BeUpstanding is a free evidence-based workplace initiative designed to help Australian workers to stand up, sit less and move more for their health and wellbeing. The program uses an online toolkit to provide a step-by-step guide and associated resources that equip a workplace representative — the “champion” — to adopt and deliver the eight-week program (BeUpstanding) in their work team or organisation. Work teams collectively identify and promote strategies to support these behaviours that best suit their unique workplace and culture.

Although the toolkit is free, if you would like some additional help, we also offer some additional services at a cost. Contact us at beupstanding@uq.edu.au.

The BeUpstanding program is designed as a three-month program with the initial month consisting of a needs assessment and planning for the program and then 8 weeks of implementing the program. This can vary depending on your workplace's needs and the level of implementation.

We recommend that you run BeUpstanding in your work team for at least eight weeks and you’ll probably need at least a month to prepare (so 3 months total). All staff will need to spend 30 minutes to one hour at a consultation workshop and your workplace champion will need to spend around half an hour a week running the program. The time required for an overseer depends on the number of teams you are setting up and monitoring, and how well your teams are on track. It should take less than five minutes to set up a team.

The goal of BeUpstanding is to reduce prolonged periods of sitting through raising awareness and creating a culture where moving more and sitting less is the norm for happier, healthier workplaces. Download our Business Case for the benefits of sitting less and the return on investment.

The program is designed to help you, as the champion, support your work team to sit less and move more. It is important that the strategies you choose, and how you promote the strategies, are consistent with your work, health and safety requirements. Strategies chosen should take into account your unique staffing profile. If changes are too rapid, staff may experience musculoskeletal impacts. Emphasise the importance of regular postural changes and listening to your body when you are promoting the program. Additionally, although the program is designed for your whole team to participate, make it clear it is ok if not everyone wants to take part. If any staff have any pre-existing medical condition, it is recommended that they follow the advice of their doctor in regards to their level of participation in the program.

That’s a great question! It’s not so easy to answer because everyone is different but we recommend aiming to spend no more than 50% of the work day sitting and reducing long periods of uninterrupted sitting by standing up at least every 30 minutes. Similarly, it is not just about standing all day either. The goal is to alternate postures regularly — both at work and outside of work. Listen to your body, it will help tell you when to move.

Despite the name, BeUpstanding is not just about standing! Too much standing at one time can also have detrimental impacts. The BeUpstanding program is about creating a dynamic workplace—where workers are encouraged and supported to regularly shift between sitting, standing and moving. We recommend changing between sitting and upright postures at least every 30 minutes.

BeUpstanding is much more than just counting steps. It is about raising awareness of the benefits of sitting less, and creating a cultural shift at work so that sitting less and moving more becomes the new norm.

It is not accredited—yet. BeUpstanding has been developed based on the best available research evidence and in conjunction with government, health industry and work policy partners. If you are in Queensland, you can use your participation in BeUpstanding for your Be Recognised application to the Queensland Office of Industrial Relations

The BeUpstanding program is about encouraging more movement, more often for to enhance health, wellbeing and productivity. You do not need to stand to be able to reduce your sedentary time. However, everyone who helps to contribute to building and sustaining a dynamic culture can be considering an Upstanding member of their team!

BeUpstanding is targeted at adults in desk-based workplaces. If you are at a school and are interested in how to BeUpstanding please contact us.

We recommend between 5 to 50 people in a team. If you are a large organisation, you can have multiple teams of varying sizes taking part in the program at the same time. If you are a small organisation, you can run the program with as little as 3 people. It's about choosing a team that consists of staff who work closely together or who can communicate easily and regularly throughout the program.

The program is self-directed with all the tools and resources you need to run the program provided in the online toolkit. This includes including implementation guides, posters, activity challenges, educational materials, email templates, and workplace policies. These resources are designed to engage and motivate employees to adopt healthier behaviours. If you do have any questions about the program or need help, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Of course! We are wanting to make sure our Toolkit can reach as many diverse workplaces and teams as possible and the toolkit includes tips and resources for helping you run the program no matter what kind of workspace your staff have.

Yes, the BeUpstanding program can be customised to align with the unique needs and requirements of your workplace. The resources in the toolkit will guide you in this and your team is encouraged to choose strategies to fit your individual teams’ desires and culture.

The Toolkit includes a variety of resources to help motivate staff, including videos, email templates, posters and tip sheets. We also offer personalised coaching in behaviour change and workshops in championing change, if you need extra support. Contact us.

We suggest creating a wellbeing committee or at least one additional person to help support the champion to run the program so that if the champion is away or ends up leaving there are others who are familiar with how it works and can access the toolkit to continue to deliver the program in the team.

We realise that each workplace is different, and each champion brings a unique set of skills and experience, so not every step may be needed or relevant for your work team. However, to gain the most benefit out of the program, we strongly recommend completing all the steps in order.

Fantastic! Now is the time to review and reflect, and start planning for when you will run BeUpstanding again. The program is designed to build on existing knowledge and culture change to achieve long-term success. You can find helpful resources on how to create a sustainable BeUpstanding plan in the resources section of the toolkit and in the ‘Where to from here’ section of the toolkit in the Wrap Up phase.

If your work team is not yet taking part in BeUpstanding, let your manager know about the program, and encourage your organisation to participate. There are also many things that you can do right now to BeUpstanding. Have a look at our Blog and Resources to get lots of ideas and tips to get started.

Data collected through the Toolkit will be used by researchers at The University of Queensland and collaborative research institutes to understand the use and impact of the program. Take a look at our Privacy Policy

The BeUpstanding program provides evaluation tools and resources to help measure its effectiveness. These tools include surveys, data collection methods, and team performance reports to track changes in employee behaviour, health outcomes, and organisational culture.

BeUpstanding has a social media platform where you can facebook, Instagram, and tweet about how your team is being upstanding. We are also interested in sharing your story through our blog and newsletters. Contact us.

You can go into the staff survey portal of the stage of the program you are at and you will be able to see how many staff have completed the survey at that stage. If you are an overseer of multiple champions and teams, you can access this information via your dashboard and view more detailed data on each of your workplace teams on the Insights page of the toolkit.

We do not support Microsoft Explorer because Microsoft has decided to discontinue this browser. It has not released any updates in years, and this puts this browser well behind others in terms of security and its ability to support new technologies. BeUpstanding is best experienced on the two most recent versions of Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Microsoft Edge.

You can reset your password by going to the sign in page and doing a password reset.

If you are having trouble locating a resource, head to the Resources section of the toolkit. You can browse all resources or search by a using a keyword for the type of resource you are after.

As a Champion in BeUpstanding you have access to a survey portal which enables you to send out surveys to staff and track their anonymous responses. If you have sent the survey to staff but the portal does not seem to be working properly, do the following checks: 1) Have at least two staff completed the survey? To assist with anonymity, at least two staff need to complete the survey before responses are shown; 2) Have you sent the correct link? Please use the link available in the portal to send to staff. Do not use third party software to create a hyperlink. If you have difficulties, please contact us

Only a person who is in the toolkit as an overseer can change team names and create teams and champions. If you are not an overseer and want to do any of those things, you will need to contact whoever is the overseer for your organisation.