Encouraging staff to walk more has benefits for both employers and employees. With the amount of time we spend at work and our increasingly sedentary lives, it is important to integrate physical activity in and around the workplace and during our commutes.
Walking to and at work is a great way to counterbalance the sedentary effects of an office environment. It is a great low-impact exercise, with mental-health benefits as well.
This toolkit provides you with ideas and information to encourage your office to make the switch to walking to work and throughout the working day.
Walking campaigns and initiatives
On Your Feet Britain Day – April
On Your Feet Britain is a national day in April when organisations can encourage staff to #SitLess and #MoveMore at work.
The challenge dares you to convert ‘sitting time’ to ‘standing time’. You can encourage staff to try some of these simple changes:
- Stand during phone calls
- Stand and take a break from your computer every 30 minutes
- Use the stairs
- Have standing or walking meetings
- Eat your lunch away from your desk
- Walk to your colleague’s desk instead of phoning or emailing them
- Stand at the back of the room during presentations
Walking Month – May
Walking Month is in May each year, promoted and organised by Living Streets who aim to encourage people to add more movement to their daily routine. The Living Streets website offers free event guides, posters, flyers and template emails to encourage employees to walk more.
Encourage employees to take a stand, team up with colleagues and see how easy it is to walk more and sit less for workplace challenges and campaigns.
Walking for health
To encourage your staff to become more physically active, you could advertise Wellbeing Walks to your staff.
Get Britain Standing is a campaign to increase awareness of the dangers of sedentary working and prolonged sitting, they are empowering people to calculate the number of hours they spend sitting and get us to stand and be more active.
Walker’s breakfast
A walker’s breakfast is where a free breakfast is provided for staff who walk to work on a particular day. Alternatively, all staff could be invited to attend, and the event used as an opportunity to raise the profile of walking to work or during leisure time.
A walker’s breakfast can be a good way of incentivising people to walk to work, raising awareness of walking and providing a forum for staff to discuss their journey options.
These events are low cost and can give a real boost to the promotion of sustainable travel. The Travel Devon website has tips for walking to work which could be shared at your event.
Stress busting lunchtime walks
Organising lunchtime time walks can be a great way of reducing stress at work, increasing health levels, boosting morale and getting
people into the habit of walking.
Wellbeing Walks leader training is free, available to anyone and is part of the National Ramblers Wellbeing Walks Programme. The course is mostly online learning, with an optional ‘check in’ with Active Devon. The aim of the training is to learn about the practical elements of planning and leading wellbeing walks, exploring the intended audience for the walks and enabling new leaders to competently and confidently lead short, free wellbeing walks. Active Devon provides this training for individuals and partner organisations. You can find out more on the Active Devon website.
Leisure walks
Did you know that if you walked every day for a year in Devon you would never have to walk the same path twice? There is something
for everyone, from accessible trails to long distance routes.
Encourage staff to walk at the weekend and explore the beauty of our county. Why not circulate a ‘walk of the week’ for people to
consider planning an outing during the weekend.
Check out the Explore Devon website to find out more information about walks around Devon.
The Exeter Green Circle is a twelve mile walk that provides a great walking experience around the boundary of Exeter.
Further support
More information on how to encourage your workplace to get moving can be found in the Making your business walking friendly and the Workplace walking challenge toolkits.
Active Devon are community-focused organisation with a vision of everyone in Devon active for life. Their mission is to unlock the ability of movement to change lives for the better.
Active Devon deliver transformative projects that inspire people to choose walking, cycling and other sustainable modes of travel.
To find out how Active Devon can help your workplace, please email hello@activedevon.org.