There are many ways in which you can find your active in the workplace, whether that be taking part in seated stretching sessions or trying to host as many meetings as possible out and about whilst on your feet. However, the most recent craze in organisations encouraging staff to be active, is the Big Team Challenge; a virtual walking challenge where you can compete against your colleague’s and other organisations to see who can walk the most steps in a set period. Simply join or create a team, and the aim is to walk/run as many steps as possible starting at one virtual destination and reaching another.
We don’t need to preach the countless number of benefits that walking has on both our mental and physical wellbeing. However, walking is a great activity to help increase your cardiovascular fitness, clear your mind, improve your mental health, as well as getting your steps in to help reduce excess body fat.
Active Essex’s most recent Big Team Challenge was set in the sunny islands of the Caribbean, with the hope of getting rid of the winter blues, and to get people stepping out into their local area for a walk. Users started in Trinidad and Tobago and were tasked with walking 626 miles as a team during the month, hoping to finish in Antigua and Barbuda.
Our most recent edition of the Big Team Challenge welcomed an impressive 547 participants from a wide range of organisations across Essex, coming together to form 127 teams. Throughout the month-long challenge, those taking part managed a whopping 118,655,494 steps. 89 teams out of the 127 that took part, managed to complete 50-100% of the challenge.
The challenge winners were ‘Latton Bush Walkers’ who completed 1,974,757 steps over 864 miles. Between team members, the number of steps they completed across the month was over 500,000 more than they needed to complete the challenge.
The Big Team Challenge is a great example of Gamification in action. Gamification offers advantages over other types of physical activity initiatives as it can deliver health through stealth, by encouraging people to play a fun, free game, rather than take part in a fitness scheme. Other examples of Gamification in action include Beat the Street, Street Tag and Pokémon Go.
Apps like Big Team Challenge also help promote healthy workplace environments, bringing colleagues together for friendly competition and strengthening workplace teams, which ultimately boosts productivity, improves concentration, and builds rapport with colleagues.
Todorina Hammond who was a member of the most recent challenges 2nd place team consisting of members from Community 360, said “My team completed the challenge last year as well and it was great to be part of the Big Team Challenge again. We had three teams from C360 and mixed team members from different departments. Personally, I joined because I like walking, three years ago I faced some unforeseen circumstances and lost all my confidence walking on my own, I was frightened to walk even during the day on my own. As you can see from my steps count (551,173), I have regained my confidence, which is amazing.”
Keep an eye out on our social media pages for the announcement of the next Big Team Challenge for you and your workplace to take part in!
