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17 ways to engage employees in wellness programs

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Workplace Health and Wellness Calendar 2022

## Promote physical activity, boost culture, and educate your employees on key health actions while working remote. Download our guide [here](https://movespring.s3.amazonaws.com/resources/MoveSpring_WorkforceHealthCOVID-19-compressed.pdf).

![](https://cdn.cosmicjs.com/3a508800-6ae6-11ea-82cf-555ee8e7f42a-stay-safe-healthy-and-responsible.png)

### Decrease sedentary time with virtual activity challenges

Working from home often means extra sedentary time and less movement. Keep your employees active with friendly competition. Check out [our new series of challenges](https://movespring.com/blog/health-fitness-challenges-for-remote-workforce-5e73b493f1a2760008a32bac) designed with the remote workforce and COVID-19 confinement in mind. 

*   Challenge ideas for a variety of employee health goals: 
    *   Goal #1: Promote consistency
    *   Goal #2: Stay sharp & productive
    *   Goal #3: Stay connected and inclusive
*   _Bonus: we’ve provided a list of creative challenge and team names!_

[Check out our remote worker & COVID-friendly employee health challenges here](https://movespring.com/blog/health-fitness-challenges-for-remote-workforce-5e73b493f1a2760008a32bac).

![](https://cdn.cosmicjs.com/7bd09130-6ae6-11ea-82cf-555ee8e7f42a-Target-2.0-Mobile-2X.png)

### Educate and inform with COVID-relevant content

Share a variety of health and wellness content in just a few clicks with our curated content collections. Or, upload your own articles, videos or posts.

*   How to stay healthy during COVID-19
*   Meal planning with pantry staples
*   At home exercise and entertainment ideas
*   Tips on remote working
*   Mental health & wellness while social distancing
*   Safe ways to support your community 

See our public content ideas [here](https://movespring.com/blog/health-fitness-challenges-for-remote-workforce-5e73b493f1a2760008a32bac). If you’re a current client, navigate to our [content library](https://youtu.be/fs-V7rF4SVI) and **filter for our new COVID-19 topic** to access our 70+ additions on the subject.

![](https://cdn.cosmicjs.com/b30038e0-6ae6-11ea-82cf-555ee8e7f42a-content-library.png)

### Bring the company together, no matter where they are

Give your employees a reason to connect on something other than work. Activity challenges bring employees together across teams, departments and locations. Social connection is key to maintaining mental health and company morale.

*   Get motivated and inspired with [group chats](https://movespring.com/product/chat)
*   Stay connected to coworkers through our [friends feature](https://movespring.com/blog/making-fitness-more-fun-with-friends-5cfae3b5f644a764adf9dedf)

![](https://cdn.cosmicjs.com/c0e8dc50-6ae6-11ea-82cf-555ee8e7f42a-chat.png#300)

### Promote key health actions with timely announcements

Send customizable announcements to your employees. Include a call-to-action that links directly to another website or portal.

*   Updates on company events or policy changes
*   Tips on the latest public health protections
*   Reminders to enroll or participate in health benefits

![](https://cdn.cosmicjs.com/dfb7d2d0-6ae6-11ea-82cf-555ee8e7f42a-DashboardTap.gif#250)

## Be healthy together, no matter where you are.

Get a demo of our product by clicking [here](https://movespring.com/request-demo?path=nav).

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The MoveSpring Guide to a Happy, Healthy Remote Workforce

More and more organizations are utilizing step challenges to bring fun to their workplace wellness offerings. Company fitness challenges create a sense of community, but more importantly, they help employees to better understand their current fitness level and provide them the motivation to keep improving their overall health.  

Many of our clients run [multiple challenges a year](https://movespring.com/resources/playbook). The key to maintaining engagement and motivation in your corporate wellness program is a mix of creativity and variety. After running hundreds of thousands of challenges on the MoveSpring platform, we’ve developed some pro tips on how to keep your company step challenges fun and fresh. 

## Pro Tip #1: Get creative with themed step challenges

Get creative with your activity challenges by creating a series of [themed challenges](https://movespring.com/blog/how-to-create-a-themed-step-challenge-5d83fcd6b490d31020becd43). Draw inspiration from the time of the year, a specific health topic, or pop culture reference. Check out this [step-by-step guide](https://movespring.com/blog/how-to-create-a-themed-step-challenge-5d83fcd6b490d31020becd43)on how to come up with your own themed step challenge.

### **Holidays around the corner**

Try a [charitable giving](https://movespring.com/product/charitable-giving) challenge where your users collaborate to achieve 5 million steps together. If they hit the goal, your organization will donate to a charity of your choice. It always feels good to give back.

### **Your employees are big sci-fi fans**

Try a Star Wars themed challenge, just in time for the upcoming movie release. Use a Team Leaderboard challenge and have employees join the teams of their favorite Star Wars characters. The team with the highest daily activity average wins. 

A few team ideas: Darth Vader & the Galactic Empire, Princess Leia & The Rebellion, Livin’ La Vida Yoda, Ewok this way, Wookie of the year, etc.

[Click here](https://movespring.com/blog/challenges) to check out more challenge ideas or [here](https://movespring.com/blog/its-all-in-the-name-creative-challenge-names-5d729f499b14297ba6fc4bb2) to view some creative challenge names.

## Pro Tip #2: Change up the challenge structure

Switch up your challenge modes throughout the year. In other words, don’t run 12 leaderboard challenges in a row. MoveSpring has nearly [10 challenge modes](https://movespring.com/product/challenge-types), with the option to run challenges based on steps, active minutes, and distance. 

Try alternating between individual-focused challenges and collaborative team or group challenges. For example, start with a Streak challenge where each participant tries to consistently hit a daily step goal. Then, follow up with a Group Target challenge where all employees are working together to achieve one, large active minutes goal. Later, try out Journey for a distance-based race full of [adventure](https://movespring.com/blog/embark-on-an-adventure-with-journey-mode-5c7a01d25ced0b51dd83d722). 

## Pro Tip #3: Keep users engaged with content

Keep things educational and entertaining by sharing interesting health and wellness content throughout the challenge. After all, getting active is only one part of the equation. Use your program to educate users on how to set good habits and make small changes that add up a healthier lifestyle.

We highly suggest that every MoveSpring step challenge should also feature a variety of content. Schedule out Wellness Wednesday tips, reminders about health benefits and company events, or post Fitness Friday workouts! Not sure what content to share? Browse our [MoveSpring Content Library](https://movespring.com/blog/supercharge-your-program-with-our-content-library-5c7a01d25ced0b51dd83d71b) filled with hundreds of pieces of wellness content that are ready to publish.

## Pro Tip #4: Take breaks in between challenges

The best annual programs have periods of step challenges followed by longer breaks in between. Commonly, clients will schedule 4–6 challenges a year. This helps to avoid the feeling of challenge fatigue, while maintaining excitement for each new challenge.

Another variable to take into account is challenge duration. We’ve found 4 weeks to be the ideal challenge duration. Quick two-day weekend warrior challenges or 21-day habit-forming challenges can be fun too. Overall, we don’t recommend running challenges longer than 6 weeks. We often see participant drop-off and a significant decrease in engagement with challenges that are longer than 6 weeks. The right mix of challenge duration and breaks can leave your users feeling recharged and ready for what’s next.

## Pro Tip #5: Award prizes for progress and consistency

Incentives go a long way in motivating your users. We find that celebrating consistency and progress is the most rewarding and inclusive strategy. A raffled approach to incentives keeps users engaged throughout the entirety of the challenge and gives everyone a chance to win. Users earn raffle entries by meeting your challenge goals or maintaining a certain step average throughout the duration of the challenge. The variable of random chance ensures that it’s not just the top stepper who will get rewarded for their hard work. 

Oftentimes, admins come to us with a plan to give their challenge prize to the top stepper, but we find this to be disheartening to participants who are trying hard, but are at an overall fitness level that cannot directly compete with higher activity employees. Users want to feel noticed that they’re putting in the steps, without being discouraged by a leaderboard they just can’t keep up with.

Need some help with your rewards strategy? Download the [MoveSpring Rewards Strategy](https://movespring.s3.amazonaws.com/admin/resources/MoveSpring_Rewards+Strategy.pdf), which features a plan for each of our [nine challenge types](https://movespring.com/product/challenge-types).

## A successful wellness program maintains engagement year-round by varying the challenge type, activity metric, theme, content, and rewards strategy.

Have you created a rock star wellness program using the MoveSpring platform? [Let us know](https://movespring.com/contact-us), we love to share [stories](https://movespring.com/resources/success) of inspiring and creative clients.

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How to keep your company step challenges exciting

## We set out to build a wellness product that buyers and end users would love. We didn’t anticipate what would come next.

Before co-founding MoveSpring, I worked for years consulting at Accenture and Aon. During my time there, I saw a pretty clear trend: companies increasingly becoming concerned about the rising cost of healthcare and a growing desire to engage employees to improve company performance, retention and recruitment. However, many of their solutions involved bloated, difficult-to-use portals and legacy healthcare services. Companies were looking for something innovative to engage employees and improve the health of their workforce. They started tapping into the growing wearable device trend and set up company-wide step challenges manually, using hundreds of spreadsheets and countless hours of resources to manage the challenge.

My co-founder and I decided to make something that was sorely missing in the employee engagement and corporate wellness market: a fun, easy-to-use step challenge product. 

From day one at MoveSpring, we have been obsessed with the idea that health can be accessible to anyone. That’s why we designed our entire system with real users in mind. We know no one is going to watch a five hour video on how to get better sleep or manually log their steps every day for years on end. The same people who use our product are also using innovative consumer technology, whether it be social media, ride sharing, or even their banking app. People don’t have the patience for bad technology or a poor user experience—they know the difference. 

So, we built MoveSpring with the user experience in mind. Central to this experience was a feeling of fun, an uncommon or nonexistent approach in the healthcare world. This strategy really paid off. We heard resounding [feedback](https://movespring.com/resources/success/stewart) from our clients that our product was driving some of the highest employee engagement they had seen to date. Participation was double or triple what was expected and it was having a [real impact](https://movespring.com/resources/success/uky) on increasing the activity of their workforce.

## Moving for a greater meaning and uncovering the appetite for charitable giving.

About two years ago, we began hearing from clients that their favorite challenge modes were the ones that allowed the entire company to work together towards a common goal, such as collectively achieving one million steps across the organization. The key was that they could do it **together**. 

Our clients asked us, "Why not reward our people for working together with a bigger, more meaningful prize, like a charitable cause? That way they can feel like they did something great for themselves, and others.” 

We take our client feedback seriously, and that customer insight led to one of our top challenge modes, the [Group Target Fundraiser challenge](https://movespring.com/product/challenge-types). In this mode, employees work together to achieve an ambitious step or active minutes goal which, if met, unlocks a company donation to a charitable cause of their choice. 

The wellness and charitable giving connection made sense. They were both wildly popular employee engagement initiatives. However, they were always approached separately, unless executed as a one-day charity walk event. 

## Combining charitable giving and wellness initiatives enhances employee engagement across the board, which can have a direct impact on a company’s performance.

In our initial programs with employers, we found that when companies were running challenges with a charitable gift component, there were three primary trends:

1.  Higher participation rates in the challenge program 
2.  Higher sustained engagement—we saw between **1.6–2.2 app engagements per day**
3.  Higher activity output—people did more activity on average to contribute to a collective goal that led to charitable outcomes

This was in line with a lot of psychological research that we found on the connection between fitness and charitable giving. Using physical activity as the focus of a fundraising event creates solidarity amongst participants and activates what is called the "[martyrdom](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/bdm.767)[ effect.](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/bdm.767)” This phenomenon finds that people are drawn to the challenge of working hard and undergoing pain on behalf of a cause. The idea of suffering for a cause they care about can help make their support feel more meaningful and leads to higher donations amongst participants and their peers. 

It was clear this combination of fitness and fundraising was working together to drive higher employee engagement. So what does that ultimately mean for our clients?

Companies with engaged employees outperform those with lower engagement levels by up to 202 percent, according to a [Dale Carnegie study](https://www.dalecarnegie.com/en/resources/employee-engagement-making-engagement-a-daily-priority-for-leaders). In fact, [Research done by Gallup](https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236927/employee-engagement-drives-growth.aspx) shows that companies with engaged workforces have higher earnings per share (EPS), and they seem to have recovered from the recession at a faster rate. 

In addition to clear performance outcomes, an [engaged workforce](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/10-reasons-employee-engagement-matters_b_599d8e69e4b0b87d38cbe673) translates to higher retention and recruitment rates, increased workplace happiness, more innovation, better communication, and enhanced collaboration.

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## We were missing one critical piece: more dynamic charitable giving opportunities in the app. Enter our new partner, FrontStream.

Our users wanted more! End users began asking their challenge admins and our support team how they could individually contribute to the cause and donate inside of the MoveSpring app.  

Enter our partnership with [FrontStream](https://www.frontstream.com/about), a leader in providing corporate social responsibility and employee giving solutions. Their cutting-edge technology allows us to take charitable giving to another level by not only bringing native donations within our app, but also allowing us to do what we do best: making the experience fun, highly engaging and accessible to everyone. 

This has been one of our favorite partnerships to announce, as it helps deliver on our long-standing company philosophy: hit the triple bottom line to provide a highly valuable service that is loved by our customers, with a sustainable business model, all while bettering the community we live and work in every day. With our latest FrontStream partnership, it’s never been easier to get that win-win-win.

## Next time you think about putting on a company-wide step challenge, step it up by pairing it with our new, charitable giving opportunities.

Why? Because this time, it really matters! 

[Click here](https://movespring.com/product/charitable-giving) to sign up for our new charitable giving beta.

17 ways to engage employees in wellness programs

Workplace Health and Wellness Calendar 2022

The MoveSpring Guide to a Happy, Healthy Remote Workforce

How to keep your company step challenges exciting

Step because it matters

Download the MoveSpring Playbook

More Resources

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Make fitness fun at your organization