Quick Wins for Learning at Work Day

If you don't have a lot of time to plan Learning at Work (LAW) Day this year, you may wish to run one of these 'Quick Win' activities under the theme of 'Sustainable workplaces' :

Environmental activities

• Walking is a great activity for a healthy workplace as its cheap, requires little resources and can be great fun. The Countryside Agency run a Walking the Way to Health initiative, and they can work with you to develop local walks that could be accomplished in a lunchtime. Get hold of some pedometers and challenge colleagues to walk the most steps in a day.

• Challenge your staff to reduce their carbon footprint. You could use 'shrink your carbon footprint' article for ideas to get you started.

Work/ life balance activities

• Offer a series of five minute health breaks on LAW Day to show how easy it is to embed these practices into working life. You could try our De-stress Workout or try out a yoga workout at your desk!

• Partner up with a local gym or leisure centre to provide on site consultations on LAW Day. Reassure employees that their information will not be shared with the employer. This could then be extended to running fitness sessions on a more regular basis. You can either approach fitness instructors to come in- house or work with a local gym to offer discounted membership. East Devon DC gives employees an extra half an hour at lunchtime twice a week to attend classes.

• Feed the mind! Challenge your colleagues to eating only healthy snacks that improve brain power and energy. You can find out more information on the best things to eat, by clicking here.

Lifelong learning activities

• Share One Skill! Encourage members of staff with specific areas of expertise to help colleagues with day-to-day tasks by sharing their knowledge or skills. It could be 'how to create a formula in Excel', 'writing a budget', 'how to take notes' or 'how to deal with customers'. Set up a Share One Skill notice board and ask colleagues to pin up what they can offer as well as what they would like to learn.

• Use in-house expertise. Send out a questionnaire to staff to uncover hidden talents. Find out if they are willing to share their talents and deliver a session to the rest of the organisation. The Campaign for Learning revealed an aromatherapist, fitness instructor, counsellor, nutritionist and masseuse amongst its staff.

• Check out the Move On/Get On at Work Challenge and encourage colleagues to brush up on their skills.

• Confused by payslips? Hold a thirty minutes session to help employees to understand them. If they are paying into a pension fund, how much is this a month? How much, if at all, does the employer contribute? For an understanding your payslip activity sheet click here.