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Thrive in 5 Workplace Challenge
COORDINATOR PACKAGE

Go to PARTICIPANTS PACKAGE

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Thrive in 5 Workplace Challenge a set of "whole" life activities that will allow you and your employees to experience some of the many benefits of living a balanced life.

To encourage people to participate in the challenge and make it fun, we have created a series of activities for each of the five days. Each day has a specific theme and a main activity with instructions. An outline of related materials and handouts to support the activity is also provided as well. In addition, 3 or 4 supplemental activities for each day have been included to give you choices that better suit your workplaces' and employees' needs. Feel free to pick whatever activity works best for your workplace. Remember that anyone who practices one positive lifestyle habit for each of the five days is a winner it's as simple as that!

Note that the Thrive in 5 Workplace Challenge has brought back activities from past Canadian Healthy Workplace Weeks. These activities can be found in the Archives section at www.healthyworkplacemonth.ca. They can be used in this challenge format or participants can complete them individually.

The five themes are:

In this package, you will find valuable resources that you can use to plan and implement the Thrive in 5 Workplace Challenge in your organization.

For a PDF version of the Coordinator Package, click here.

PLANNING GUIDE

Format of the Challenge

The goal of Thrive in 5 Workplace Challenge is to help employees develop a healthy lifestyle in a fun yet exciting way! Individuals are to engage in healthy activities in order to earn their hearts. For each day, there is a main activity for employees to complete. Earning a heart each day is based on an honour-system and the participants will keep track of the activities they've accomplished on the activity log sheet, which they will submit to you in order to be entered into a prize draw[s]. It is suggested that you ask your employees to submit the participant log sheet at the end of Challenge.

The Challenge runs for one week and organizations may choose their own start and end dates. Due to its length, it is recommended that you kick off the Thrive in 5 Workplace Challenge during the actual Canada's Healthy Workplace Week (October 22 26, 2007). Alternatively, you may choose to use a different week to run the Challenge.

Note that the Challenge is developed in a way that allows you to customize it for your own workplace both

  • the format [i.e. when & how to award prizes and recognize those who participate either for the entire Challenge or only a portion], and
  • the materials [i.e. participant materials & posters which can all be customized]

It is important to let employees know that the goal of this Challenge is not to reward only those who participate for the entire duration of the Challenge (i.e. one week). Remember that this Challenge is designed to encourage people to be healthy in a fun and exciting way! Therefore, try to recognize individuals who participate in the Challenge for a day or two as well. You can do so by giving out congratulations or thank you cards and/or certificates. It's as simple as that.

Below are a few guidelines to help you design the Challenge to fit your organization.

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Phase I Pre-planning

  • Determine who [what department or area] will conduct the activity and collect the activity log sheets.
  • Establish timelines include all the items that must be done during the planning, marketing, and implementation stages.
  • Set the budget Some items to consider include: printing of materials (i.e. posters, participant package), organizing supplemental events for participants (i.e. lunch and learn sessions), and prizes Check Canada's Healthy Workplace Week online boutique for some great ideas!

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Phase II Organizational scan

  • Scan the corporate culture the political climate within the organization should be one of the key considerations in deciding when to hold the Challenge and how to position it in order to deliver an appropriate message about workplace health in your organization. For instance, if your organization is in the middle of downsizing or heated management-union negotiations perhaps it would be best to postpone the Challenge until these issues are sorted out.

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Phase III Planning

Determine how the Thrive in 5 Workplace Challenge will run be sure you understand yourself how the activity works before you start implementing it. There are a number of open items that should be decided at this time. These include:

  • Set dates for the Challenge use the actual Canada's Healthy Workplace Week to kick off the Challenge or choose a different week.
  • Distribute participant packages and keep track of participants ensure that your department/area has enough packages to distribute to all employees who are interested in participating. As well, ensure there is a system in place to keep track of who is participating, so that you can contact them when/if needed. Consider keeping a list of each employee that participates, along with their phone number and department location.
    You also need to determine when employees can register for the Challenge and pick-up their participant package. While some organizations may choose to have a registration period [one week] prior to the Challenge starting, others may decide to leave it open and have employees begin at any time during the one-week Challenge period. The latter provides more flexibility in allowing employees to join at any time.
  • Will there be a fee for participating? While some organizations may be able to cover the costs of running the Thrive in 5 Workplace Challenge from their departmental budgets, others may not. For those that cannot, you may want to consider charging a nominal fee [i.e. $5 or $10] for participating. Charging employees a nominal amount may also be a method of securing their commitment (typically if we pay for something, we're more inclined to make the most of it, and in this casemaximize our participation!) If you do charge a fee, keep in mind that participants may expect something tangible in return such as a guaranteed prize [see discussion on prizes] or invitation to attend a seminar or other related event.
  • Deadline to submit activity log sheet(s) Participants should be asked to submit their activity log sheet at the end of the Challenge. Since the Challenge takes place for five days, (i.e. Monday Friday), allow participants an extra day or two to submit their log sheets. For example, you may want to ask them to submit their log sheets the following week on Monday or Tuesday. This will allow you enough time to compile all the information and award prizes on Friday.
    It's a good idea to keep all submitted log sheets until after the Thrive in 5 Workplace Challenge is over.
    • Prizes and their distribution this step can be a tricky item to sort out, and will likely involve a number of discussions among your team members. But in the end, it may be your budget that dictates the number of prizes you have to give away and how they are distributed. A key question you need to answer is how many prizes do you require?
      • When to award prizes here are a few options:
        • You may choose to give out prizes on a daily basis in order to recognize participation/effort of those who will not be able to participate on all five days. Awarding small prizes enables you to also recognize those who participated for only a portion of the Challenge. This allows you to recognize individuals who have participated in the Challenge by completing some sort of activity to improve their well-being.
        • You may choose to give out one grand prize at the end of the Challenge by entering those who participated for five consecutive days and fulfilled the Challenge in a draw; and hand out congratulation certificates/cards to everyone else who participated in some way.
        • Another alternative is to award prizes as follows: participants who earned a few hearts during the Challenge get their name entered into a draw to win a prize. A grand prize draw also takes place for those who earned all five hearts during the Challenge (examples are roots t-shirts, water bottle, or selection of the CHWW prizes www.healthyworkplacemonth.ca).
      • How to determine who gets prize(s) Once you've determined when you're awarding prizes, the next big decision is how the prize(s) will be awarded each time. When you award a prize, will everyone who earns a heart each day be given a prize, or will their names be entered into a draw to win a prize? If you decide to implement the prize draws, then you will need to determine how many prizes you will be awarding at each draw. For instance, if you decide to award 5 prizes for earning a heart each day, you will then require 25 prizes. The last 5 of these may be bigger prizes, since these will be awarded at the end of the Challenge.
        If you have a final prize at the end of the Challenge, make sure it is something that stands out and is an incentive to participate.
      • Where to get prizes There are a number of places where you can 'find' prizes. These include:
        • Your organization may have its own personalized merchandise that it wishes to provide as prizes.
        • Canada's Healthy Workplace Week online boutique there are a number of gifts such water-bottles, t-shirts, and pens, that can be purchased from www.healthyworkplacemonth.ca
        • Seeking donations from local merchants local merchants may be interested in donating prizes in exchange for exposure to your employees. If you do seek donations, be sure to begin contacting merchants well in advance of beginning the Challenge. As well, determine how you will promote the donators within the organization. For example, you can place merchant logos on marketing flyers, and also include a list of prize donors in the participant package and in the company newsletter/Intranet. Don't forget to send thank-you letters to the prize donors at the end of the event!
      • Customize participant package materials after you've made decisions on all the items above, it is time to customize all the materials in the participant package and make enough copies of the package for all interested employees.
  • The outline for Challenge participants has red text and yellow-highlighted text to indicate where you need to customize the information provided
  • It is recommended that at the bottom of the activity log sheet, you indicate the submission date and location for completed log sheets.
  • Make the participant materials available to individuals in an easy to access area. For instance, you may wish to have a registration table in the cafeteria the week before the Thrive in 5 Workplace Challenge begins or put the materials on your Intranet for downloading.

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Phase IV Implementation

You are now ready to implement the Thrive in 5 Workplace Challenge! Note that under each day, there is a main activity that we've suggested along with a list of 3 or 4 supplemental activities. For each main activity, we've outlined an implementation plan and highlighted some of the important things you may want to keep in mind during that specific day. If you choose to implement a supplemental activity as the main activity for your organization, please be sure that you understand the activity and organize yourself so that it is carried out smoothly.

While there may be a lot of interest and activity at the beginning of the Challenge, you may find that you will need to find ways to keep up the excitement and motivation. While having prize draws on a regular basis may help here, consider other actions such as sending out motivational & reminder emails.

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Phase V Evaluation

It is recommended that organizations use formal evaluation processes to measure the success of the Thrive in 5 Workplace Challenge. This entails asking the planning committee for feedback on the planning and implementing processes and asking participants about their experience during the Challenge. The evaluations will help you identify the strengths and opportunities for improvement with regard to enhancing employee well-being and company spirit.

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MARKETING

To make sure that all employees get the opportunity to get prepared for the Challenge, begin marketing the Thrive in 5 Workplace Challenge a few weeks before the start date. Here are some of the ways you can build awareness about the Challenge and create excitement among employees:

  • Post flyers (provide a link here to the flyers) on bulletin boards and in cafeteria be sure to customize the information that is specific to your organization before posting it!
  • Promote the Challenge on Intranet and/or your organization-wide newsletter
  • Send emails out to employees to remind them of the Challenge prior to the start date make sure to include information on where they can register. [Try not to bombard your employees with too many emails during the Challenge, as this could reduce their effectiveness!]
  • Upload a poster for the Canada's Healthy Workplace Week from www.healthyworkplacemonth.ca to post next to information about the Challenge
  • Mark the start and end dates of the Challenge in the organization-wide calendar
  • Send a flyer to all managers and ask them to remind their employees about the Challenge during team meetings

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Last reminders...

During the Thrive in 5 Workplace Challenge, there are some things for you to keep in mind:

  • Collecting participant log sheets choose accessible locations for individuals to submit their activity log sheet. For example, if you expect that a number of activity log sheets will be dropped of during non-regular business hours, you may wish to have a clearly labeled box in an office (for instance, the HR office) where individuals can drop off their activity log sheet.
  • Distributing prizes & recognizing winners determine how you will 1) advise the prize winner(s) that they have won a prize & where to pick it up, and 2) publicize the winners to all employees (i.e. in the company newsletter/Intranet; other bulletin boards, email blasts, etc.).

PARTICIPANT PACKAGE

In order to ensure that the Challenge runs smoothly, some documents have been provided to you. They should be distributed to the participants as a participant package.

  1. Participant Package Letter/ Explanation
  2. Participant Log Sheet
  3. Explanation of the theme (for coordinator) and handout(s) (to give to participants) for each day
CHAMPION BIENFAITEUR PORTE-PAROLE
PARTISAN
INDUSTRIE