Workplace Challenge Award Ideas?

[LizDeJesus]

I'm in charge of our FitBit Challenge program and work and I'm trying to find new ways to keep our employees motivated. It's hard because we have some employees in the field who walk A LOT just because of the nature of the job and we have some employees in the office who can get to 10,000 steps a day but can't compete with the coworkers in the field. I find that the office employees end up not as excited about the challenge because the field employees always win the award for most steps.We want to do monthly recognition of employee fitbit accomplishments but I need ideas so that the same 1 or 2 people aren't winning every single month. I would love some suggestions! Thank you! 

[jgroves76]

I'm kind of lookign for the same thing.  We have about 450 employees and were able to get 150 FitBits (hoping to keep adding as time goes on) and we had great numbers the first couple months but it has gone down.  I'm writing an email now - here is what it says (I listed our total steps over the last few months first which I won't show here):

Quite the dramatic decrease!  Let me list the excuses:  It was a holiday – I forgot to put it on – I didn’t have time to work out – I forgot my charger – It was cold – I was sick – etc., etc., etc..  Folks, it’s less than 6 months to beach time!  NOW IS THE TIME to start working out more.  WEAR THE FITBIT!  If it’s not working, contact me so we can trouble shoot to get it fixed!  If you lost your charger, buy a new one – here is one on amazon for $6.99 and it’s 3.3ft long!  If you keep forgetting to put it on, don’t take it off!  If it’s too cold, put on a coat and walk faster!  If it was a holiday, the holiday is over!  If you didn’t have time to work out, make the time!  If you were sick, well, get better for goodness sakes and then get back to it!

Need motivation?  Try this:

1. Join a Fitbit group that matches your interest – you are already in the NEA Staff group, but did you know that you can join as many other groups as you want? You’d be surprised who has group.  Just go to the website and click on “community” and the Activity groups.  You will see a search bar and put in something there.  Maybe the area where you live or a favorite band or really whatever.  There are bunches of groups out there.  You can even make your own if you have friends who own FitBits.

1. Check this out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7snC4YQ-mU – This is YouTube video called “MyFitBit Story”. There are bunches of episodes and they are about 5 minutes each.  She uses a different FitBit than we have, but it’s still good.

1. Change the goal!! Nothing is better than having the FitBit buzz that you got your goal.  If you are not hitting 10,000 on a regular basis, do this.  From your FitBit app, go to “Account” then “Activity” and then “Steps”.  Move this down to whatever – be it 5,000 or 8,000.  Once you start hitting that new goal, simply increase it. 

Let me know what motivation techniques you have been using!  I’ll pass them around to the group (confidentially) so maybe other can use them to stay motivated. 

[Lilymook]

I would have different categories based on job type.  and then instead of making it just the most steps in that group, have it be a few different qualifiers and then do a drawing from qualified candidates.

Steps over 12,000 in a day for the office worker

Increase of more than 15% over last month

Stuff like that will help motivate people to improve

[emili]

I would imagine those who walk more have a higher step goal? if they do, you can do what the daily goal challenge does- measure it percent over goal.

If they don't, and I don't know what the budget is, but maybe everyone who makes goal gets a Cliff bar or is invited for fruit Popsicles- something inexpensive, but makes you feel like you are part of an exclusive club - invitation only.

[EdsonFitbit]

It seems that you have very useful suggestions here @LizDeJesus. Good luck encouraging employees to be motivated. 

[Tumbleina]

@LizDeJesus, everyone who increases their average steps by 20% could have their name entered in a draw for a small prize, like a healthy cookbook, a day pass to a local gym, a gift certificate (for a small amount) to a sports store.

[Stephen1227]

How about Jamba Juice or Starbucks gift cards of $5 if an employee reaches a certain step goal consistently?  Or, how about choosing the radio station played in the office--or even sitting in the best office location for a given period of time as an incentive?

[Maura-CA]

What a fabulous idea!   I love that you have incorporated FitBit into your workplace.  And how wonderful that so many employees are Fitbitters just like US! 

That's great that you want to continue to inspire and motivate all employees and in a fair manner, being aware of their different jobs and how steps vary because of those circumstances.  That will keep all employees striving for THEIR best and keep the competition a little more friendly.

Is it possible to have different awards/categories of awards for the varying groups or would that be too labor-intensive?  

You might also do a drawing type award - those that meet such and such goal are entered in the drawing - and the choice from the qualifiers would be more random/luck-driven.  Just a thought!  

[JenLoving]

What about doing a team challenge where you divide up into teams based on step averages (so teams are balanced)?  Not sure if winners in your workplace actually get a prize, but maybe for the team challenge everyone on the winning team can get something small (or just bragging rights?).  I am also an office employee and while I probably couldn't compete with your field employee step averages, there are lots of ways to increase steps... maybe being part of a team where everyone is encouraging will help boost their morale.

[SamHughes]

Percentage over last week might work. So no matter what your job is or what your goal is, as long as you walk more than you did last week that's winning.

[DanielleinDC]

What if you do an award for the employees in the field and one for the office worker? That way the people in the field compete against each other and the people in the office compete. 

Or do an award for most days hitting one's goal. Or most active minutes. Something like that.

[Kimeta]

Hi! We have about 700 employees with Fitbits and ran into the same issue of the top performers were impossible to catch. We decided on a step goal of 7,500 or an active minute goal of 20 minutes and counted the number of days out of each quarter that an employee passed those thresholds. Those that did it 85% of the quarter (so about 76 out of 90 days they were either over 7,500 steps or 20 active minutes) or more got one prize and those at 70% or more got another prize. 

[pollymag]

Hello!

I just read your post about organizing company step challenges.  You posted it quite some time ago but it was in regards to the same employees winning all the time because they have more opportunity to walk around based on their position.  When this happens, others lose interest and just give up trying.  I just want to make a fair competition so the high steppers don't crush the employees unable to keep up.  We can't all put in 18,000 steps a day right?

I'm Pauline by the way 🙂

[LAuten]

Trying to avoid the same problem,  I gave awards for most improved.  Basically I ran the steps for the 2 weeks prior to the challenge.  I could have used the month prior,  just however you want to look at..  Then after the challenge period,  I compared the two time periods.  It made it a lot easier using Excel to determine the % increase. 

[mysharona313]

I know this is an older post but wanted to share what I incorporated for our company. Rather than a monthly or weekly challenge, we do an annual challenge. Basically the employee has to keep track of their steps and for each level they reach throughout the year (they have to share screenshots from their tracker), they can earn a prize. For example, when they reached 500,000 steps they get a tote bag, 1 million steps is a windbreaker, 1.5 million is 2 movie tickets, and so on. The prizes for each level go up in value and it's fun for all levels because they can set goals to work towards. Each year the challenge resets and we pick different prizes. 

[DFWLAX]

The company I work for does an excellent job promoting a healthy lifestyle. The first thing they offer is a free blood test/screening for you and your spouse/partner.  If you choose not to get the blood test, your monthly premium increases an additional $70/per month. I find this approach to be pretty fair and I have seen it help/catch many health issues for work colleagues early on. Step counters are also offered free of charge with upgrade options. Additionally, they offer monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual prizes. The grand prize being a trip to Hawaii. The company that administers the program(s) is called Interactive Health. I am not sure if there is a minimum employee requirement but some of the organizations you guys are speaking of seem large enough to me. Good luck! Yeti water bottles and coffee mugs are a very sought after prize!