Employers & Workplaces
Do you support colleagues to enhance their own wellbeing? Are you looking for a simple, accessible physical activity to promote?
This Daily Mile Toolkit has everything you need to launch a Daily Mile campaign in the workplace or encourage staff working from home to take up a Daily Mile. The step-by-step guide, top tips and the downloadable marketing and promotional resources in this toolkit will help you to achieve your goal.
The toolkit is divided into 6 sections;
(Each section can be quickly accessed by the below hyperlinks.)
- Planning a Workplace Daily Mile Campaign
- Sharing the Health & Wellbeing Benefits
- Promoting a Daily Mile Activity
- Run/Jog/Wheel/Walk with Others
- Motivating Colleagues
- Celebrating Progress & Success
1. Planning a Workplace Daily Mile Campaign
Ways to encourage staff to develop the GM Daily Mile habit;
- Set up a regular staff led workplace Daily Mile opportunity
- Launch a workplace Daily Mile group, self-managed by the participants
- Promote the benefits of running/jogging/wheeling/walking to encourage the workforce to be active as & when they want
The Daily Mile 7 Steps to Success Guide will help you to achieve your vision. It includes further information, tips and useful links on the following 7 steps;
- Setting aims, outcomes & targets– helping you to focus your energies on the right things.
- Consulting with others– finding out what colleagues want, when and how.
- Sharing the health & wellbeing benefits– supporting colleagues to recognise the benefits to their wellbeing. (also see Section 2 Sharing the Health & Wellbeing Benefits).
- Planning – Working Out a Mile or help Planning a Route to suit your workplace needs.
- Promoting– raising awareness in creative ways to extend your reach (also see Section 3 : Promoting a Daily Mile).
- Goal Setting & Challenges – motivating employees through goal setting and challenges (team/individual).
- Sustaining– helping participants maintain their Daily Mile habits. Find ways to encourage participants to attend regularly- continue to share benefits of a Daily Mile. Try introducing a monthly challenge or use the trackers and remember some people love to celebrate success. (also see Section 5: Motivating Colleagues).
- There are many free Apps and websites to help you Working Out a Mile or help you with Planning a Route if you are looking for support or inspiration. These downloads include the direct links you will need.
If necessary refer to your organisation’s health & safety policy.
Working a mile
Working out how far a mile isn’t always easy. Why not try the following ideas to help you;
- At a steady pace a mile is about 20 minutes walking. Time yourself walking.
- At a steady pace a mile is about 9/10 minutes running.
- Using free technology on your phone/tablet can help you to help count your steps. A mile is about 2,000 steps. Check out the download suggestions above.
- Decide how long you want to run/jog/wheel/walk for, set a timer on your phone for half that time. When the alarm rings, turn around and go back to the start.
- Build up to walking 10 minutes there and 10 minutes back, or run 5 minutes there and 5 minutes back. This will be roughly a mile.
2. Sharing the Health & Wellbeing Benefits of The Daily Mile
One way to encourage being active is to share the positive outcomes of doing a Daily Mile. Remember it only takes about 20 minutes to walk a mile and 10 minutes to run a mile. Doing a Daily Mile supports physical, emotional & mental wellbeing too.
The Daily Mile supports each of the Five Ways to Wellbeing, developed by the New Economics Foundation (2008) and used by many local, regional and national community & health organisations across the UK.
The five evidenced-based actions designed to improve personal wellbeing are;
- Connect – building connections with others can support and enrich you every day.
- Keep Learning – learning something or visiting somewhere new can increase your confidence and your self-esteem.
- Be Active – moving helps to release feel good hormones which support your overall wellbeing.
- Give – giving time or words to others is proven to support wellbeing.
- Take Notice – enjoying the moment, being aware of the here and now and noticing the world around you can help you appreciate what matters.
At a Glance – A Daily Mile can help…
3. Promoting a Daily Mile
Using a combination of marketing methods will increase your reach, especially where staff work in different roles, across different departments, at various times of the day/night and those working from home.
Getting the messaging right:
- Make sure your message(s) resonate with your target audience. i.e. ‘It’s only 20 minutes’ ‘Walking to health’ ‘Let’s walk and talk’ ‘’Netwalking the new networking’
- Remember, less is more when it comes to messaging.
- Focus on the target group and how a Daily Mile will benefit them. Sharing the ‘why’ can be crucial for buy-in. Use the poster and flier templates to share your messages
- You have approximately three seconds to capture your audience’s attention, keep your message interesting and succinct.
- “Using hashtags # can work really well. i.e. #run #jog #wheel #walk #social #DailyMileandchat #ActiveWorkplaces #DailyMile”
Raise awareness of your Daily Mile campaign in places where colleagues are most likely see them. For example;
- Customise the poster and flyer templates and display around the workplace such as on notice boards, in toilets, reception, kitchen, cafeteria areas and at the water cooler-using a variety of places will increase your reach.
- Laminate and use with white board pens for ease of use and to reduce printing/paper use.
- Add your company logo
Daily Mile Poster
Choosing the sweet spots to market to your colleagues.
- Customise the poster and flyer templates and display around the workplace; on notice boards, in toilets, reception, kitchen, cafeteria areas or the water cooler-using a variety of places will increase your reach. There is space for your logo to be added to these downloads.
- Distribute flyers where they will be seen & picked up.
- Use the downloadable noticeboard headers to create an eye catching Daily Mile zone on workplace noticeboards.
- Display the At a Glance poster and Five Ways to Wellbeing poster downloads to share the messages.
- Display a Daily Mile start sign in the lead up. Promoting where and when The Daily Mile will take place.
- Encourage the Management Team to lead by example by taking part in a Daily Mile & recognising staff engagement.
- Include articles about your Daily Mile plans in workplace newsletters/magazines.
- Share plans with HR to explore opportunities to share key messages with employees across the organisation where possible. This can be especially true of those home-based workers who may not see the messaging displayed in the workplace.
- Consider Daily Mile branded resources to support staff e.g. branded umbrellas, rain proof ponchos for wet weather contingency.
- Share plans via Facebook, Twitter or group WhatsApp where appropriate.
- Decide how you will launch The Daily Mile group/opportunity.
Daily Mile Noticeboard Header
4. The Daily Mile with Others
Spending time with others is known to boost your health & wellbeing. The workplace can provide a great range of opportunities for colleagues to connect through a Daily Mile. These may include;
- Colleagues considering a Daily Mile as an alternative to workplace based meetings.
- An organised walk at lunchtime, before or after work supporting colleagues who may prefer walking with others more informally.
- Departments liaising & timetabling a Daily Mile for colleagues from different teams/work streams to network and engage, supporting communication across the business which may not otherwise exist.
- Raising awareness of the benefits of The Daily Mile for health, happiness and productivity, motivating colleagues to choose to run/jog/wheel/walk to or from work or with a colleague.
- Setting goals as a group or team can be highly motivating. Motivational tools can help maximise engagement and sustain involvement (also see Motivating Colleagues below).
- Remember to include those staff working from home temporarily or permanently, include them in team challenges and goal setting. Also share the Toolkit for Individuals, Families & friends for those wishing to run/jog/wheel/walk nearer home.
- Identify colleagues as Active Workplace Champions or encourage existing Wellbeing Ambassadors to include the promotion of The Daily Mile across the workplace.
- Check out The Daily Mile Monthly Challenge Calendar for ideas to encourage participating with others.
5. Motivating Colleagues
The following ideas and tools are designed to help motivate your colleagues to participate in a Daily Mile and develop new habits of regular exercise.
- Finding inspiration & setting bite sized goals
- Rewarding progress
- Making it fun & mixing it up a bit
- Exercising with others
- Tracking progress is a great motivator. Choose what you want to track and print a Daily Mile Minute Tracker or a Daily Mile Step Tracker (up to 10,000 steps and up to 20,000 steps) to record progress on. Display at work or at home as an additional motivator.
- A Daily Mile Diary is a great way to monitor progress made and provides a space to record how walking makes us feel too.
- Check out the Daily Mile Monthly Challenge Calendar. Full of ideas to encourage colleagues/teams/groups/sites to take on a challenge if they choose to.
Motivating Colleagues Poster
Workplace Challenges
Full of ideas to encourage colleagues/teams/groups/sites to take on a challenge if they choose to
Track your progress
Choose what you want to track and print a Daily Mile Minute Tracker, or a Daily Mile Step Tracker to record your progress on.
Display at work or at home as an additional motivator.
Monitor your progress
A Daily Mile Diary is a great way to monitor progress made and provides a space to record how walking makes us feel too.
6. Celebrating Progress & Success
Remember to celebrate progress. Celebrating winners of challenges can be great but also consider celebrating progress too, such as consistency of participants, new participants or those who recruit new participants. But only if they want the recognition!
- Encourage participants to consider rewarding themselves and each other with something positive & healthy when they reach their goals.
- Use The Daily Mile branded noticeboard to feature successes and/or engagement.’
- For example, have ‘Walker of the Week/Month’
- Provide a Daily Mile Certificate for participants, fill in name(s), the challenge participated in, the date and add your company logo too!
Be proud, celebrate and continue your good work.
#DailyMile
Daily Mile Certificate
Complete your own Daily Mile Certificate – Be proud, celebrate and continue your good work.
