By signing up to Be Strong in the workplace, you are taking steps to improve the health and wellbeing of your staff and employees, but also to further the success and growth of your business. Happy, healthy staff means less sick days, lower staff turnover and higher productivity.
Embedding Be Strong in the Workplace
To really feel the benefits of Be Strong in the Workplace, we recommend taking steps to embed Be Strong as part of of your organisation. If employees feel that Be Strong is a way of life for everyone in the organisation, they are more likely to engage and experience the benefits themselves.
We have a number of specific workplace programmes that can be set up and developed and you can access these here.(LINK)
There are also a number of other activities that the organisation can adopt, to share the Be Strong ethos and messages across every single employee.
- Healthy options in your food provision – whether that is in the staff canteen or for events held in the workplace – many caterers will provide a healthy option now, with lots of lovely fresh salads, fruits, vegetables and lean meats – in our opinion that’s much better and tastier than a beige buffet any day of the week! For onsite catering provision, they could follow government guidance on healthy catering.
- Free healthy lunch for all staff – depending on the size of your organisation and the size of your budget, could the organisation put on a free healthy lunch for all staff from time to time? Free food always draws people in and staff will feel valued by the organisation if they get a free lunch once in a while.
Meetings on the move! Meetings don’t always have to be stuff and hot air – get out into the fresh air for your meetings – grab a take away coffee and sit on a bench in the park, or even better – get moving and have walking meetings. Obviously the agenda of the meetings will dictate on when this is suitable, but for introductory, catch up or update meetings between 2 or 3 people, get that agenda on the move! Meetings on the move are great for keeping energy and focus up. They can de-stress you and increase productivity. Some great thinkers used walking meetings – Aristotle and Steve Jobs, to name just two – and they were definitely doing something right!- Staff communications – Be Strong produces lots of interesting articles, all around healthy lifestyle choices – these can all be accessed by those members of staff who take up memberships, but why not include some of our content in staff newsletters or on your intranet sites, to get the healthy lifestyle messages out further. Our recipes could be shared too – you could have a recipe of the week.
- Buildings and Premises – Do you have space on your land or premises to create an allotment? Do you have some green fingered staff? Staff could grown their own fruit and veg on your premises and give it away or sell for a small fee, to other members of staff.
Environment – Is the area where you are based looking a bit tired and scruffy? A team of volunteers could carry out a community clean up in the surrounding areas. Cleaning the community whilst wearing the company logo will create great awareness of what a socially responsible company you are, and how good the staff are for giving up their time for the good of the community. Do you have some gardens around your premises that could be made more aesthetically pleasing? Get those greenfingered staff involved in making the place look beautiful. Physical work such as cleaning and gardening can be really rewarding, particularly if you can see the fruits of your labour. Not only are you burning some energy off, but you are doing some good too. The benefits will pass on to others who use the areas also, making local’s feel like their area matters, and they are cared for. A nice, tidy location also makes it a more pleasurable experience to come to work.- Charitable causes – Do you have a company charity? Fundraising activities are always good fun, and are a great way to build camaraderie and team spirit. If you have a company charity, get the staff involved in fundraising. If you don’t have a company charity, involve the staff in selecting one. It could be your charity forever or for a determined period of time.
This list is most definitely not exhaustive, and we would welcome your comments on how you have embedded Be Strong into your organisation. Use the activity feed in our ‘community‘ section to share your thoughts and ideas.