With the 7th of April quickly approaching, you may be looking for some World Health Day ideas for work in 2023. The World Health Organisation organise the campaign and this year the 75th anniversary of the event. To celebrate this milestone, this year’s theme is Health for All. This theme has a lot of scope, allowing you to get creative – and inclusive.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at some World Health Day Ideas for your workplace in 2023.
1. Get your staff active for World Health Day
Exercise is one of the absolute best things we can do for our health. Being active for 150 minutes or more each week can help us lose weight, become more mentally resilient and, most importantly, fight off risks of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks, strokes and diabetes.
These last 3 are particularly problematic for desk-based workers, as being physically inactive actually exacerbates these risks.
For World Health Day, why not get your staff up and moving around, away from their workstations? You don’t have to get everyone doing laps around the building, but you could encourage groups to go on a walk during their break or encourage people to cycle to work.
If your teams are remote (especially as World Health Day falls on a Friday this year), encourage colleagues to get away from their desks for 5 minutes or so every hour. You could encourage them to do a bit of housework (yes, this counts as physical activity!), or even to get outside and practise some mindfulness techniques.
2. Encourage healthy eating during work
We’ve all been there. It’s 3 pm, lunch is a distant memory, you’re between coffees and you’re flagging. But there are biscuits in the breakroom!
It’s easy to indulge in unhealthy snacks whilst we’re working, as they’re convenient and usually give us a bit of a dopamine hit during particularly boring tasks. This is especially true of sugary snacks.
You can’t force people to change their eating habits, but you can offer them healthy alternatives. Free fruit at work is a classic. Fruit is relatively cheap and offers a good source of energy. Apples, for example, contain fructose, which is a kind of slow-release energy for your body. This supports your body throughout the day, rather than giving you one big blood sugar spike, as a biscuit would. This can help avoid droopy eyelids in the afternoon!
For remote workers, you could share some recipes for healthy lunches or snacks that are easy to make and packed with good nutrients. The British Heart Foundation actually has a recipe finder on its website, where you can filter meals by dietary requirements, meal type, cuisine, cooking time, and even health conditions. Check it out by clicking here.
3. Help staff learn about their personal health for World Health Day
If you want staff to engage more with health and wellbeing initiatives, you need to make wellbeing important to them. One of the most effective ways to do this is to engage with a colleague’s health on an individual level by offering them a health check.
Health checks give staff the chance to learn some of their important health stats that they wouldn’t otherwise know about, such as:
- Blood pressure (high blood pressure can go undetected for years, and contributes towards your risk of heart attacks and stroke, amongst other illnesses).
- Body fat percentage (the amount of fat you’re carrying around – too much can increase the risk of various diseases and problems, including cancers).
- Visceral fat rating (the no-visible fat that surrounds your organs and can contribute risk towards developing diabetes, which can go undetected for many years).
- Plus many other body composition stats.
Getting these checks done with a doctor or at a clinic can be difficult, especially given the current pressure on health services in the UK. A workplace health check brings these important tests on-site to your team, making this one of the most convenient World Health Day ideas.
If you’d like to learn more about on-site health checks, head over to our workplace health checks page.
4. Raise money for charity
World Health Day is about just that – the whole world. Whilst we’re very fortunate to have free healthcare in the UK, there are parts of the world where healthcare isn’t affordable or accessible for many people.
With that in mind, you could look at raising money in your office to donate to an international cause, such as:
There are also plenty of good causes that you can support at home, too:
In terms of fundraising ideas, this is actually one of the easiest points on the list, as there are many simple ways to raise money at work:
- Staff bake sale
- Raffle
- Office Quiz (virtual or in-person)
- Dress up/down day
- Sponsored silence
- Sweepstakes on a sporting event or TV competition.
Speak to your staff to see what charities they’d like to raise money for, and how they’d like to do it.
5. Invest in First Aid Training
Emergency first aid could save someone’s life, and is something that everyone should learn to do, even on a basic level. Would your staff know what to do if they found someone unconscious but breathing, versus not breathing? Is there an Automated External Defibrillator nearby and, if so, where is it? (hint: you can find out here).
These skills may seem unnecessary to some, but first aid training is something you don’t need until you do – and when an emergency happens, it could help save a life.
Similarly, Mental Health First Aid is another great World Health Day idea. MHFAiders help to spot the signs and symptoms of mental ill health, then offer support, just like a physical first aider would.
Many workplaces now utilise MHFAiders, but the more that are trained, the better. In fact, in early 2023, a bill was brought into parliament to make workplace Mental Health First Aid a requirement for employers. Workplaces are becoming more mental health-aware, so now is a great time to invest in training.
If you’d like to learn more about Workplace Mental Health First Aid Training, take a look at our range of MHFA England on-site and online courses.
Conclusion
So there you have it, 5 World Health Day ideas for the workplace this April, to help inspire your staff to improve their own wellbeing, as well as others’.
To that end, if you’re looking for more ideas, why not check out our recent blog 52 Ideas for Workplace Wellbeing in 2023 – that’s one for every week of the year!
