Why You Should Do A Walking Challenge at Your Office

Employees are feeling less engaged than they ever have before. According to Gallop Polls, only 15% of employees say that they feel engaged while at work. That means 85% feel that their offices are lacking engagement, which leads to a whopping 1 trillion (yes that's trillion) dollars in loss over the course of the year. With a trend of returning to the office, it is Important to give your employees and staff a reason to want to come back. That means, creating a company culture that fosters wellness and friendships, as well a space that is considered free of stress.

A healthy spirit of competition can bring out grit and determination. Individuals with these traits are valuable to a business, but an entire team with these traits can change the bottom line. In complex business environments, great teams don’t just materialize out of thin air by putting a group of individuals together; there has to be coalescence, where all members are working together toward the same goal as one.

Getting teams to this point is key, because once a group of contributors learn how to tackle problems as a team, it can be the “secret sauce” to meet goals. A team-based step challenge at work provides an ideal event that helps teams learn to work together toward a goal.

Getting into the routine of walking and building new patterns takes a couple of weeks. At first you dread the interruption of your day, you flail through the motions, then a placeholder gets put in your schedule, then you find yourself regularly participating or even anticipating your next move. When you join the office walking challenge, you do so with other people, forming teams and competing against other teams. Research shows that people who have workout partners succeed in their fitness and weight-loss goals MUCH more often than those who go it alone. People don’t want to let down the team, right?

Goal setting is an innate benefit of any company walking challenge because it gives milestones to celebrate along the way. Employee research indicates that meaningful and frequent feedback is necessary to employee engagement. So, celebrate the wins!

As we outlined above, a game-based challenge can be addictive and habit forming. This provides an ideal opportunity to “strike while the iron’s hot” with supplemental healthy education. Consider tips on eating healthy, new ideas for extending workouts, or challenges like hiking, in-line skating or cross country your employees haven’t looked at before. For many, the biggest obstacle to exercise and healthy diet is simply getting started, and a walking challenge provides a great way to get the ball rolling.

Regardless of background, walking is a given for most people, and everybody enjoys having fun, so mixing the two in a team-based competition makes sense as a starting point for common ground.

In addition to the obvious health benefits, it builds camaraderie with people and forms a new matrix of relationships. There’s something about infecting the boss that can bring out a sense of humor. Join in, infect a few people, and enjoy the company!

Studies show that for every dollar you spend on health intervention, you’ll see $6 in healthcare savings. A healthier employee base reduces absenteeism and healthcare utilization, costing less.