Best Practices & Recommendations in Worksite Health Promotion

Overview: Best Practices

Modest investments have helped some businesses make active choices easy choices for their employees. For example:

• Access to bike racks, showers and change areas;
• Lifestyle health and wellness newsletters that provide information on community resources;
• Company recreational events such as lunchtime walking programs, activity days, support for summer active campaigns/activities, ski days, golf days and team sports;
• Flex time to allow employees to participate in physical activity; and
• Shared or subsidized programs in cooperation with community or private fitness centres.

More specifically, academic and practitioner experts identify the following best practices:

• Program Management
• Behaviour Change
• Recruitment & Participation
• Ongoing Communications
• Effective Environment Interventions

Program Management Best Practices

• Building top management support
• Integrating the active living program with organizational/business goals
• Implementing sound communication processes
• Securing mid-level management support
• Institutionalizing the program within the culture
• Fostering a sense of program ownership with employees
• Developing a multi-level active living program

For more information, please see the Policy & Program Recommendations.

Behaviour Change Best Practices

• Using 'stages of behaviour change' framework
• Creating supportive cultures
• Enhancing employees' self-efficacy
• Providing individual counseling
• Tailoring messages and content to employees' needs
• Offering incentives and rewards
• Ensuring a long-term follow-up process
• Incorporating personal goal setting

For more information, please see the Social Environment Recommendations.

Recruitment & Participation Best Practices

• Including incentive recruitment features
• Creating targeted, customized personal invitations
• Providing personal contact or word of mouth
• Using a group and peer level invitation process
• Ensuring a formal invitation from senior management
• Incorporating reminder phone calls and personal mailings

For more information, please see the Physical Environment Recommendations, as well as the Education & Promotion Recommendations.

Ongoing Communications Best Practices

• Ensuring targeted personal communications
• Including active living announcements during meetings
• Creating a health-related employee newsletter
• Posting printed flyers or announcements
• Broadcasting email messages
• Providing information via payroll inserts, program brochures and the organization's Intranet or employee message board

For more information, please see the Education & Promotion Recommendations.

Effective Environment Interventions

Environmental interventions are defined as strategies that involve changing the physical surroundings and social, economic or organizational systems in order to promote individual behaviour change.

A recent review of policy and environment interventions to promote physical activity and nutrition for cardiovascular health concludes that the following strategies are particularly effective:

• Using point-of-decision prompts such as signs to increase stair use over the elevator.
• Providing employees with more access to places and opportunities for engaging in physical activity.
• Including support for counseling to increase physical activity, promote peer social support (e.g., walking groups), provide education, incentives, and access to facilities such as locker rooms, showers and gyms.
• Use POP (point-of-purchase) strategies, including menu and shelf labeling, to increase purchases and consumption of healthier foods in and around the workplace.
• In communities, worksites, and schools, promote policies and environmental supports that increase preparation of and access to healthier foods and beverages in vending machines, restaurants and cafeterias.

For more information, please see the Physical Environment Recommendations and the Social Environment Recommendations.