Walk the talk – Get your workplace walking more

In our last blog we shared with you why encouraging cycling is a good idea and how you can make some quick easy changes at your workplace to help your staff give cycling a go.

However, cycling might seem a bit too much for some staff. In particular, people who have lower levels of daily activity might find it easier to start walking more first. In this blog we will provide plenty of tips and resources to start reaping the benefits of people walking more at your workplace.

The cost of inactivity & benefits of active travel

In our toolkit, ‘The business case for encouraging walking’, we have highlighted the cost to the UK economy, businesses and individuals of not being active enough. Low levels of physical activity are leading to poor health and wellbeing, costing UK businesses due to cardiovascular disease (CVD), sickness absence and presenteeism each year.

As we pointed out in our first blog, active travel can bring great benefits to your organisation and help to:

• Reduce your travel related carbon emissions
• Improve productivity
• Create a happier and healthier workforce

A five-year study compared people who had an active commute with those who travelled sitting down (e.g., in a car). The researchers found that walking as a commute was associated with lower risk of CVD incidence and mortality.

How to start supporting your staff to walk more

In our second blog we set out three simple steps for you to get started on your workplace travel plan. We have put together some great tips and resources to guide you to make changes.

Our Travel Devon Toolkits

• Have a browse through our toolkits. Our ‘Making your business walking friendly’ toolkit contains guidance on how your organisation can become a workplace that encourages and supports walking to work and covers auditing your site, facilities, business travel and route mapping.
• The ‘Promoting walking’ toolkit provides you with plenty of ideas for events and activities to help you promote walking and encourage people to give it a go.

Great online resources

Wondering how you can get your staff more engaged in active travel? We have got some great resources to inspire your staff to get walking more:

• Our Travel Devon wall calendar includes walking related campaigns and challenges for 2022. To raise the profile of walking to work or on business, you could promote a campaign to your staff and maybe even arrange some supporting activities like a walk to work breakfast (see our ‘Promoting walking’ toolkit for more ideas!).
• On the Travel Devon websiteyou can find some great tips to start walking to work and advice for walking to school. Our website also hosts town and city active travel maps and interactive cycle map which show footpaths and other additional information.
• Some people will benefit from a step-change approach and might find it easier to start walking more for leisure. The Explore Devon websiteis a great way to find routes and places to visit and help you explore Devon the naturally active way. It provides detailed information on a number of long-distance routes, shorter day and half-day circular walks and short easily accessible walks for those with limited mobility.

TIP: Every step counts! Even just parking a little bit further away and walking the last leg of their journey, can help your staff to walk more.

Join Let’s Walk and More, Devon’s biggest active workplace challenge

Looking for a free walking challenge your staff can get involved in? Sign up for the ever-popular Let’s Walk and More challenge. Running from the 1-31st March 2022, this challenge is all about encouraging you and your colleagues to be active daily, with the aim of getting to the top of the leader board and becoming Let’s Walk and More’s most active workplace.

Staff can enter teams of 3 to 12 people and your workplace can enter multiple teams to get as many people as possible involved. Whether people travel to work or are working from home, everyone can take part, plus, there are lots of great prizes to be won.

This year is all about rewarding consistency in being active, tracking your individual and team progress and celebrating the activity levels of your workplace. It really doesn’t matter how far or how fast people go, just that they are active for 26 minutes and support other team members to do the same.

For more information about this great challenge, please visit the Let’s Walk and More page on the Active Devon website or contact Active Devon with any questions at hello@activedevon.org.

Further support and information

We hope we have inspired you to start making some small changes to help your staff to give walking a go. The Travel Devon Toolkit is full of other practical information and toolkits to help encourage sustainable and active travel. So have a browse!

With any questions, please get in touch with us at traveldevon@devon.gov.uk.

For general information on how to get around in Devon, please visit our Travel Devon website.

COVID-19

Visit the Devon County Council website for coronavirus advice in Devon. Please also refer to the government guidance for safer travel.