Global Employee Health and Fitness Month
May is Global Employee Health and Fitness Month, or (GEHFM)! This is an international observance on the importance of health and fitness in the workplace. The overall goal of GEHFM is to promote the benefits of a healthy lifestyle to employers and their employees through worksite wellness programs and health promotion activities. This year, GEHFM is exclusively sponsored by MINDBODY, a company that is leveraging technology to improve the wellness of people around the world.
The Role of Employers
From May 1-31, 2019, employers can show their support for healthy living and wellbeing by participating in Global Employee Health and Fitness Month! Start by by signing up to join GEHFM. From there, The National Association for Health and Fitness explains that employers can create a “culminating project,” which is an event or series of events that will help promote healthy living throughout your entire organization. NAHF suggests encouraging two ideas, healthy moments and healthy groups.
Healthy Moments: These are activities that are focused on the individual, such as trying a new healthy recipe or scheduling a health assessment.
Healthy Groups: These can be large or small groups of employees that get together to engage in healthy activities, such as lunchtime exercise groups, biking commuter groups, or healthy meal groups. The goal would be that these groups inspire employees and continue beyond the month of May.
From there, employers can use their GEHFM membership to encourage employees to stay active and reward physical activity with wellness points. Points can then be used to redeem prizes offered by your organization! You can also utilize GEHFM’s Facebook page for encouragement, to share your progress, or promote how you are participating!
Why Participate?
Global Employee Health and Fitness Month is a great opportunity to educate employees on the value of adopting healthier behaviors and encourage them to live healthier lives. The best part is, GEHFM is very adaptable and can be used to help revamp the wellness program you already have in place. If your organization does not have a wellness program, participating in GEHFM can be a starting point and help your organization decide what type of wellness program to incorporate. It can also spark employee interest and engagement!
In addition, participating in GEHFM shows employees you care about their health and wellbeing and it is an opportunity to promote lasting healthy behavior changes!
