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Physical activity is an important part of employee wellbeing. Besides its obvious physical benefits, sport also has a positive impact on mental health. However, for those who have not built a longer walk a few times a week, going to the gym, a run in nature or a weekend basketball game with friends into their adult routine, finding the time is not always easy. Neither is finding the motivation.
One common drawback of corporate movement challenges is that they tend to attract employees who are already active. Unfortunately, generic messages encouraging people to exercise do little to change this. Yet a corporate movement challenge should be inclusive and engaging, because its value goes far beyond its positive health effects. Shared employee experiences, connection, ongoing communication topics for HR, and the lessons that can be drawn from participation can all create broader organizational value. But how should an autumn movement challenge be designed to make it as valuable as possible?
We have heard clichés such as eat healthier and exercise more so many times that we barely notice them anymore. Everyone knows they are important, but they do not motivate everyone to take action. In workplace communication, these lightweight messages are just as ineffective as they are in everyday life.
A movement challenge is much more complex and attention-grabbing, and its specific details can encourage people to take action. Especially when it does not require too much commitment. Motivation can naturally improve performance as well, which is another reason not to set the entry threshold too high.
Compared with a simple message, a corporate movement challenge should have a clear timeframe and a specific shared goal (e.g. let’s walk/run 1,224 km together by Christmas - add your share too; let’s try 100 different forms of exercise over one year, for at least 20 minutes each, etc.). There is no need to overcomplicate it. Simple rules that anyone can follow and an easy-to-understand scoring system can activate far more colleagues. It is also important to make the process and progress visible at both individual and community level (e.g. how many kilometres we have completed together, how many of those kilometres you contributed, you have already tried 8 different sports, together we have reached 47, etc.). It is also useful for HR to see how successfully interest and employee activity can be maintained.
Non-desk and hybrid employees, or colleagues working at different locations or on different shifts, may barely ever meet. As a result, they often have very few shared experiences. If the movement challenge can be followed on a digital platform, we have already taken an important step towards bridging this gap between employees. A shared goal and visible progress can connect people who would otherwise never meet during their working day.
A movement challenge can be highly diverse. Not everyone needs to do the same activity or achieve the same amount (e.g. people enjoy different forms of exercise; some prefer walking or cycling, while others enjoy team sports). What matters is that as many people as possible can find a way to participate and contribute to reaching shared milestones.
It is worth planning a multi-week communication campaign around an autumn movement challenge, because announcing it alone will not be enough to prevent participation from dropping off. Calls to “join the challenge” should be followed by further notifications and messages that encourage activity. Share updates on how many people have already joined and which milestones have been reached together. Individual stories can also become part of the challenge of pcommunication. And the finishing touch is the closing moment: celebrating the shared results and collecting feedback. What is more, a single initiative can provide HR with several weeks of relevant content that interests and activates employees.
Alongside kilometres completed, points collected and collective performance, movement challenges can also provide HR with valuable insights.
From the very beginning of the campaign, it is worth tracking how many employees have been reached, how many have joined the challenge, and which groups are dropping off or remaining less active. Employee participation, or registration, is an important step, but the first activity is just as significant. We can track weekly active and returning participants, and see which teams or locations are the most enthusiastic or, on the contrary, the least active. The performance of individual messages throughout a multi-week campaign, reactions to milestones and participant feedback can provide highly valuable data and experience. These insights help us understand which types of programs activate the team more or less effectively, where most people lose their enthusiasm, or what gives the movement challenge new momentum.
If a movement challenge succeeds in reaching and engaging employees on a broad scale, it can create a point of connection for colleagues who may otherwise rarely meet. At the same time, a well-designed movement challenge can provide internal communication with a regular topic, while participation data can give HR plenty of useful insights.
With Blue Colibri, the movement challenge can become part of the overall employee experience without the need to introduce a separate platform. Employees can use their own phones and a familiar interface to check the rules and scoring anywhere, anytime, follow the team’s progress and track their own performance. In addition to the launch communication, organizers can maintain interest by sharing regular reminders and milestones.
