As described in the previous post, we talked about how we were awarded a grant from UBC to carry out several initiatives in the workplace to encourage healthy behaviours.
We are doing three things with the grant funds: a pedometer challenge, a group cooking lesson, and yoga classes.
In order to make decisions about the program, we’ve formed a six-member working group, and, to take advantage of the summer months, the first inititative we’re rolling out will be the pedometer challenge. We had some discussions about the best way to encourage participation in the program, and to provide motivation without explicit competition because we, like any office, have people with all levels of fitness ability involved.
We decided instead of providing only prizes to the top “steppers” (those who track the most steps throughout the program), the main thrust of the program will be a collective goal that we have to work together to achieve. We’re doing an initial baseline period to establish a reasonable threshhold, but initially we’re looking at the average amount of steps provided by StatsCan.
If we reach that goal as an office, everyone will be rewarded with a gift card to a select location (Mountain Equipment Co-op, Running Room, Whole Foods, etc.). The top five “steppers” will get a small increase in the amount of their gift card as a little extra incentive.
If you’re curious about how we’re rolling out the program, I’ve created some documentation about it on the UBC Wiki. I hope some other workplaces at UBC are doing some initiatives for health in the workplace this summer as well! We’d love to hear about them if you are.