You have established an employee wellness program for your employees, maybe you even have an onsite fitness center available free of cost to your workforce. What you’re finding is that after a long shift of being on their feet, and a couple hours of over-time your workforce is exhausted. It’s hot, some of their work areas do not have air conditioning and they feel they have sweat enough and now you want them to exercise? They already feel like you control their lives, they are work 6 days a week and they don’t want to be required to do more. They are ready to get home, spend some time with their families before waking up to do it all over again. As the employer you are left feeling like your investment isn’t being utilized by employees. It can be frustrating, it's free to them, you have provided top notch equipment, what else could they want? Consider what has been implemented and survey your employees and find out what barriers keep them from utilizing your onsite corporate fitness center or participating in wellness offerings.
You might find there are a variety of reasons that prevent your employees’ ability to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Whether it is work, family life that is jammed packed with their children’s activities, appointments, volunteer commitments, you can relate to needing to get home after a long day. Consider the following ways to engage your workforce to be more involved in your onsite corporate wellness program.
1) Engage them at work! You can’t always expect employees to get involved on their own time. Show that you support the use of the onsite fitness center, or involvement by offering time during their day to participate in wellness activities. Consider how you can get employees moving during a 15 minute break with brief walking groups or stretch sessions. Showing employees that you can relate to them will go a long way.
2) Team collaboration. It’s time to come together as a team. Whether you out source your fitness center staff, or have an in-house team they can collaborate with HR by providing new hire presentations to initiate involvement in your fitness and wellness program. If you have a health service department, your fitness team can work with them to offer lifestyle modification programming to target individuals with diabetes, high blood pressure, or weight management issues.
3) Offer incentives. Prizes go a long way and don’t always have to be expensive. When budgeting for the year consider incentive prizes to pair with your programming such as fitness gear, it’s amazing what people will do for a new shirt, gym bag, medicine ball, etc. Other items to consider would be pedometers, fit bits, polar watches, and gift cards. Most employees need that little incentive to push them to participate.
4) Involve families. Your employee’s families also affect your company’s health care costs. Create an event to draw in spouses and dependents to teach them about your wellness offerings. Consider a weekend wellness fair or make it a component of your employee appreciation picnics.
5) Devote a day. Whether it be once a month, or once a year dedicate a time which focuses on the health and wellbeing of your workforce. Incorporate a monthly Wellness Wednesday event where your wellness staff can provide screenings such as blood pressure, flexibility, or body composition screenings. These can be set up in a hallway, cafeteria, or break time gathering area to engage members with a hands’ on approach while they are off line.
Employees don’t want to feel forced into participating, but having support from the top does encourage employees. Check out this blog post about how CEO support can help drive your corporate wellness results.
Every morning I am hitting up the NIFS Fitness Center working towards the goal to stay healthy and fit. I see all types of people with different fitness interests; those who participate in group fitness classes, those who always do cardio, or those who strictly lift weights. No matter their interest, I am always curious about their fitness journey. Why did they start? What is their progress? Are they working towards a goal? My usual gym routine consists of mostly lifting weights and getting in some cardio as well. I try to keep it balanced, but it is occasionally difficult. Being female and lifting heavy weights just seems to be so wrong and unattractive to some these days, but why? Wouldn’t you think that 
For the past couple of months, we have been able to enjoy the nice, warm weather, cookouts, vacations, and even those occasional lazy days. While summer is not quite over, this time of year marks getting back to your everyday grind, preparing children to go back to school and hopefully including fitness in both of those plans. Why is it important to include fitness you ask? Well, it is no secret that 
Are you getting burnt out on the same workout routine day in and day out? Have you tried to look up new exercises or is it easier to stick with the same familiar routine everyday? There are endless options available to find something new to try! Whenever I run out of ideas, there are several routes I take to spice up my usual workout routine. Below, I have only provided you with the typical routes I use.
Our staff has found that getting employees moving can be difficult. It is very often that our members speak of a variety of barriers that prevent them from exercising. We have all experienced hectic schedules that interfere such as work meetings and events, overtime, family events such as a child’s activities. It’s our job to help our members find ways to fit it in to their schedule, make time for themselves to live a healthier lifestyle. Be Active Be Fit is a program that was developed to encourage participants to strive for 150 minutes of physical activity a week for 8 weeks. Participants are encouraged to count any time they are doing physical activity no matter what the activity. Whether you prefer to bike or run, maybe you walk or swim, right down to mowing the yard and cleaning the house with reasonable effort can count. 
I may be pale now, but you’ll be wrinkly later!
Now that the less obvious tips have been addressed in 
We set up sessions 3 days a week working on cardio & strength training. I thought I was going to pass out after each session; I had never pushed past my comfort zone before. Within weeks, I saw improvements. I began to run on the treadmill, and a few months later I was running my first 5k with Lindsey running right alongside of me. It was the beginning of my new way of life. Since I was working so hard in the gym I decided to make changes in food choices for both my family and I. Pretty soon my entire household was feeling and looking better than we’ve ever have. It’s been one year since I started training with Lindsey and I’ve not only met each goal I setup on that initial evaluation, but I’ve exceeded my own expectations. Today, I am proud to say I’ve lost 10% body fat and met my goal weight. I no longer feel the need to step on that scale every day.
Duck, Duck, Goose – add a twist to the old school game, have participants hold a plank or perform sit-ups while one individual walks around deciding who will be goose.