Companies Work to Improve Employee Health

by Jon Lugbill

Here at Sports Backers, we like to keep score: how many entries in an event, how many people in a training program, the number of kids in a running club, and how many miles of bicycle infrastructure. You get the idea. Well, we also track how many companies are Active RVA Certified.

The Sports Backers are trying to increase physical activity across our entire region by encouraging individuals, groups, organizations, schools and companies to support an active lifestyle. We started this work by focusing on companies. We created the Active RVA Certification program to reward companies who were promoting physical activity in the workplace.  Pete Woody, the Sports Backers PR and Communications Manager, was put in charge of the project. Pete told me, “At first only the companies that already had programs were calling about the certification process, but, over time, more and more companies with no programs were calling and asking for advice. It then became clear that we needed to help these companies jump into the active workplace movement.”

Of course, Pete, like the smart, creative person he is, started generating ideas and instantly started to implement them. In three short years we went from not really understanding the opportunities and challenges companies face to having Pete be a true expert in the field. When I mentioned to Pete that he was an expert, he said he wasn’t, but he admitted that he did read a lot about it and spent time asking questions and listening to others give advice. (He’s an expert!) He started a best practices sharing program called Corporate Connections where participants meet quarterly over breakfast to learn about how other companies are promoting and supporting physical activity. The time I attended, there were a ton of great questions, and a wonderful discussion left everyone feeling like they had something new to bring back to their workplace. Pete also created the Corporate Fitness Newsletter (e-newsletter that goes out every other month) that provides stories and best practices from both local and national companies. He also curates articles and coordinates blog posts about corporate wellness that reside on our recently launched www.activerva.org website.

In addition to these resources, Sports Backers has also created stairwell signs to encourage the simple behavior change of using the stairs instead of the elevator. We provide these signs free of charge to area non-profit organizations and will help with designing the signs for any area organization.

Sports Backers provide all of this information as a free service in the hope that more companies will provide physical activity time as part of their workday.  Most of us spend a significant amount of our time in the office, and we need to do what we can to encourage activity in the workplace.

Each year at the Active RVA Awards Luncheon, we celebrate not only our Active RVA Certified companies but also our Active RVA Certified schools and our region’s Physical Activity Grade. On March 3, 2015, we will be hosting the awards luncheon at the Omni Richmond Hotel. This year we have added a best practices seminar in the morning with parallel tracks for schools and businesses.

If you are eager to make your workplace a part of the active lifestyle movement, then we have a few simple steps that you can do. First, you can go to our website and learn all about our Active RVA corporate programs. Second, you can apply to have your company be Active RVA Certified. Third, you can give Pete Woody a call or shoot him an e-mail at [email protected], and he can help you get started and find the resources you need. I hope to see all of you at our Active RVA Awards Luncheon on March 3, 2015.