People Potential Whangarei made the decision to prioritise workplace wellness by joining the Sport Northland Active Workplace Programme in 2014.

The People Potential team took leadership right from the start with monthly wellness initiatives set up under the pillars – Move, Event, Support and Learn.  Under each of these pillars wellness initiatives for staff were formed for staff by staff. 

The ‘Move’ pillar included in-house yoga, the promotion of walking/talking meetings, increased activity throughout the day and the Active Workplace Step Challenges.

The ‘Event’ pillar included all the Sport Northland run/walk series events, external events, 12 days of Christmas promotion and the Ray White Hatea Loop Challenge.

The ‘Support’ pillar was the biggest pillar containing workplace wellness initiatives around Surf Lifesaving, melanoma awareness, Pink Ribbon Day, a Biggest Loser competition, Active Workplace wellness checks, junk free June and the Ngati Hine Stop Smoking Campaign.

Lastly the ‘Learn’ Pillar included mindful eating, men’s health weeks, Active Workplace Sharing Forum, interactive healthy soup/smoothie days, staff training in nutritional do’s/don’ts and Local Sea Cleans.

The local Sea Cleaners is a great community initiative that People Potential has kept up on a regular basis.  The Sea Clean comprises of staff/students heading out to the local beaches and cleaning up the beach of unwanted rubbish and debris.  Andrea Ross says “I am a huge fan of sea cleaners and we all try to be involved as much as we can. We all get stuck in and pick up rubbish all along our harbour. It is heart breaking seeing how much rubbish we collect.  It is not only great exercise but we are making such a difference and it certainly makes us all think about how we dispose of our rubbish”. Sea Cleaners is a non-profit organisation with the slogan “We remove rubbish from the sea, for every being”.  You can find out more at their website www.seacleaners.com.

Moving forward, People Potential is continuing to value their staff as their workplace wellness moves from strength to strength.  Sport Northland’s Active Workplace Coordinator Sharon Adams says “it’s great to see People Potential valuing their staff by looking after their wellness and I challenge other workplaces to think about their own workplace wellness by asking - how well do you value your staff’s workplace wellness? And what does your company have in place to support this? Workplace wellness can be a simple and inexpensive thing to start, it only takes a few keen people and a bit of leadership to get started”.

For more information on Active Workplaces, visit www.sportnorthland.co.nz.