Want to boost morale, health and wellness and at the same time see productivity rise? Health challenges are a fun way to achieve this goal!

Why bother?

Workplace health and wellness has become a corporate standard across the world. Enlightened managers have realised and research has proven that productivity gets a boost and profit margins rise when employees are healthy and happy. Health challenges are a fun, new trend to boost workplace morale, health and wellness.

What is a health challenge?

A health challenge is any activity whether physical, mental or informative that will help employees adopt healthier lifestyles and at the same time reap all the personal and corporate benefits attached to such a lifestyle. Inserting an element of fun and “healthy” competition and a tempting, not necessarily monetary reward should do the trick!

Some examples of health challenges:

    • Walk-, run- or ride-a-thons that help and inspire employees to “get physical”. Employees can either compete against themselves by setting goals based on their current level of fitness as recorded by their wearable devices such as pedometers (to log their steps, etc.) or in groups. Get a fitness footware or clothing company to sponsor a few prizes for those who meet their goals.
    • Lunch break walk challenges. Count the K’s and offer a monthly Certificate of Achievement to those who persist and reach their intended goals.
    • Avoid the lift and climb the stairs health challenge. Award a point every time a specific stairway (count the stairs) instead of the lift is taken. You will have to trust employees to be honest about this one.
    • Eat healthy snacks challenge. This can really work wonders especially if the company is prepared to stock the tea and lunch room with healthy (not necessarily free of charge) snacks instead of vending machines stocked with sodas and sweets. Award one point per day to an employee who eats only fruits or vegetables as snacks.
    • Learn to relax health challenge. Stress causes havoc in the workplace and teaching employees a few relaxation techniques will not only help individuals to cope better but will also change the atmosphere in the workplace for the better. Get an expert to teach a few classes (for free) and challenge all to attend.
    • Monthly health newsletters filled with health information and competitions such as cross word puzzles, etc. Ask health booksellers and publishers to donate some books as prizes.
    • Employee health days and health fairs, preferably during office hours, with a variety of health booths offering free advice and lots of free samples! Get a pharmaceutical company to sponsor the day. Give each employee an attendance form to be ticked off or stamped at each booth and offer small prizes to those who visited most booths.

How to go about it

Workplace health and wellness challenges are easy to implement as long as they are interesting, free and fun, bring employees together and are executed in a supportive, positive climate of camaraderie. Get everyone together and ask for ideas. Keep it short and sweet. Beware of the super competitive dudes taking over; keep it challenging but also within the less testosterone driven males’ (and females’) abilities. Reward effort but keep it non-monetary where possible. Remember that employees, especially those who have been inactive for a long time, are very overweight or have any sort of medical condition, must go for a general physical check-up before the games start.

 

Sources

Black, A. 2016. Simple, fun wellness challenges to start at work. Retrieved from: https://health.gov/news/blog-bayw/2016/06/7-simple-fun-wellness-challenges-to-start-at-work/
Selcho, S. 2015. Workplace wellness ideas that really work. Retrieved from: https://www.incorporatemassage.com/blog/workplace-wellness-ideas-that-really-work
Workplace Wellness Challenges – fun, effective and free! Retrieved from: http://www.corporatewellnessmagazine.com/worksite-wellness/workplace-wellness-challenges/