Steps > Planning Workplace Physical Activity > Step 1: Gaining Support From Management

Gaining management support is critical to the success of a physical activity initiative.

Whether the changes you’d like to make involve the work environment, overall policies or specific programs, successfully implementing your ideas depends on management support.

Support from management is critical for three reasons:

• You need their agreement to involve employees in a workplace initiative.

• When management pays attention to and supports an initiative, employees also see the initiative as worthwhile.

• Management has the power to give work time and money to support the initiative.

It’s important to keep management involved throughout a physical activity initiative, but at three points you’ll need support for:

• An overall concept, including a go-ahead to assess what employees want to do within the limitations of your workplace environment.

• A detailed plan (based on the assessment above) coupled with resources to carry out the plan.

• Evaluating the initiative to improve it along the way or to advocate for continuing or expanding the initiative.

Approaching Management

Before approaching management to gain initial support for promoting physical activity during the workday, do your homework.

• Prepare a business case clearly outlining how the organization will benefit by promoting physical activity during the workday.

• List the individual, social and corporate benefits of physical activity and the benefits of being active during the workday.

• Present some general ideas about what the program might include. See the Success Stories and Ideas sections on this website to highlight what other workplaces have done.

Expect questions such as the following from management:

• How will this help our company?

• How can we motivate employees to participate?

• How much will it cost to run this program or make this change?

• How are we going to know a year from now if this was a good use of time and resources?

Ask managers about the range of activities they would support. Often managers have ideas of their own they would like to see acted on to improve the workplace.

Find out More

Below are some resources to help convince management that promoting physical activity during the workday is a good investment.

• Business Case for Active Living at Work (Public Health Agency of Canada): Information and statistics about the benefits of being physically active at the workplace, tips about what works and how to get started, related research and a template for developing a business case for an active workplace.

• What is Workplace Wellness? (Healthy U): A list of the benefits to employees and employers of promoting workplace health programs.

• Information Bulletins on Physical Activity in the Workplace: Based on a Workplace Capacity Study carried out by the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute in 2007/2008. The Bulletins were published in 2009. The study explored Canadian employers’ perceptions of workplace opportunities for increasing physical activity among their employees. Bulletin topics include supportive policies, awareness, creating positive environments, programming, barriers, demand for resources, valuing employees, and operation/rating of physical activity programs at work.

• Health at Work (British Heart Foundation): Benefits for employers of promoting physical activity.