October is Canada's Healthy Workplace Month

Healthy Workplace Month

While October is a very busy month for a variety of health promotion topics, one definitely worth talking about is Canada's Healthy Workplace Month®! What began in 2001 as Canada’s Healthy Workplace Week has now grown to a dedicated month with a year round website, promoting the importance of workplace health in organizations and the well-being of employees in workplace settings.

Support health in a positive way

The website serves as a resource where organizations of all sizes can inspire and share their accomplishments with others, as well as access a variety of tools that can support the promotion of healthy workplace practices. With the majority of the population (60%) spending their waking hours at a workplace setting, we should make it a top priority to ensure that most of those hours support health in a positive way!

The main goals of Canada's Healthy Workplace Month® (CHWM) are to:

• Increase awareness of the need for a comprehensive approach to workplace health in Canada that is influenced by the four elements of a healthy workplace:
  • Healthy Lifestyles
  • Workplace Culture and Mental Health
  • Physical Environment
  • Corporate Social Responsibility
• Provide healthy workplace tools, resources and best practice examples, through Healthy Workplace Month, to help organizations create healthy workplaces with benefits for employees and themselves
• Increase the number of healthy workplaces in Canada

A healthier workplace

At my workplace, we have a really great group of staff that work together to make each day a positive experience. When an opportunity arises, we take our meetings outside or for a walk around the block. A handful of staff also have a friendly competition going to see who can get the most steps in each week. The numbers have been impressive - so much so that a recent weekend challenge had people questioning whether or not someone put their Fitbit on their dog! Who knew that hiking the Berg Lake Trail could get you over 100,000 steps in a weekend?

We are known to have great lunch potlucks, where we share our favorite nutritious recipes and take some time to connect with one another on a more social level. Our efforts to grow produce in a community garden plot near our work-site has so far proved to be unsuccessful, but we will keep trying! Our goal is to be able to offer something for locals in the neighborhood to enjoy. And, each Christmas we get together, pick a local cause, and collect donations/funds to add some holiday cheer to those in need!

How does your organization focus on the health of employees? Looking for ideas to create a healthier workplace? Check out Healthy Workplace Month today to get started!