More and more businesses are recognizing the advantages of healthy employees, including less time missed from work, increased production and higher morale, according to Industrial Safety and Hygiene News. Many companies take an active role in encouraging healthy lifestyles by providing gym memberships, adding on-site wellness centers, offering healthier break room options and providing educational materials. Interoffice weight-loss competitions centered around proper fitness and nutrition are growing in popularity, are cost-effective and promote healthier lifestyles among employees.
Instructions
1. Determine the rewards up front for the competition. Emphasize the health benefits for everyone who participates, but to get potential team members excited, get in touch with their desire to win. Consider paid visits with a nutritionist and personal trainer for the winning team members. Personal investment is motivational, as well. Encourage participants to contribute a set amount, typically $5 to $10, to the ante, with the pool of money going to the winning team.
2. Campaign for participation. Set a time and date for the start-up meeting, send a companywide email and post details of the competition in gathering areas. Avoid singling out potential competitors. Participation should be optional. Try and get management involved in the competition. The American Journal of Public Health monitored three weight loss competitions in industrial companies, noting that the company "with the lowest [management] involvement had the smallest losses."
3. Educate potential competitors about healthy weight loss. Fast-track gimmicks and empty promises abound in the weight loss market and need to be avoided. Inform your group about the free tools available online that can help them make smart, sustainable changes to their lifestyle. The USDA calculates nutritional needs based on age and gender, provides weight loss information, as well as an online food and activity journal. The American Dietetic Association also offers a wealth of online information about sustainable weight loss.
4. Set the ending date. Twelve weeks is a reasonable time frame. Take a cue from "The Biggest Loser" and measure weight loss by percent rather than pounds. Heavier competitors lose pounds faster, but those with less to lose may be making comparable progress without the big numbers.
5. Appoint a moderator to record individual weight loss goals before competition kicks off and to record progress confidentially once weigh-ins begin. Have each participant list his or her goals in terms of percent of original weight.
6. Divide participants into teams either by department or at random. Determine the collective weight loss percentage goal of the team.
7. Schedule a kickoff weigh-in, and plan subsequent weigh-ins at weekly intervals on the same day and time. Only percentages lost need to be made available to competitors.
Tags: weight loss, potential competitors, team members, weight loss, winning team