Bike racks could also be important for making employees’ bikes secure during the workday.

• Consult the list of practical suggestions found this website.

• Develop a mission statement (one which aligns with your company’s overall mission statement) to define your purpose and help guide your process. Establishing objectives and objectives will help you reachyour mission statement.

• Put together a plan or blueprint addressing what you have learned. Make health promotion program and activity recommendations with timelines, identify resources and assign responsibilities. Revisit the list of tasks outlined in “Step 2 –  Forming an Worker Committee.” Seek executive management approval to move ahead.

• Once your initiative is in place, it is important to promote it to workforce. Organizing a launch is a good way to do this. A formal launch also demonstrates executive management commitment. If workforce don’t know about the initiative, they cannot take advantage of it!

• Decide what you need to track to show that you’ve reached your goals. Measure these factors before you begin. This way, when you evaluate later, you will know when there has been a change.

To succeed in encouraging exercise during the workday, you have to find out what personnel need and want. They are 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 staff questions that allow you to assess such key characteristics as age, gender, social relationships, family responsibilities and current physical activity participation.

It is crucial that you know this information so that your exercise initiative meets employees’ needs. Workers are not going to participate 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 might not want to do activities that make them sweat, because they do not want to shower at work.

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

For  instance, suppose a large 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 bicycle storage could  be important as well.

When you are 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 workers is key to increasing physical activity participation rates. Individuals  are more willing to participate in and support physical activity programs when they are involved in decision making.

The following tips will help you produce your own staff member interest survey –

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

• Let workers know why you’re doing the survey.

• Rather than using all open-ended questions, which could be long and challenging to analyze, ask people  to pick from a drop-down list of possible responses.

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

• Make it confidential and anonymous. Do not request information that may identify a individuals.

• When you’re including a list of potential wellness programs or environmental changes, make certain your worksite has the facilities and resources to offer them.

Worksite Exercise Programs –  Forming an Worker Committee

Although support from the top is crucial to a successful program, support from other personnel is also important.

When you get the go-ahead from management, identify others who are interested in the project and form a committee to help determine the next steps.

Depending on the size of your workplace and the amount of staff time management is willing to contribute, this committee could  be advisory or may plan and carry out the health promotion program.

The committee could include workers from HR, occupational safety and health and finance. It’s also a good idea to involve staff from other areas who’ve an interest in promoting physical activity.

Terms of reference will define the boundaries of the project. for  instance, it’s important for the committee to have clearly defined and understood tasks. Possible tasks include the following –

• Analyzing your workplace environment

• Carrying out an employee interest survey.

• Developing a mission statement and goals and goals.

• Writing a exercise or wellness policy declaring the organization’s commitment to exercise.

• Brainstorming wellness program ideas.

• Promoting, communicating and advertising the program.

• Coordinating specific activities.

• Deciding how the health promotion program are going to be assessed.

• Continually reviewing what’s or isn’t working and adjusting the plan.

Before making plans to encourage physical activity during the workday, it’s crucial that you figure out what is “doable” in your workplace.

You don’t want to elevate employee expectations by offering something that is impossible due to funding or space limits.

For example, it’s not realistic to suggest putting in a exercise facility if there’s no room for it. be open, however, to creative ways around limitations.

Worksite Exercise Programs – Locating out What’s Possible in Your Worksite

Check with recreation departments or fitness facilities for maps of the local walking trails or underground pedways. Excellent walking trails may  be right around the block from your worksite.

Listed here are some questions to help you assess your worksite –

• What facilities or opportunities does your work space offer that make it easier to be physically active during the workday? for example, do you’ve stairs, bicycle racks, showers, space for a fitness facility, factory walking lanes?

• What nearby facilities or opportunities could personnel use to be more physically active during the workday? Are you close to sidewalks, walking trails, community centers, bicycle lanes for active commuting and/or exercise facilities?

• What resources are available?

• can the program access funds, personnel, space, equipment, facilities?

• What’s the structure of your business? for  instance, consider staff size, working hours, number of sites, unusual shifts, length of lunch breaks and ability to use flex time.

Gaining upper-level management support is vital to the success of a exercise initiative.

Regardless of whether the changes you would like to make involve the work environment, overall policies or specific programs, successfully beginning your ideas depends on senior management support.

Support from executive management is critical for three reasons –

• You will need their agreement to involve personnel in a worksite initiative.

• When executive management pays attention to and supports an initiative, staff members also see the initiative as worthwhile.

• Management has the power to give work time and money to support the health promotion program.

It’s important to keep senior level management involved throughout a exercise program, but at three points you will need support for –

• An overall concept, including a go-ahead to assess what workers want to do within the limitations of your worksite environment.

• A detailed plan (based on the assessment above) coupled with resources to carry out the plan.

• Evaluating the initiative to improve it along the way or to advocate for continuing or expanding the initiative.

Approaching Management

Before approaching executive management to gain initial support for promoting exercise during the workday, do your homework.

• Put together a business case clearly outlining how the business will benefit by promoting exercise during the workday.

• List the individual, social and corporate advantages of physical activity and the advantages of being active during the workday.

• Give some general ideas about what the health promotion program might include.

Expect questions such as the following from upper-level management –

• Just how this help our corporation?

• Precisely how can we motivate staff to participate?

• Precisely how much will it cost to run this wellness program or make this change?

• Exactly how are we going to know a year from now when this was a good use of time and resources?

Ask managers about the range of activities they’d support. Oftentimes managers have ideas of their own they’d like to see acted on to enhance the worksite.

Don’t forget to include middle managers when gaining support for your wellness program. They can be very helpful when you need volunteers to lead teams in corporate exercise challenges.

In today’s business environment, the health of staff is usually related to the health of the business. Improved job satisfaction, improved morale, reduced disease and injuries, and increased productivity are just some of the advantages of having healthy staff.

Marketing health in your worksite does not have to be complicated, costly or time-consuming. Any business, large or small, can promote healthful eating and active living in the worksite. Here are some suggestions –

Healthy Eating

• For breakfast meetings, instead of serving donuts, big muffins, cookies, tea and coffee with cream and sugar, offer healthier alternatives such as bagels, small muffins, fresh fruit, water, 100% fruit juice and milk with coffee and tea.

• For lunch meetings, avoid serving chips, fried foods, rich pastas, and salads loaded with dressing. Instead, offer sandwiches, bagels, whole grain low fat crackers and cheese, 100 % fruit juice, water, salads with dressing on the side, vegetable and fruit trays.

• Reimburse employees for items purchased to improve their health (e.g. healthful consuming cookbooks, consultation with a Registered Dietitian).

• Arrange for the cafeteria or food providers to offer healthful food choices.

• Arrange to have healthful choices like bottled water, 100% fruit juice, fruit bars, and raisins available in vending machines.

• Provide a means for individuals  to share healthful recipes with each other (for example, posting recipes on the Intranet, on posters or by e-mail).

Active Living

• Plan events and group activities to encourage staff to become active, such as walking programs, contests and challenge events, stretch breaks, team sports or participation in local or provincial events.

• Provide on-site health experts (e.g. fitness trainers, fitness instructors) or incorporate this service in staff member assistance programs to help workforce work towards physical activity goals.

• Provide a supportive environment in the worksite that makes healthful options easy – bicycle racks, shower facilities, clean, safe and accessible stairwells, walking or running routes nearby the worksite, and fitness center facilities.

• Allow for flex time so that staff members have more opportunities to take part in exercise programs as part of their working day.

• Reimburse personnel for full or partial club membership fees, fitness class registrations, and fitness equipment buys.

• Give corporate fitness center memberships to reduce costs of individual memberships.

Keeping It Fresh!

Find a champion to –

• Organize lunch “n learn sessions to provide information and motivation for healthy consuming and active living.

• Invite demonstrators to provide cooking lessons or tips for making healthful foods.

• Post a rotating list in a common room of local restaurants that offer healthy food options on their menus.

• Distribute information to educate personnel on portion sizes.

• Include physical activity and nutrition information in newsletters, pay check inserts, bulletin boards or e-mails.

• Plan activities that promote healthy consuming and physical activity. for  instance, start a year-round lunch-time walking club, and special activities