Active Campbell River is supporting a local Active Workplace Initiative for businesses in the area. The workplace is where most adults spend over half their waking hours, and we feel it’s important to engage people at work and to provide a supportive active work environment rather than adding to already busy schedules.
Benefits for Employees:
Businesses that participate in Active Workplace Initiatives are realizing the extent of the benefits for both the employees personal lives and for work productivity. These are some of the responses of employees participating in Workplace Wellness programs:
- • Exercise helps achieve higher mental concentration and greater alertness
- • Better rapport with co-workers;
- • Enjoy work more than non-participants;
- • Physical activity has also been noted to improve personal productivity,
- boost morale, improve stamina, induces sounder sleep, improve reaction
- time and improve memory
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Benefits for Employers
Wellness is the personal experience of physical and mental health. According to Health Canada, workplace health promotion programs are meant to “encourage and increase the health of employees as well as improve the ‘health’ of the organization as a whole“. Here are a list of reasons why it is worthwhile to practice healthy workplace principals as Workplace Wellness programs lead to:
- • Increased employee productivity
- • Increased morale and team building
- • Improved employee recruitment
- • Lower health care costs
- • Enhanced community image and personal relations.
- • Increased profits from less sick days and injury claims
- • Decreases in injuries, absenteeism, stress, internal conflict, employee
- turnover and long term disability frequency and costs
The Active Campbell River Active Workplace Program will work with local businesses to explore 4 strategies for developing programs and they are:
- 1) Awareness and education
- 2) Skill Development
- 3) Supportive environments
- 4) Policies
Here are some excellent resources for more information about workplace wellness:
Active Living At Work:
ActNow BC: Healthy Workplace
· Health Canada Workplace Health
Canadian Centre For Occupational Health and Safety
Canada’s Healthy Workplace Month
Stress in the Workplace
If you are interested in creating a program at your workplace, it is best to start by generating interest from management and a small group of staff numbers. From there, please contact Kris Johnson at kris.johnson@campbellriver.ca or 250.898.7192 for support in an assessment and the building and implementation of a plan.