Workplace Wellness: Using Youth Sports Sponsorships to Instill Healthy Habits Outside of the Office

Posted by Amelia K. on Friday, October 31st, 2014 with Comments Off on Workplace Wellness: Using Youth Sports Sponsorships to Instill Healthy Habits Outside of the Office Comments

For a lot of companies, helping employees find the right balance between work and home life – and integrating healthy habits into both – is a top priority. And while that’s not always the easiest challenge to tackle, thinking about things from your employee’s perspective – including what they do when they leave the office for the day – can really help you to better understand what kinds of workplace wellness programs will help them make healthier choices in their daily lives. The reality for many businesses is that Millennials and Generation X make up the majority of the workforce right now- meaning a good percentage of your own staff likely falls into these generational categories.

A large group within these two generations are at the age where their children are involved in a lot of youth sports activities. This creates a huge opportunity for companies that are focused on giving their employees the tools to live a healthier life. Not only is this a way to encourage your own staff to get active at the end of their workday, it’s also a way to pay-it-forward to the next generation by illustrating healthy habits for them to learn early in life and carry them through adulthood.

So if you’re ready to take your workplace wellness plan to the next level and institute a youth sports sponsorship program at your business, we’re here to support you! We’ve detailed below everything you need to consider to get started.

Make Youth Sports a Priority

For many employees, their children’s extracurricular activities take up most of their free time outside of the office. In fact, working moms cite work and family obligations as the reason why they often sacrifice their own health. Forty percent report giving up sleep and 35 percent give up exercise in an effort to pack as much into their day as possible. One way to combat that? Getting them active at their kid’s sporting events. Encouraging working parents in your office to coach or volunteer at their child’s games can be a great way to show them how to also get a little activity in their day.

To do this best, you could set up a sort of sponsorship program within your company. Youth sports team sponsorships are relatively inexpensive, great for building employee morale (after all, who doesn’t love a business that supports their kids?) and also excellent for marketing your business to the local community. You can encourage parents to participate by including parental involvement with the team as a qualification standard for the funds – or increasing sponsorship dollars available for teams for which your employees coach or volunteer. It’s a win-win for you and your staff and will help them to get more active when they’re at their child’s practices.

Teach Best Practices

For most parents, coaching a sports team is a completely foreign concept, so this is where you might get some pushback from your employees. In an effort to really help your staff understand how to get involved – and maximize their commitment and their time – host an interactive lunch and learn series that teaches your team how to coach young children in a positive way. Bring in a youth coaching expert to give them some unique drills that they can incorporate into their practices and show the importance of participating in the drills with the kids, both to exhibit what it means to be a team player and to get some physical activity into their own day. You can also bring in a youth nutrition expert to give them ideas for healthy snacks they can bring and encourage other parents to bring. And for each lunch and learn, bring in a healthy, catered lunch to continue showing that your company is dedicated to helping them live healthy lives and appreciates their involvement.

As your program grows, you could even incorporate a sort of mentoring program to give your employees guidance through their first year interacting on their teams. The more resources you can provide, the more successful your sponsorship program will be. And the more you can encourage your staff to incorporate healthy choices into their life outside of work, the healthier your human capital will become.

Pay it Forward

Creating a sponsorship program for youth sports within your company isn’t just a way to help your employees learn how to integrate healthier habits into their lives outside of work. It’s also a way to really give back to your community and promote healthy values within families, instead of just focusing on healthy choices as a weight management tool for adults. To take your program to the next level, consider hosting a catered event at your facility and invite all of the kids and parents who participated on the teams you sponsored throughout the year. Not only will this give you the chance to create goodwill for your efforts within the community, it creates one more touch point to continue instilling healthier habits into the lives of your families and those close to them . It also helps to reach other decision makers in the area, which could help you grow your business as a fringe benefit.

And when you’re ready to get your lunch and learns or team celebration coordinated, Waiter.com has your catering needs covered. We offer delicious, healthy food options that everyone is sure to love – and are proud advocates of workplace wellness programs around the city.

When it comes to feeding employees and coworkers, make your company's food program really count! If your workplace dining plan needs to take it up a notch — or if you don't have one at all — Waiter.com is here to help. From Virtual Cafeteria Service to diverse menus to local takeout & delivery, Waiter.com offers customizable dining solutions for every business and budget. Contact us today to get started!

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