Wellness Program Blog

An accident or injury will not “sell” the program and may end up costing the company. This section will assist you in taking the necessary steps to avoid an accident or injury.

Points to Consider

Hiring Certified Professionals

Hire professionally certified instructors to lead fitness classes (whether on or offsite) or to run workplace lunch and learn sessions.  It’s also prudent to ask the instructor for references.

When you hire instructors, make sure that your insurance protects both the instructor and your company.

Risk Management

Whether we like it or not, liability is a problem these days.

Risk management plans need not be complicated or expensive. By way of example, part of the plan may require that workers complete fitness appraisals and sign statements accepting the possible risks involved in physical exercise. It pays to be prepared. Safety and emergency policies and procedures decrease the risk of loss both to individuals and to your company.

Ask workers to sign a waiver when participating in both worksite and offsite activities. For liability reasons, workers must be aware of the risks involved in participating in the exercise and know that they are waiving their right to sue.

The employee ought to not be asked to sign the waiver just before the exercise. The waiver may be invalid if workers state that they didn’t totally know the risks.

Other Safety Tips

Here’s a list of some other safety tips to keep in mind when organizing physical exercise.

Look at the environment where workers are active:

• Sidewalks ought to be clear of ice and snow, away from falling debris or snow, and have clearly marked curbs and safe crosswalks.
• Stairwells ought to be well-lit and in great condition and have handrails and safety features, so that workers are not locked out of floors.
• Fitness facilities ought to have proper flooring, great ventilation, and access to water and an emergency phone.

Provide medical evaluation for workers participating in activities:

• PAR-Q
• PAR-MEDX for Pregnancy

Below are some other valuable 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 programs done by certified professional with a physical exercise background.

Gaining management support is essential to the success of a physical exercise initiative.

Whether the changes you’d like to make involve the work environment, central policies or specific programs, successfully launching your ideas is dependent upon management support.

Support from management is essential for three reasons:

• You need their agreement to involve workers in a workplace initiative.
• When management pays attention to and supports initiative, workers also view the initiative as worthwhile.
• Upper Management has the power to give work time and money to support the initiative.

It’s valuable to keep management involved throughout a physical exercise initiative, but at three points you’ll need support for:

• An central concept, including a go-ahead to assess what workers want to do within the limitations of your workplace environment.
• A detailed plan (based on the assessment above) coupled with resources to carry out the plan.
• Analyzing the initiative to better it along the way or to advocate for continuing or expanding the initiative.

Approaching Upper Management

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

• Prepare a company case clearly outlining how the company will benefit by promoting physical exercise during the workday.
• List the individual, social and corporate advantages of physical exercise and the advantages of being active during the workday.
• Present some basic ideas about what the program could include. See the Success Stories and Ideas sections on this website to highlight what other workplaces have done.

Expect questions such as the following from management:

• How will this help our company?
• How can we innervate workers to take part?
• How much will it cost to run this program or bring about this change?
• How will we know a year from now whether or not this was a meaningful use of time and resources?

Ask managers about the types of activities they would support. Often managers have their own ideas they would like to see acted on to better the workplace.

Remember to include middle managers when gaining support for your initiative. They can be very helpful when you need volunteers to lead teams in corporate physical exercise challenges.