With the upcoming holidays come eating and drinking, busier schedules and less time to exercise. November and December are often the time of year when many people put on weight. Come January 1st, they make New Year’s resolutions to right the wrongs they’ve gained over the past few months. But why wait until after the holidays? What about tackling your wellness goals before it’s time to set New Year’s resolutions? Rather than waiting until January, think about your company’s wellness program and implement now!
The television show the Biggest Loser has had tremendous success with coaching obese individuals to lose weight. Their theory is simple – add in competition and people will be motivated to win and lose the weight. Your company can be the perfect place to get this competition going and, at the same time, you’ll reap the benefits of healthier employees. Research has shown that healthier employees have increased employee productivity, reduced absenteeism and lower employee benefits and health care costs – all of which can affect your company’s bottom line.
There are a number of different ways you can structure your competition. You can do it based on team weight loss as a percentage of the total team weight, you can measure blood pressure or cholesterol or you can measure total exercise time. Whatever you decide to measure, you’ll want to make sure you aren’t violating any HIPAA privacy rules. Once you have your guidelines in place you can start developing your teams. If you’re a larger company you might be able to set up teams based on departments or office locations. If you are a smaller company, maybe you can engage other companies in your office park or building to join you? Try to make a couple of teams of 5-10 employees. You can increase the camaraderie if you have each team create their own team name and present all the teams names together. With the guidelines and teams in place, you’re ready to get started and help your employees on their way towards healthier living!
