Internal and External Catering for Meetings
Put up healthy eating and hydration posters around your workplace.
Provide free water bottles and encourage staff to keep bottles topped up with tap water at their desks/worksite or to take to meetings etc.
Provide information about healthy lunch options and healthy eating/hydration.
Support a workplace ‘lunch club’ – those interested can contribute and share the cost of lunches. Or hold a ‘let’s do lunch’ meeting where all bring a healthy dish to share.
Organise a seminar or question and answer session with a dietitian or qualified nutritionist.
Host workplace challenges e.g. eat well for a week; try a different fruit or vegetable every day; competition to eat more fruit and vegetables.
Host cooking demonstrations and taste testing that showcase healthy options.
Establish a recipe exchange club and/or produce and distribute a healthy cooking recipe book which includes recipes contributed by employees.
Place strategies (1 per season)
If you have workers who need to move between sites within the ACT, consider marking out shops, cafes and takeaways that provide healthier options and provide workers with information on making healthier food choices when eating out.
Change vending machines to stock healthier drink and snack options.
Collaborate with nearby shops cafes, takeaways and other food vendors to offer healthy foods and promote nutritious specials, at reasonable prices.
Develop a workplace healthy eating or nutrition policy that covers several aspects of food provision:
- internal and external catering for meetings,
- functions and events
- vending machines
- food and drinks sold in the staff canteen
- fundraising
- food safety
Organise delivery of a fruit and salad veg box e.g. once a fortnight
People strategies (2 per season)
Provide information and resources on responsible alcohol use to employees.
Promote services and programs that provide information, advice, counselling and referral to treatment services for staff who may be concerned about their alcohol use, or that of family or friends.
Remind workers that they can seek advice, support and referral from their General Practitioner or other health professional.
Invite a guest speaker in to discuss the importance of not drinking alcohol to excess.
Offer education and training to employees about safe consumption of alcohol.
Place strategies (1 per season)
If you’re hosting work functions, make sure to provide non-alcoholic drink options and lighter drinking options such as light beer and wine spritzers.
Provide free water and non-alcoholic drinks at work functions and if alcohol is provided, ask workers to buy their own.
Where possible, work-related social functions should be arranged where drinking is not the primary focus ie. movies, ten-pin bowling or a family fun day at a local park.
Develop and implement a workplace policy that encourages responsible alcohol use at work related events.
Offer workplace Employee Assistance Programs to help employees reduce their alcohol intake.
At events where alcohol is available, safe transport options (eg taxis, designated driver and public transport) will be encouraged and promoted.
Choose alternatives to alcohol when giving prizes, thank you gifts or for fundraising.
Organise social functions at times where alcohol is not expected ie. breakfast, morning tea and lunch.
People strategies (2 per season)
Display and make quit resources available within the workplace to promote the benefits of cutting down and quitting, for example, in tea rooms, foyers, hallways or waiting areas.
Promote services from which staff can assess information and support with cutting down and quitting smoking.
Remind employees that they can seek advice, support and referral from their General Practitioner, other health professionals or workplace Employee Assistance Programs.
Arrange peer support groups for employees who are trying to cut down, quit smoking and stay smoke-free.
Provide access to counselling through individual, group or telephone counselling programs on-site.
Provide access to nicotine replacement therapy or quit smoking hypnotherapy for employees, such as patches or gum, through subsidies.
Place strategies (1 per season)
Create and implement a comprehensive smoke-free workplace policy which helps create a physical environment and culture that supports non-smoking and employees who wish to quit.
Promote a smoke-free workplace and display no-smoking signs.
Ensure workers don’t smoke while wearing any form of company uniform.
Ensure workers don’t smoke while in company cars.
Consider extending workplace quit programs to employees’ families and household members where feasible.
People strategies (2 per season)
Provide information to employees about the benefits of physical activity via factsheets, education seminars, posters and newsletters.
Promote the use of stairs instead of lifts or escalators using communication methods such as prompts at the lift, posters, flyers, emails, screen savers.
Remind employees to get out of their chair and stretch.
Circulate physical activity program opportunities via newsletters, pay slips, etc.
Promote active travel for staff and visitors with access to information, local cycling maps and bus timetables to make getting to and from the workplace easier for staff to reduce dependence on private vehicles and parking spaces.
Organise talks and seminars about ways to become more physically active.
Introduce walking groups and other activity groups that meet before, during or after work.
Commence a walking challenge, e.g. using the 10,000 Steps program.
Organise and encourage corporate teams for events such as fun runs/walks.
Organise a corporate rate at the local gym for staff.
Provide or organise on-site physical activity classes for employees such as yoga, Pilates, aerobics.
Place strategies (1 per season)
Encourage ‘walking meetings’ where suitable.
Provide incentives to promote physical activity, such as flexible work hours or provision of 15 minutes work time to supplement 15 minutes of break time to be physically active.
Provide and promote on-site or nearby bike racks, showers, change rooms and lockers for walkers, runners and cyclists. Partner with workplaces that already have these facilities if not available.
Provide push bikes and promote the use of them for out of office meetings.
Develop and implement a policy that supports physical activity at work.
Provide ‘sit to stand’ work stations.
Place strategies (1 per season)
Organise social functions within the workplace for employees and their families, to help build social networks.
Allocate a space for a staff lounge with books and magazines on healthy lifestyles.
Encourage employee recognition for exceptional efforts, activities supporting a healthier work environment, providing leadership or a team working well together.
Conduct a staff satisfaction survey to gather feedback on areas of concern and ideas about how to create a workplace that supports positive mental health.
Review policies and practices to ensure they promote positive mental health, and support workers with a mental health issue (e.g. policies concerning worker privacy or return to work programs).
Create and support a work environment where there is recognition of work-life balance. Include policies that accommodate family/employee medical appointments, urgent family issues and flexible work schedules.
Provide training for managers for understanding the impact of the work environment on social and emotional wellbeing.
Establish an Employee Assistance Program to provide employees with access to confidential counselling services.
People strategies (2 per season)
Circulate information such as brochures, fact sheets, internet sites and posters that promote positive mental health.
Promote and encourage employees to participate in local recreation and community clubs and activities such as book clubs, walking groups, art and craft groups, relaxation and yoga classes.
Promote telephone support services throughout the workplace.
Organise staff presentations, seminars, workshops or lunchtime guest speakers on various stress management topics (e.g. the causes of stress, conflict resolution, resilience, leadership, signs and effects of stress and strategies for self-care, time management, personal financial planning).