Keeping Up the Good Work(out): Seven Ways to Help Your Employees Stay Fit This Winter.
As the weather cools down, so does your employees’ fervor to get fit . . . which could lead to increase in sick days and health care costs. Here’s how you can help your employees (and your bottom line) stay healthy all year long.

By Thomas B. Gilliam, Ph.D.

The warm, sunny days of summer are nearing an end. And as the days get crisper and shorter, you may notice your employees are slacking off on their workout programs. Swimsuit season is over, they rationalize. Or, It’s too cold to exercise outdoors. Or, Between helping kids with their homework and preparing for the holidays, I don’t have time to work out. If you assume their winter workout slowdown is none of your concern, think again. Because your employees’ health and fitness level affects your bottom line, it is up to you to make sure they stay on track.

Your employees probably want to keep up their summer workout routines. And most likely their excuses do come from real life problems. But everyone in the company suffers when overweight employees take lots of sick days and rack up high medical bills. Look at it this way: making it easier for employees continue their fitness efforts on into winter is a very real way to boost your economic health.

In other words, if you pay health insurance for your employees, keeping your employees healthy is your business. Of course, you don’t want to single out or embarrass any particular group of employees. That’s why I recommend implementing a company-wide fitness program if you don’t already have one—and figuring out creative ways to make employee wellness an all-year-round adventure. 

Here are a few ways you can help your employees put those workout excuses to bed and turn up the heat on their winter workout routines:

Encourage employees to adopt the buddy system. People are more likely to stick to a workout routine when they have someone right there with them fighting the same fight. Buddies provide one another with the encouragement they will need to successfully keep shedding the pounds. Whether paired off two-by-two or broken into small groups, co-workers make natural workout buddies. I’ve found that people are far more likely to stay on track with their fitness routine if they have others to share their ups and downs with. Having a buddy or a group of buddies to walk with during lunch or to bounce healthy recipes off of will be a great help to your employees.

Conduct a daily weigh-in. Keeping track of their pounds will help your employees know if their wellness effort is working. This is especially important during the Holiday Season when most Americans can gain 2 to 4 pounds. Daily weigh-ins allow workers to see if there is an upward trend in their weight so they can make any necessary changes to reverse it. Make sure weigh-ins are private. A great way to ensure privacy is to put up a partition around your weigh-in space. Also, be sure to purchase a scale that accommodates all workers; one that has a 0-400 pound range is probably best. Most likely, your employees won’t greet a daily weigh-in with open arms. Here’s how you make it work: be sure you always include yourself in the weigh-in, always keep employee weights confidential, and offer incentives—anything from cash bonuses to days off—to those employees who are maintaining or losing weight.

Help employees avoid all that misinformation Today your workers are exposed to lots of misinformation via many media sources. They are bombarded with commercials for pills that make losing weight look like a piece of cake, and gadgets that claim five minutes of exercise a day is sufficient for becoming a world-class athlete. Providing your employees accurate information about managing body weight and safely getting involved with physical activity programs is crucial to their health. Give your employees accurate information by subscribing to credible wellness programs that provide well-researched books, newsletters, tracking programs and the like. 

Give exercise-oriented Christmas gifts. Along with the traditional holiday bonus, give your employees a gift that will help them stay fit. If your company is large, you might kick in on a corporate membership at a local gym. Smaller companies can give more personal fitness gifts. For instance, if you know one of your employees likes biking, give him a new helmet. If another one likes to walk after sundown despite the cold, give her a cozy jacket with a reflective safety vest. Those aforementioned two to four pounds gained during the holidays can be hard to lose. Fitness-themed Christmas gifts will give your employees a subtle reminder to keep up their exercise routines during a season when there is a lot of great (but not always healthy) food around.

Suggest your employees set up a mini-gym at home. Encourage your employees to purchase a stretch band, exercise ball and a set of dumbbells for their home (these items would make a great gift from the company). A mini-gym can be created for as little as $35. Also, let your employees know about the variety of exercise videos and CD’s that can be checked out from the local library. Let them know that trying a variety of different tapes will help them stay focused on fitness.  In fact, encourage your employees to include the entire family so everyone benefits – even the company, since you are probably paying benefits for spouses and children.

Stock the break room with healthful foods. Implementing a wellness program while keeping the same old candy bar and potato chip vending machine options for your employees sends a decidedly mixed message. Work out a deal with a local grocery store to provide fresh fruits and veggies for your employees to snack on, and use the break room bulletin board to post healthy winter food options. One of my favorite things to eat during the winter is a healthful soup that is low in sodium and calories. It is the perfect meal for a chilly winter day.

Always be a team player. Sure, as their boss you are trying to lead your employees toward a healthier lifestyle that will help improve your company’s bottom line. But because your employees may not always appreciate your pleas to keep up the exercise, it is vital that you are also a team player. That means munching on healthful snacks, squeezing in lunch hour workouts, and weighing in on a regular basis right along with your employees. When your employees see that you are right there in the trenches with them, trying to lose weight and stay healthy, they will feel more like the company as whole is one big team. And hopefully they will want to do everything they can to ensure that their team is successful.

The benefits to helping your employees stay healthy year round are innumerable. Sure, your initial goal is to save money, but even more important you’ll affect your employees’ wellbeing in a very holistic sense. Losing weight can be an incredibly life-affirming experience. People gain confidence. They see firsthand the rewards of working hard to meet goals. Ultimately, they will become better, happier employees. And that, in and of itself, is a good reason to encourage them to make the commitment.

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About The Authors:

Thomas B. Gilliam, Ph. D. is a pioneer and acknowledged expert in the field of dynamic strength testing for industry based on the sports medicine model. Since 1982, Dr. Gilliam has provided isokinetic physical capability assessments for Fortune 1000 companies. Dr. Gilliam’s programs have dramatically reduced worker’s compensation costs and decreased injury incidence and severity rates for major industrial clients. In addition, Dr. Gilliam has been instrumental in identifying and presenting to industries the higher risk for injury and disease caused by obesity in the workplace.

Dr. Gilliam is the creator of the Heart “E” Heart program, which is a healthy lifestyle program for children and their families. He was the principal investigator in a National Institutes of Health research study investigating the impact of physical activity and nutritional habits on heart disease risk in young children. This research in the late 1970’s resulted in numerous scholarly publications, and television and radio interviews throughout the world, including NBC’s Today Show and NBC’s Evening News with their science editor Robert Basel.

In 1973, Dr. Gilliam earned a doctorate degree from Michigan State University in exercise physiology with a minor in graduate statistics and research design. From 1974 to 1982, Dr. Gilliam was on the faculty at the University of Michigan. Before resigning from his tenured faculty position, he was involved with numerous funded research projects (i.e. N.I.H., Kellogg Foundation, State of Michigan and others) that resulted in 29 refereed, scholarly publications.

Jane C. Neill, R.D., L.D. is the 2004 recipient of the Nutritionist of the Year Award for the State of Alabama Public Health. She is an active member of the American Dietetic Association and currently employed by the Alabama Department of Public Health, where she works with the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program as a WIC coordinator and a licensed dietitian. She has worked in the WIC program for over 10 years providing daily nutrition counseling for women, infants and children.

While on the staff as a registered dietitian at the University of Michigan Health System in the late 1970’s, Jane was instrumental in working with Dr. Gilliam as an investigator on the National Institutes of Health research study to investigate the impact of physical activity and nutritional habits on heart disease risk in children ages six to eight years.

Ms. Neill is a member of the team that developed and wrote the Heart “E” Heart program for children and their families.

She received her bachelor’s of science degree from the University of Alabama in 1977 in food, nutrition and institutional management. Ms. Neill has been working as a registered dietitian for over 27 years.

About the book:

Move It. Lose It. Live Healthy: Achieve A Healthier Workplace One Employee At A Time (T. Gilliam & Associates, LLC, 2005, ISBN: 0-9762703-0-7, $19.95) is available in bookstores nationwide and through all major online booksellers.