Week 1 Activities

Week One - Being a Positive Workplace!

Keep yourself and your colleagues upbeat and you'll all feel great at work! Sometimes it's the little things that make work the best place to be. Here are some ways to brighten the workplace and yourself.

When choosing from Activities, see Related Resources for helpful information.

GROUP ACTIVITIES

HEALTHY MIND:

Pay a Compliment to a Colleague Week – Make / co-workers feel great about being at work by giving them a compliment. They’ll feel good about what you said, and you’ll feel great about making them feel good. Set up a program to recognize those who gave the most compliments.

Count Your Compliments Received Week – Too often we focus on the negative so this week get people to focus on the positive. Hand out forms to tally them each day and then an explanation why focussing on the positive is so important!

Decorate your Workstation Day – Provide materials to use as decorations or hand out a list of suggested decorations for your organization’s workstations, encouraging people to reuse materials from home. Then let the creativity flow.

Decorate a Hallway/Reception/Meeting Room/ Lunch Room Competition – Have departments pick a hallway and give out prizes for the most creative, most colourful, most eye-catching designs.

Start a Book/Video Sharing Club – Designate a cupboard/shelf to house current or popular books or videos for people to share. Provide a sign out sheet, or for security, circulate the list and have someone look after the collection.

Have a Sudoku Challenge – Photocopy a Sudoku Challenge for employees, and give out a prize to the first one to finish.

Start a Meditation Group on Lunch Breaks – Take 15-20 minutes out of your lunch break and try a guided or an individual meditation.

Play a Game with your Coworkers – play a game during your lunch break to exercise your mind. (Example: Boggle, Scrabble, Pictionary etc.)

Offer a Resilience Training Course – Bring in a trainer or speaker for courses or seminars in emotional intelligence or cognitive discipline.
Related Resources:
Mental health works

Offer a Stress Mastery Course – Help people learn about stress and its effects if not kept in check.
Related Resources:
Employee assistance programs (EAP)

Offer a Financial Planning Seminar or Series – Most people want to maximize their money and optimize how they use it. Bring in an expert to and offer a clinic on good money management skills or investment ideas.

Monthly Wellness Newsletter – Get a group of employees together and start gathering articles together regarding the health benefits of positivity. Compile the articles, create and distribute a monthly wellness newsletter with the useful health information.

Pat on the Back Cards – Create cards with compliments for employees such as: “You got caught caring”, “You made a difference”,” Thank you for treating others with fairness, appropriateness, equity and respect”, “Good catch - thank you for addressing safety of staff and community”.

HEALTHY BODY:

"Know Your Numbers" - Have a nurse or a health practitioner come into your workplace and determine different health numbers for each employee (Example: Height, weight, blood pressure, lipid profile etc.)

Pot Luck Lunch Day/Week – Encourage people to bring healthy food options to share. Set the food up in a central area where everyone has the opportunity to eat and mingle together. If you end up with only appetizers … that’s a lot of fun too.
Related Resources:
Healthy eating at work
5-to-10-a-day!

Healthy Food Recipe Swap - Throughout the week, ask employees to submit a recipe focused on a healthy fast weeknight dinner. Then compile a Healthy Recipes Booklet from the recipes received and provide a copy for everyone to have.

Massage Days – Run a program that offers in-chair massages for those interested. It relaxes and de-stresses which we all need at times.

Healthy Vending Machine Choices – Most vending machine companies now offer healthy food choices for snacks, drinks and foods. Contact your vending machine supplier and see what options are available. Survey your staff for likes and dislikes.
Related Resources:
About Eat Smart! for workplaces

Caffeine-Free Week – Designate meetings as caffeine-free for a week. Make people bring water or healthy juices instead of coffee, power drinks and caffeinated beverages.
Related Resources:
Hosting business functions

Improve Sleeping Habits – Offer a program or provide information on the importance of getting enough sleep every night, and what they can do to improve their sleep habits.
Related Resources:
Fatigue

Workplace Walks - Encourage lunchtime walks to help increase the daily counts of those already tracking their steps, or to get people started on distance goals. Walking and talking together is a healthy pleasure on many levels, and can be done all year long. Keep track of your steps as a team using the free Workplace Walks online tool, and see how 'far' you can go!
Related Resources:
workplacewalks.ca

Play a Sport During Your Lunch Break - When the weather is nice, encourage lunchtime sports to help increase physical activity. Try soccer, slowpitch, Frisbee, volleyball, handball, etc. (Anything that will get your heart rate up).

Try a Team Building Sport - Have the employees sign-up for an after work laser tag, dodge ball game, etc, to increase physical activity and enhance team work skills. Debrief after the challenge and talk about your group's performance and whether the event helped you to achieve your goals.

20 Minute Group Clean Up - Provide employees with garbage bags and gloves and take 20 minutes to clean up around your workplace together. Give out a prize to the person that picks up the most garbage.

Ask the Expert - Have a personal trainer come into the office for a few hours. Allow staff to ask any exercise questions they have. Have the personal trainer show the employees various exercises they could do, for different areas of the body (Example: cardio, abdominal work out).

Russ Kisby Walk/Activity - Russ Kisby had a simple message: Be Active. As the founding President of ParticipACTION, he led by example in urging Canadians to get active. Be it with friends, family or co-workers, a combination of all or solo; take a brisk walk or a long hike, a walk around the block or a stroll in the park. Learn more about the Russ Kisby Fitwalk.
Related Resources:
Active living at work
Stairway to health

Have a Spa Day - Have a trained spa technician come into the office to perform spa treatments. Ask employees to sign up to receive a free 20 minute spa treatment (Example: mini facial, manicure).

Slow Pitch Game - Teams can be by choice, by department, by location or you can just run a “work up” game, where fielders work their way up to hitting at the plate by getting people out when they hit or are running the bases. Fielders move to the bases sequentially and eventually to being one of 4 hitters.

Lunch Hour Strolls - some people just need to be told there’s a group going for a stroll! Pick a destination or a route. Count your daily steps with a ParticipACTION pedometer.
Related Resources:
Walking: still our best medicine

Golf Tournament - Use a Texas Scramble format in which each member of a 4-person team can participate. Give out prizes afterwards to all the teams. For non-golfers, try mini-putt games.

Touch/Flag Football Game - For the energetic crowd, a game is always great exercise, good competition and definitely fun.

Doubles Tennis Round Robin Event - Make the teams even with rankings (Google "NTRP Playing Levels") and then let the Company Amateur Open begin at the local community tennis club!

Table Tennis Tournament - Community centres often have a table or two you can use for an afternoon or during a few lunch hours. Check with your local Parks and Recreation department to find where.

Ultimate Frisbee Games - This increasingly popular sport can be fun for everyone. Download the rules from the Internet or find a local expert. It’s a great physical activity.

Curling - Hurry! Hurry Hard! Find your local club and play a few ends. Throwing rocks grown up style is sweeping the nation!

Broomball - This game can sweep you off your feet. It's a team sport that can be done on ice or in a gym. Protective equipment is a must in order to stay safe and on the ball in this game.

Bowling - Hit the lanes en masse or on your own. Strike up a conversation with your clients or colleagues, while pinning the focus on fun.

Billiards Challenge - Sharpen those hand-eye coordination skills and find out who the pool sharks are. Compete in duos, teams or individually, and shoot for an afternoon of fun and socializing.

Healthy Lifestyles Lunch & Learn Seminars - Bring in a speaker on personal resilience or emotional intelligence. Invite a dietician or nutritionist to speak on the glycaemic index. Find an interesting wellness-related topic and the lunch crowd will be eating up the new information.

CPR/First Aid Course - Help out employees who want to learn CPR and first aid, by offering a course onsite at your workplace.
Related Resources:
Developing a first aid plan

Stretch Breaks - Help out employees who want to learn CPR and first aid, by offering a course onsite at your workplace.
Related Resources:
Stretches for the active workplace
Stretches for the office workplace

Steps Count Challenge - Keep track of the steps you take and award prizes for not only the top stepper, but for the most improved, the best attitude, and so forth.

Thank You Notes - Hand Thank you notes to all staff prior to Thanksgiving with inspirational quotes included on each note.

HEALTHY WORK:

Town Hall Meetings – Start this communications strategy this week as part of Healthy Work initiatives.

Flex Hours Week - Let employees try out a schedule this week.
Related Resources:
Extended workday: health and safety issues

Schedule Brief Breaks Throughout the Day – Even a ten-minute break every two hours will increase your productivity and effectiveness.

Hold a Time Management Course – Bring in an expert or have your departments share their own successful strategies at a brainstorming session.

Take Back the Lunch Break – Encourage people to take a proper lunch break away from their desk, and eating a healthy meal. Explain the benefits of taking the time to relax your mind and your body (get away from the desk, have a meal with friends or go for a quick walk to clear your mind.) Often taking a break will make you more creative and productive in the long run.
Related Resources:
Eat well, live well

Try the Feng Shui Way – Bring in a feng shui consultant to assess your workplace’s energy flow. Feng shui has been purported to increase efficiencies, improve work design and make people happier knowing that, along with function, their well-being is being considered for their workplace design.

Offer a Work/Life Balance Support Program – Where can your workplace efforts be the most effective? From childcare to bike racks to flexible work arrangements, there are many ways in which you can offer support to your employees. Ask them what efforts would be the most used and effective.
Related Resources:
Work/life balance

Redo Your Mission - Re-write your organization’s vision mission or values or policies statements to better reflect your emphasis on a healthy workplace. Put your focus into the statements that count.

Have a "Wear your Jersey to Work Day" – Compile a list of the various sports that the staff participates in from the jersey’s they chose to wear. Purchase gift certificates related to those sports and then have a raffle among the employees who participated.

INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITIES

HEALTHY MIND:

Test your knowledge - Try the Great-West Life workplace mental health quiz. Offer a prize for the best scores!

Visit the Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace website and learn how your organization can be better informed about the issues and opportunities there are for mental health in the workplace.
Related Resources:
Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace

Practice Stress Busters at Work – Meditate on your Break: Take a 10-15 minute break during your work day and meditate at your desk.
Related Resources:
Stress in the workplace
Stressed? Cope with life’s “ups and downs” in healthy ways

Practice Stress Busters at Work – Do a Deep Breathing Exercise: Do a Deep Breathing Exercise on your Break: Take a 10-15 minute break during your work day and try a deep breathing exercise at your desk (Example: breathe in for 4 seconds, breathe out for 8 seconds. Repeat.).
Related Resources:
Stress in the workplace
Stressed? Cope with life’s “ups and downs” in healthy ways

5 Minute Desk Clean Up - Take 5 minutes out of your day to clean up all the clutter around your workstation.

List your Work Stressors: and How to Accommodate for Each of Them – By knowing your stressors and what you can do to manage them helps you cope and to be prepared for other challenges. You will already know what to do and that takes away a good bit of the stress!
Related Resources:
Workplace stress: general

Look outside for 1 minute at least once each hour for a day – a change of focus is as good as a break in a lot of cases. Enjoy the change of scenery for just a minute and think of the good things of life!

Take a proper lunch break – Take your time, relax your mind even for a little while, and your afternoon will be more energized!

Work on Self-awareness – Self-awareness is one of the most important qualities that effective leaders and manager can possess. Take a few minutes every day to reflect on your intentions and your actions.

HEALTHY BODY:

Desk Stretches for a Week – do proper workstation stretching each day at appropriate time. Focus on doing them regularly and completely. The difference will be felt by having more energy at the end of the day!
Related Resources:
Stretching: at the workstation

Start a Checklist of Good Work Habits – How much water do you drink? How often do you stretch? How often do you break and change your focus? How often do you practice your stress breakers? How often do you take a proper lunch break? Check your list for a week and be ready for a surprise!
Related Resources:
EATracker.ca

Clean! - The germs are everywhere – sometimes it helps to give your workstation a proper cleaning. Telephones, desks, kitchens, chairs, keyboards and under the desks are obvious locations that are often overlooked. Clean them and then set a time for the next cleaning on your calendar.
Related Resources:
Workplace housekeeping: basic guide

Ergonomic Adjustments – Check that your chair is adjusted properly for you. Are the components of your computer in the right places (height, location, etc.)? Where’s the best place for the telephone? Are there piles of paper or equipment that might cause you to work in an awkward position or make you reach farther than necessary?
Related Resources:
Ergonomic chair
Office ergonomics
Lighting ergonomics: survey and solutions

Use a Different Printer! – Start using a printer further away from your desk to increase your daily physical activity.

Take the Breast Cancer Risk Test – Distribute the link for taking the breast cancer risk test. Men too! 1 out of every 25 cases of breast cancer is in men!
Related Resources:
Breast Cancer Risk Test

HEALTHY WORK:

List your priorities at work – by listing your priorities you can act on them in a more organized manner. Work on the biggest ones first.

Re-organize your workstation, your tool chest, glove compartment, shelf or your desk and its drawers. Staying organized improve efficiency and therefore productive. You’ll feel great about being more productive

Change your Approach - Try starting an activity that you despise doing (Example: photocopying) with a positive attitude instead of a negative one. You might just stop dreading the activity in the future.

Allotted Vacation Time - Taking all of your allotted vacation time allows you to come back to work refreshed and more productive.