The Pacer Blog: Walking, Health and Fitness

Organizations that put a high priority on employee health and wellness save significant savings by decreasing productivity loss due to sick days and healthcare costs. Considering how to organize an office step challenge at work and reach the satisfying 10,000 step mark?

Modern employees are more sedentary than ever before, which has a negative impact on their health and productivity. The average office worker spends 6.5 hours each day in front of a computer. 

When done correctly, fitness challenges can prove to be a key component of an organization-wide wellness program.

Employees typically sit for 65-75% of the workday, which can have an impact on their health and well-being, productivity, and general quality of life. Corporate step challenges are a growingly popular technique to promote employee well-being there. 

Businesses that support initiatives to improve employee health and wellness stand to gain from higher output and lower absenteeism and healthcare expenditures.

This article will cover some of the fundamental guidelines every challenge should establish as well as advice for keeping participants motivated during the competition. It will also show you how to set up a step challenge at work.

What is an Office Step Challenge?

An office step challenge is a fitness challenge that companies encourage employees to be more active by tracking and counting the number of steps taken over a certain period of time. The goal of the challenge is typically to encourage participants in the workplace to increase their physical activity level by walking more. The challenge may be organized by a company or individual and may be open to all employees or a specific group.

They promote healthy living while also encouraging friendly rivalry in the workplace. Office step challenges are simple to organize and can be set up in two ways: as an individual competition in which each participant competes against one another, or as a team-based challenge in which everyone’s steps are combined to achieve one goal. 

Team challenges are excellent for bringing coworkers together, particularly among distant professionals.

A company step challenge encourages friendly rivalry among coworkers while also increasing workplace well-being and engagement, which benefits not only the employees but the firm as a whole.

The following are some of the advantages of a company step challenge:

• Promotes a goal-setting and achievement culture.
• Increases teamwork and group cooperation.
• Encourages employees to adopt healthier habits.
• This leads to higher productivity and lower labor expenses.

Regular step challenges help employers develop a climate of well-being and engagement, and healthy employees are happier and more productive.

Why Step Challenge at Work?

Regular physical activity is a proven way to prevent chronic diseases as well as improve mood, concentration and emotional health.

The Pacer for Teams Step Challenge is a fun and easy way for teams, workplaces and communities to increase participation in physical activity. The program aims to increase the day-to-day activity of employees, is easy to create and has a daily step goal challenge.

With many of us spending a third of our waking lives at work (often sitting), combined with sedentary social activities it is little wonder that we are moving less. Supportive programs and environments in our workplaces and communities can make it easier for individuals to be physically active.

Group steps challenges provide an opportunity for teams to work together to take positive steps towards increased physical activity levels.

How do I Organize the Office Step Challenge?

Below are some tips to help you run a successful company step challenge.

Planning

Running an office step challenge takes a bit of work, but planning ahead and being prepared can ensure it goes smoothly.

Here is a self-checklist to help you while you’re planning:

1. Confirm budget.
2. Set up the timeline.
3. Look for potential vendors. There are plenty of company step challenge apps that help you organize and manage your events easily. Ask for a demo or free trial before proceeding to the next step. Learn more about how Pacer for Teams can help you run a successful office step challenge.
4. Design challenge theme. 
5. Challenge type. It’s a good idea to survey your employees to collect their thoughts.
6. Confirm the number of participants. In fact, you don’t need to decide the final number of participants at the start, just keep encouraging people to take part in your challenge. The more the best!
7. Final challenge result presentation. How will you measure the success of the corporate step challenge?

Confirmation

1. Create Step Challenge Rules

The first step in creating an office step challenge at work is to define participation guidelines. To foster fun and competition, the regulations should be as basic and straightforward as feasible.

You could make the following office step challenge rules:

• The length of the challenge — typically one to two months.
• Whether it’s a step challenge for individuals or teams.
• What the challenge’s goal is, such as 10,000 steps per day on average. 
• How to monitor steps, such as using a smartphone app or a fitness device.
• Ask help from your vendors, they will help you get everything sorted out. Pacer for Teams provides dedicated support for challenge organizers.

When it comes to your step challenge regulations, keep in mind that certain changes may be required due to unanticipated events. It is critical to remain adaptable in order to ensure that everyone has a good time.

2. Encourage Consistent Self-reporting

Personal accountability is essential for high, long-term involvement whether you’re running an individual or team step challenge. Encourage each participant to keep track of their own steps, set a personal goal, and continue to self-report on a regular basis.

Building healthy habits necessitates constant tracking in order to generate feedback that employees can act on. Participants can respond appropriately when they can see how their average step count has increased or decreased.

3. Connect Your Step Challenge to Other Health Initiatives

Your step challenge should be only one part of a multifaceted, comprehensive wellness program that promotes healthy habits from numerous perspectives. An office step challenge should be used alongside other programmes such as exercise programs, cooking workshops, weight-loss seminars, health checks, smoking cessation programs, and so on.

Your step challenge is an excellent approach to expose employees to fitness and foster teamwork, but the journey does not stop there. There are countless ways to integrate wellness challenges and other health programs into a full-service wellness program to create a positive environment of good health that reaches every level of your firm.

Before Challenge Starts

Prepare materials you might need in your challenge:

1. Challenge icon
2. Challenge cover image
3. Challenge flyers
4. Challenge invitations
5. Challenge onboarding guide

Some vendors can provide you with templates that save you from a lot of preparation work.

Set up your challenge. Send out a challenge start announcement to all participants. Don’t forget to include a help guide in the announcement. Keep encouraging people to take part.

Challenge In Progress

Challenge starts! Track your challenge progress and be ready for any last-minute change. Keep participants engaged and motivated during the challenge.

Here are some tips to cheer up your participants:

1. Set up a numeric goal to encourage people to work towards it.
2. Publish motivational quotes in your group.
3. Create some fun and mini-challenges while the main challenge is ongoing. Pacer for Teams allows you to create a map-based challenge that connects real-world locations to your virtual fitness challenges.

Work with your vendors to solve participants’ issues during the challenge.

After Challenge

Check your challenge results. Shout out for personal or team accomplishments. Let all participants know their time and efforts are worthwhile.

Some ideas you can showcase:

1. Total steps or total mileage achieved.
2. Top 3 individuals or teams.
3. People who posted the most on a social feed.
4. People who maintained the same average steps/distance so far.
5. People who showed the greatest improvement.

Take advantage of the social posts people shared during the challenge. Use them as marketing materials to promote the next corporate step challenge.

What is a Realistic Office Step Challenge Launch Timeline?

Week 1

After getting approval from the management, look for potential vendors and start planning.

Week 2

Confirm with your vendors about your challenge settings. Prepare educative and promotional materials.

Week 3

Set up your challenges. Participants start onboarding!

Week 4

Launch your corporate step challenges. Keep your participants active and engaged during the challenge.

Office Step Challenge Ideas

Do you want to assist your employees to become more productive? Exercise during work has been shown to improve cognition and mood. 

Your first reaction may be to send your coworkers to the gym, but not every office can afford a gym, and not every employee enjoys sweating.

Continue reading to learn more about how you may help your staff get exercise for greater health and performance on a daily basis.

• Participate in a Virtual Marathon

Meeting a step count objective, such as 8,000 steps per day (if 10,000 isn’t possible) or 40,000 steps per week, is typical of a step challenge. However, you are not required to structure your challenge in any particular way. 

Instead, try a “virtual” marathon: use an app that tracks your progress while walking 26.2 miles over a certain amount of time. It’s clearly not the same as walking a complete marathon in a single day because you can spread it out over many, but the distance goal may be more compelling than a step count. 

Even though virtual marathons are not the same as genuine marathons, you can be proud of yourself for walking a marathon distance.

• Attend Walking Meetings

Meetings are a regular part of most people’s workdays, so taking them outside is a great opportunity to get some exercise throughout the day rather than waiting till work is done. 

Why sit at your desk or in a conference room when you may take a walk around your neighborhood or a local park? The fresh air will revitalize you and help you complete the remaining of your tasks.

Walking meetings are a simple way to add step challenges. If your objective is to walk 10,000 steps per day, any chance to come closer is a good one, especially if you can multitask by speaking with your coworkers. 

• Take the Race/Virtual Challenge

Have you ever seen the show The Amazing Race? You don’t have to send your team around the world, but you can send them on a fun scavenger hunt around your office’s area (or employees’ respective neighborhoods if they work remotely). 

Put individuals in groups and provide them with exciting tasks, clues, and challenges that need them to move about and collaborate. An activity like this is also beneficial for fostering tighter ties and forming a team that works better together.

Try something new. Create unique, map-based virtual challenges with Pacer for Teams. It lets you build an interactive map-based challenge in minutes to keep participants engaged and motivated.

• Make it Continuous

Your step challenge does not have to last a week before your team abandons it. Set a recurring aim to meet every day, week, or month to stay active and have new topics to bond with your colleagues over. 

If you give a prize to the person who walks the most or accomplishes a common goal the fastest, having many step challenges throughout the year allows everyone on the team to win at some point.

Learn more about corporate fitness challenge ideas to promote active lifestyles within your team.

Office Step Challenge Apps

1. Strava

For bikers, swimmers, and runners who wish to compete, Strava is essentially a fitness-tracking application. You can race against other cyclists, swimmers, and runners who have taken the same routes as you do, as well as against yourself.

Using the GPS on your phone or a connected device like a fitness tracker or running watch, the app keeps track of the locations you visit and your speed. In order to rate you, it then analyses your data and compares it to everyone else’s.

You can also connect with a community for more inspiration, routines, routes, trails, and photo sharing. If you want to give up a sedentary lifestyle and become more active, this app is fantastic.

2. Map My Run

You might assume that this app is all about running after hearing its name. In actuality, though, Map my Run offers challenges for a variety of exercises, such as yoga, walking, cycling, swimming, and working out in the gym.

You can organize a challenge for your organization and split up into competing groups. Depending on the challenge you have chosen, the team objectives may be things like “best workout time,” “biggest distance,” “best swimming time,” “most victories,” and so on. 

For those who are serious about competing (and winning! ), this software is amazing.

3. Pacer for Teams

Pacer for Teams is a virtual platform that allows you to simply build, implement, and administer step challenges for your organization. Companies and organizations use fitness challenges to enhance employee health and wellness.

Pacer for Teams caters to organizations searching for step challenges that are simple and enjoyable to participate in, as well as accurate and simple to run. They cater to administrators that require a platform that just works!

Organizations use the Pacer Pedometer & Fitness app for all devices to access their step challenge and track their physical activity. Challenge administrators create and maintain the challenge via an easy-to-use web-based portal on the Pacer website.

Office step challenges are a tried-and-true method for boosting workplace well-being. Although there are many various ways to organize a company step challenge, the objective is the same: to encourage healthy living habits that will benefit all employees while also generating a sense of workplace engagement.

No matter how you organize your office step challenge, the most important thing is to personalize it. Consider your particular company culture because you are the greatest person to know your people.

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