How to organise a company-wide wellness challenge

Many of the benefits of workplace wellness challenges are similar to those of a workplace wellness program. There are a few added bonuses thanks to the focus a wellness challenge provides, depending on the type of challenge you choose.

Wellness challenges benefit your employees and your business in various ways. Let's look at a few examples.

Boost your well-being efforts

Wellness challenges work to focus your employees' minds on a particular issue, learn more about it and aim for a clear goal or outcome. They're usually time-limited with a clear end. Short-term deadlines can improve focus and motivate employees to achieve their targets as long as the goal is realistic. A good wellness challenge will also break the goal into manageable chunks, such as a specific number of daily steps.

By contrast, wellness programs can support various goals and are typically ongoing. While they're a great way to support employee health, the number of options on offer can mean employees need help deciding what to focus on first. A wellness challenge can provide inspiration and help them get started. If they're done well, wellness challenges can also lay the foundations for ongoing participation in wellness programs and initiatives as workers want to build on their results.

Attracting new employees

Good health and well-being are increasingly important to employees and job seekers. Employees look for employers who share their values and support them to achieve their goals. Offering an employee benefits package that includes well-being support will help your business attract new talent and achieve continued growth.

It's a good idea to mention employee benefits, including your wellness program, when advertising existing vacancies and in your company marketing. This approach helps you attract candidates and builds your reputation as an employer that cares for its team. If you want to create a company culture that values employee health and well-being, recruiting staff who share those values will help. Sharing information about wellness challenges and programs during interviews will help you identify the best candidates, as they'll respond positively.

Better employee engagement

Wellness challenges can increase employee engagement, job satisfaction and employee retention. This means you can spend your time and money building your business instead of constantly recruiting new staff because the existing ones are ill or burnt out. Research shows that a wellness program can increase employee engagement, and wellness challenges act as an accelerator, giving your efforts laser focus.

Employees are more highly engaged when they know their employer values their well-being. They're, therefore, less likely to seek a new role elsewhere, reducing employee turnover. That also benefits productivity as you can maintain continuity and staff are more motivated to achieve their targets and produce good quality work.

Finally, engaged employees have greater job satisfaction, which means they're more likely to provide your customers with excellent service. Wellness challenges can also be part of a company culture where you encourage employees to look after each other, whether by promoting good mental health or preventing workplace accidents.

Improving mental health and reducing stress

Sickness absences due to mental health issues appear to be reducing, but businesses must still consider the impact of workplace stress and other psychological issues on employees. A workplace wellness challenge can tackle the underlying causes of stress. For example, a walking challenge at work can help employees take time away from their desks to go outside. Regular breaks help reduce stress, as can time outside. Spending time in nature can also improve employee health in other ways, such as boosting their physical health with exercise and improved sleep.

Your wellness program may provide access to resources like an employee assistance program, counselling or mindfulness and meditation apps. However, a workplace wellness challenge can teach your team more about the benefits of healthy habits and encourage them to participate.

Poor mental health can impact physical health and vice versa. Employee wellness challenges focusing on improved mental well-being can relieve physical symptoms like weight gain, poor sleep, headaches, heart issues or high blood pressure. Ill health can result in anxiety or depression, meaning physical activity challenges can also benefit mental well-being.

Reducing absenteeism

It makes sense that if your employees participate in a workplace wellness challenge and develop healthy lifestyle habits as a result, they'll be less likely to take time off work because of illness. This depends on developing an employee wellness challenge that tackles your employees' health risks.

A wellness challenge could also motivate employees to come to work as they enjoy participating. Obviously, it would be unhealthy to expect employees to go to work if they're genuinely unwell or risk passing an illness to their colleagues. A company culture that encourages presenteeism is problematic and can result in reduced productivity, lower employee morale and burnout. However, a wellness challenge can motivate workers to come to work and benefit from peer support.

Better relationships at work

A workplace wellness challenge can help colleagues get to know each other better and improve morale and team dynamics. A successful wellness challenge can also break down barriers between people at different levels of the business, leading to better communication and relationships. An open culture where employees can raise concerns or share ideas can boost morale and improve business growth.

Research suggests that having a best friend at work improves employee engagement, retention and performance. Encouraging employees to build relationships lets them access peer support when needed. It can also increase retention rates and improve productivity.

Creating a healthy lifestyle

A wellness challenge helps employees create habits that will improve their mental and physical health. A challenge lets employees see the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and want to keep going. An employee wellness program can then build on the initial wellness challenge by enabling employees to maintain the habits they've developed.

A wellness challenge can also be the catalyst for more significant lifestyle change. For example, if any employees want to lose weight and get fitter, a challenge encouraging physical activity or educating your team about healthy food can lay the groundwork for long-term change.

A team challenge lets colleagues work together, boosting morale, improving team dynamics and enabling team members to learn from each other. This approach supports a healthy workplace culture, with your wellness challenge as the starting point and a wellness program providing ongoing support.

Improved productivity

We've mentioned various ways a wellness challenge can improve productivity, such as promoting better workplace relationships and boosting morale. Healthy employees are typically more productive as they have fewer sickness absences. However, your employees will also be more productive and efficient if they feel their employer cares about their health and well-being. A successful workplace wellness challenge should engage and motivate employees to take part by demonstrating the health benefits.

Healthy habits can boost productivity by improving an employee's well-being. For example, physical activity benefits employees' mental and emotional health. It can enhance their concentration, help them solve problems and come up with creative new ideas.

Having thorough knowledge and insight into your employees' lifestyles and the obstacles they face in improving their health helps you design a successful wellness challenge.

There are many different types of wellness challenges, so you can choose one that meets your employees' needs and business goals. As we've mentioned, thoroughly understanding your employees' needs and the type of wellness challenge that will help them improve their health is essential.

A wellness challenge can focus on physical fitness but doesn't have to. Emotional health and well-being are just as important. Suppose you have yet to organise a wellness challenge. In that case, you might wonder what type of activity will encourage employees to participate or how you can tailor your challenge to have a positive impact.

Corporate wellness challenges can form part of your onboarding process for new employees, particularly if you choose a team challenge. They can help new starters get to know their colleagues and demonstrate your commitment to employee well-being. However, you can run a wellness challenge at any time.

Here are a few wellness challenge ideas to get you started.

Walking challenges

Walking challenges encourage physical movement, and most employees can take part. They're a great way to introduce wellness challenges; they're simple to organise and give employees a clear goal. Walking has many health benefits and is accessible as employees can move at their own pace. You can support the challenge by introducing walking meetings or organising a lunchtime walking group. Walking is a moderate-intensity exercise. Employees should be able to talk while they walk, meaning they can use the time to build relationships with their colleagues.

You can choose a step challenge, where employees aim for a set number of daily steps. Alternatively, if you have several offices within walking distance, challenge employees to walk between offices and get to know their colleagues face-to-face rather than over email. You could also challenge participants to walk a set distance, such as Lands End to John O'Groats, or the length of a notable road or walking path near you.

Healthy eating challenges

A wellness challenge focusing on good nutrition can be tricky to organise as it's less easily measurable than fitness challenges such as step challenges. Each employee will likely have a different approach to eating healthy food, while some must follow a specific diet because of health issues.

A food-based challenge can aim to educate employees about healthy meals, with talks from nutritionists who reward participants for attending. You could also include cooking sessions or opportunities to taste new foods, such as unusual fruits and vegetables or healthy meals from different cultures.

If you'd like employees to track progress, apps such as MyFitnessPal can track calories and the nutritional breakdown of meals. You could reward employees who use the app. However, you must be careful not to shame anyone for their food choices or exceeding their daily calorie guide.

Promoting mental health

As we've mentioned, mental and emotional health can significantly impact employees' daily lives. Education about managing mental and emotional well-being is vital, and your wellness programs should include practical support, such as access to counselling or self-help resources.

Some wellness challenge ideas include running mindfulness or meditation sessions in the office or over Zoom if your team works remotely, with rewards for attendance. Alternatively, enable employees to practice mindfulness in their free time by providing access to apps such as Calm, Headspace or Insight Timer. Some are free to use, while others have limited free access and a paid version. Some policies offer discounts on paid apps if you have business health insurance. Your employees can track their progress by completing a spreadsheet showing how many minutes they completed or how many consecutive days they logged in to use the app.

Getting more sleep

Sleep is vital to good health, supporting physical, mental and emotional well-being. Poor sleep quality is also linked to several chronic illnesses, including diabetes, cancer, heart disease and an increased risk of cognitive impairment.

We're not suggesting you monitor your employees' sleep; some people will be fine with seven hours, while others need closer to nine. If you decide to run a sleep challenge, focusing on education is wise. You can teach employees about the importance of good sleep and how to establish a healthy sleep routine, with rewards based on quizzes to reinforce what they've learned.

Learning to take time off

Developing a good work-life balance is great for overall well-being, helping staff avoid burnout and spend quality time with their loved ones. If you've ever had to remind your team to use their annual leave allowance, corporate wellness challenges showcasing the benefits of taking time off could help.

This could be an educational challenge using training sessions and quizzes. However, you could also challenge employees to design their dream holiday or find resources to share with their colleagues for days out in your area. If the resources include local walks, you could combine these with future wellness initiatives like fitness challenges. Post details of resources on the company intranet and highlight them in well-being emails so they'll form part of your ongoing employee wellness program.

Now we've given you some wellness challenge ideas, you're probably wondering how to create a successful challenge. Well-planned corporate wellness challenges can underpin a successful wellness program, meaning getting it right will help you improve employee well-being in the long term.

Here are our practical tips on organising a wellness challenge, with some things to consider.

Decide your objectives

The first step to organising a successful wellness challenge is to decide what you want to achieve. You may have noticed particular patterns in sickness absence records or spoken to managers concerned that their teams are experiencing high levels of stress and need support. If you provide health insurance as an employee benefit, your workers may have had a health assessment to help them identify potential health risks and areas for improvement. While your insurer won't disclose individual assessment records, they can provide anonymised data showing common trends. These can help you identify a challenge and provide appropriate support.

A wellness challenge won't bring about overnight change, but it can educate your team and get them off to a good start. Consider the health concerns you want the challenge to address and set realistic goals. For example, a six-week step challenge will help employees develop a daily walking habit, which they can carry into their everyday lives. They could also attend a set number of training or activity sessions or log into a mindfulness app daily.

Create a support structure

An effective wellness challenge must be underpinned by a positive company culture that supports your wellness efforts. For example, a challenge encouraging employees to create a good work-life balance is unlikely to succeed if managers never take a day off and send work-related emails in the middle of the night. Encouraging managers to participate in and promote the challenge to their teams means employees are more likely to get involved in workplace challenges, and managers' health and well-being will also benefit.

You could create a wellness committee to plan and promote the challenge and other initiatives. Wellness champions can also promote the challenge and provide participants with support and encouragement. Encourage staff to give feedback and ask for support if they need clarification on the challenge or are struggling with any element of it.

Create educational resources

We've mentioned several wellness challenge ideas that aim to educate employees and demonstrate what they've learned via quizzes. Even if you choose to run a fitness challenge, education is still a vital part of the process. Employees are more likely to adopt healthy behaviours in the long term if they understand the benefits. It's a good idea to provide new information gradually. Several health benefits may be associated with a single challenge, but information provided in one long training session is less likely to sink in. You can use several formats, such as talks, videos and written information.

Many private health insurers and healthcare providers offer online resources, such as health assessment tools and articles, available to members and non-members. The NHS Live Well site also has free resources and links to apps like Couch25k. You can use these as a starting point and provide your team with links.

Choose an activity and format

The challenge ideas we've shared should help you choose a suitable activity and format based on your goals. The exact format will depend on your team's needs and existing habits. For example, you wouldn't choose a challenge involving in-person activity sessions if all your employees work remotely. However, a social challenge where employees compete alongside a partner or as part of a small team can help them engage with each other to provide support and encouragement, even if they're in different places. Team challenges can help employees build good workplace relationships, while individual challenges can encourage healthy competition.

Also, consider how long the challenge will last. It should be long enough to lay the foundations of lasting change but short enough to hold employees' interest.

Make the challenge fun

When you challenge employees to improve their health and well-being, you need to make it fun. Otherwise, it becomes another onerous task to tick off during their working day. Employees are more likely to get involved and complete the challenge if they enjoy what they're doing. Making a challenge feel like a game can help. Create a leaderboard for a competitive challenge to encourage conversation. In individual challenges, provide an interface showing each participant their progress. Say your challenge involves walking the length of the Thames Path (about 184 miles). Create a physical or virtual map showing where each participant is. You could also add some information about each landmark along the route.

Host a launch party or themed event to build excitement and another to celebrate the participants and challenge winners.

Consider ways to make the challenge inclusive

Employees will start a challenge from different places, depending on their ability levels and current habits, which can affect your choice of activity and reward structure. As we've mentioned, challenge ideas that involve attending a particular location may not be practical for hybrid or home-based workers. Employees with caring commitments might struggle to go to a gym but could benefit from a lunchtime walk or getting outside with their children at the weekend.

Challenges that allow personal goal setting or offer a level playing field are ideal. For example, if you choose a walking challenge, you might ask employees to walk each day for a set amount of time. This is likely more inclusive than a step or distance challenge, as everyone can walk at their own pace. Alternatively, ask participants to measure their step count for the first week and aim to increase it by a specific percentage. This approach could also work for a mindfulness challenge, where employees use their mindfulness app daily or increase their usage during the challenge.

Also, consider any employees with disabilities and how you can adapt a challenge to meet their needs.

How will you track progress?

Some activities offer easy-to-track metrics, such as fitness challenges or those that involve attending workplace activities or training sessions. If you can provide your team with fitness trackers such as pedometers or smart watches, they can measure their progress easily and complete a spreadsheet. Many mobile phones also include fitness apps with step counters or distance trackers. Challenges using apps, such as mindfulness apps or nutrition trackers, can also offer useful data.

You can keep an attendance register for organised activities. For educational challenges, quizzes can demonstrate knowledge. However, you should track completion rather than individual scores, which can demotivate some.

Offer rewards

Good health is its own reward, but offering rewards to challenge participants and winners encourages friendly competition and encourages employees to keep going. You can assess rewards based on your budget and the likelihood that multiple employees will achieve the target objective. For example, a clear winner may receive a significant reward in a competitive challenge. Other challenges might involve several winners who all hit their target, complete all the quizzes, or attend every training session. In that case, several smaller prizes might be more affordable.

The type of reward you choose should reflect your company values and the nature of the challenge. It could be a spa or activity day, a year's healthy recipe subscription or vouchers so staff can choose their reward.

Evaluate results

Finally, evaluate your results. Did your challenge achieve its objectives? If you set measurable targets, how many people reached them? If not, they may have been unrealistic, or your staff may not have achieved them for other reasons. For example, if lots of participants dropped out at a particular stage, it may have been due to boredom or other tasks taking priority.

Where available, data can help you identify patterns and trends. It's also a good idea to gather feedback via surveys or ask wellness champions to speak with participants one-on-one. This information can help you identify improvements for future challenges. If you plan to run multiple challenges, offering various activity types can help to engage people across your workforce. If you run a series of training sessions, you might discover that some are more popular than others. For example, your team might prefer hands-on cooking classes with lunch at the end rather than a talk from a nutritionist.

Business health insurance can support you in creating and organising workplace wellness challenges, and it's also a highly valued employee benefit. At Globacare, we help our clients find the right health insurance policy. Contact us for advice tailored to your needs.