“Wellness challenges are powerful tools for enhancing employee health and engagement, but success hinges on leadership's commitment to thoughtful planning and sustained effort.” - Megan Wollerton

As a wellness consultant, I am asked by clients to help them design their employee wellness programs. Inevitably, the idea of an employee step challenge will arise. Which leads to questions like, “Is this even working?” The answer is, “It Depends.” What was the goal you set out to achieve?

I enjoy running team-step challenges. I see employees encouraging one another and a healthy level of competition between teams, which motivates them to get up and move more. Running a fun team step challenge could be a great wellness initiative if your goal is building teamwork, promoting a healthy workplace, and encouraging employee engagement.

Where most companies fail is they do not have a clear goal of what they want the challenge to achieve and do not understand the amount of work that goes into running a successful wellness campaign. Most will create teams, give them a sheet or an app to track their steps and send out a gift card when the challenge ends. These programs lack the employee engagement company leaders hoped for, so many stop providing employee wellness programs.

Here are my 6 tips for running a successful step challenge for your employees.

1 – Set a clear goal – Is the goal to reach a certain number of steps or take as many steps as possible within a given timeframe? Most of my clients set up their challenge month by month, so each team is to take as many steps as possible, and the team with the most steps at the end of the month wins!

2 – Create fun incentives – Some organizations I work with will have a prize for the first-place team and a sort of punishment for the last-place team. This is common with specific organizations, Here is an example from one of my construction clients. Usually, each employee is responsible for keeping their trucks clean. At the end of the week, there is time left aside to take the trucks through the car wash and clean out the interior of the mud and trash. For this organization, the losing team had to clean the winning team's trucks for one week. This worked as a prize for the winning team and a punishment for the losing team. No need to purchase gift cards or give cash prizes be creative.

3 – Teams are key – Many people do not like to be singled out or may not be able to self-motivate themselves. Being part of a team gives more incentive to get up and move, plus they have teammates to encourage them and cheer them on along the way. Knowing that each step goes towards a team total is more motivating than it might be for the individual. I have found that having at least 5 people on a team is beneficial, as more members are available to motivate and encourage one another. Teams of 20 or more can have a declining effect as others might feel like they can take it easy, and the others pull the weight. Keep the teams small and mighty.

4 – Keep tracking simple – At Life Force Wellness, our app syncs with fitness trackers to track participants' steps. We also offer IT support and an email for participants to send their steps in a way that is easiest and most comfortable for them. We keep track of all the steps and update the leaderboards. If tracking the steps is too difficult, it won't happen.

5 – Regular communication – Do not just put up a flyer; send an email and then send the results at the end of the challenge. Announce the challenge with plenty of time to form teams, ensure everyone has heard about it and been given the opportunity to register, and then give regular updates. We post weekly team updates, promote the leaders and encourage other players to keep going. Our platform offers private groups and community pages for participants to encourage one another or do a little competitive trash-talk (all in fun). We monitor the groups and discourage harassment and bullying. It is great to see employee interaction on the group pages, and it is a fun way to connect employees who may not regularly see each other in a hybrid work environment.

6 – Keep it going! – This is not a one-and-done type of challenge; you need to be ready to follow up. Typically, I like to promote the next challenge during the last week of the current challenge. I find it easier to make a challenge monthly and change it up from month to month. April might be steps; May might be a meditation challenge for mental health awareness, and June might be a squat challenge. Change it up, try new things, and keep it going.

If you follow these tips, you can run a successful step challenge in your organization. It may not seem like a lot on the surface, but employees will get more active, develop healthy habits and get the mental clarity they need. Taking 5 minutes each day to go out for a walk is shown to have significant benefits to mental health and productivity.

Life Force Wellness takes the burden of creating and running wellness challenges, like step challenges, off HR professionals and business owners. Keeping up with the tech, trackers, challenge communications, and leaderboards can be daunting. Let us help you with your wellness programs. If you want more information on employee wellness, check out our website, www.lifeforcewellness.com, or email [email protected].