Richmond Football Club promotes female fitness in partnership with VicHealth

The Richmond Football Club has teamed with VicHealth’s Find Your Motivation campaign to promote fitness opportunities for women aged 25 to 44.

The 131-year-old AFL Club, is practicing what it preaches, making it easy for office-based staff to find their motivation and get active during the course of their working lives.

Richmond’s All Roles Flex program - launched on International Women’s Day 2016 - enables office-based staff to fit their work commitments around their own unique, personal requirements for flexibility in the workplace.

The club’s General Manager of People, Culture & Performance, Dr Amanda Green, said this has seen flexibility around a range of employee activities and working arrangements outside traditional carer and childcare arrangements, with many electing to flex their working lives around the need to get active.

Dr Green explained “we’re quite open about saying flexibility is important to us and if it’s important to you too, let’s have a conversation, whatever your needs.

“We’re offering flexibility around anything that will help our people’s resilience, health, physical and mental wellbeing.”

Examples of those who are benefitting from the program include a member of the club’s media team with a heavy match-day workload who takes time out in the week to exercise because she is not free to workout on weekends, a member of the consumer team who exercises before work, arriving later in the morning to begin their sedentary phone-based role, a member of the administration team who chooses to drive to work outside rush hour so she can walk her children to school each day, and a member of the finance team who times work to fit around coaching duties with his daughter’s basketball team.

Dr Green adds “we’re blowing up the way we do things and challenging the perception that work can only be done within strict hours and at a desk.

“There’s no reason why our staff can’t head outside if they need to read a document or want to go for walking meetings.”

To this end, the Tiger’s ‘Ambush Walk’ sees the entire administrative staff walking and talking their way around the MCG’s Yarra Park complex five times during the AFL season. Named because the collective noun for a group of tigers is an ambush, Dr Green said the walks, introduced in early 2014, are a great way for employees to connect as a club.

She continues “being in the business of football means many of our office-based team members are active people so the walks are an innovative way of tapping into their desire to be up and out and not sitting at their desks.”

The walks, which set off at 9am, are followed by a post-game review with Richmond’s General Manager of Football.

Dr Green comments “when your workplace is the subject of intense scrutiny from the media and the public, as a football club often is, this process is a great way of getting everyone engaged and on the same page.

“Walking doesn’t have to be an intense form of activity so our Ambush Walks are accessible to all. By having the walks in everyone’s calendar people are very motivated to be there, get active, get out and get set up for the weeks ahead.”

Richmond Football Club’s Chief Executive Brendon Gale concludes “Find Your Motivation is all about people finding ways to get active that work for them.

“This initiative is a perfect fit for the Tigers existing culture which promotes mindful movement and recognises the importance of being fit, healthy and well to clear thought, decision making and focus.”

VicHealth’s Find Your Motivation campaign aims to promote existing exercise opportunities, shift attitudes towards exercise, and provide easy tips to motivate and increase physical activity.

2nd July 2016 - VICHEALTH INVESTING IN THE HEALTH AND WELLBEING OF VICTORIAN WOMEN

7th June 2016 - VICHEALTH GRANTS BACK GRASSROOTS SPORTING CLUBS

23rd March 2016 - RICHMOND TIGERS DIVERSIFY WITH CONTRACT TO MANAGE CARDINIA SHIRE AQUATIC AND RECREATION FACILITIES

27th February 2016 - RICHMOND FOOTBALL CLUB’S OFF FIELD SUCCESS BUILT ON THE INDUSTRY SKILLS OF KEY STAFF

19th November 2015 - RICHMOND RECORDS 11TH CONSECUTIVE YEAR OF PROFIT

10th August 2015 - VICHEALTH COMMITS $1.8 MILLION TO GET 25,000 WOMEN ACTIVE