TSI Wellness Challenge

We are always looking for ways to improve overall wellbeing at The Survey Initiative. So when one of our team saw a blog on wellness challenges we thought, let’s do it!

Wellness challenges are designed to help improve physical and mental health through a variety of activities and habits and can have the added bonus of encouraging team spirit. We based ours on a challenge that featured on the Engage for Success website since it seemed to incorporate the elements we wanted to include such as health, nutrition, fitness and mental wellness.

The whole team discussed the various challenges and the prizes before making it official and setting a date for the start of our four-week challenge.

There are numerous benefits to participating in a workplace wellness challenge – both to the individual and to the organisation and it can be a fun and engaging way to improve health. We wanted everyone to prioritise their health and wellbeing and if it led to positive changes in diet, exercise routine, and overall lifestyle in the longer term, then that was an even bigger plus.

We decided to have individual and team winners to provide a sense of accountability and support as well as motivation to stick with the challenge – just in case the prizes weren’t enough!

The Wellness Challenge

The challenges were designed to incorporate activities to improve physical health, reduce stress and improve mental wellbeing and took the form of daily targets with points earned for each completed target:

• 30 mins of consecutive exercise (3 points)
• Get at least 7 hours of sleep (3 points)
• 4 hours of digital detox – no screens (Kindle is fine; sleeping doesn’t count) (3 points)
• Eat 5 servings of fruit and/or veg (3 points)
• Drink 8 240ml glasses of water in a day (2 litres total) (2 points)
• Post 3 things you’re grateful for (2 points)
• 10 minutes of meditation (1 point)
• 30 minutes of reading (1 point)
• 20 minutes of stretching (1 point)
• Reach out to a friend (1 point)
• Share a highlight from your day (1 point)
• Post a pic that brings you joy (1 point)

We formed a new Teams group specifically to share our things to be grateful for; the highlight of our days; and pics that brought us joy.  This was also where we put the link to the excel spreadsheet to post our points and share our progress.

Our first wellness challenge certainly brought out the competitiveness in some (mostly me) but it was well received and participants have reported:

• Improved sleep
• Taking more moments
• Better mind/body health
• Improved fitness

A few are aiming to continue with the healthy habits because they can see the difference it has made to them.

Congrats to team JJ who won by over 250 points!  Kudos to everyone who participated and took steps towards a healthier lifestyle. Let’s keep the momentum going and make wellness a habit in both our personal and professional lives. #WorkplaceWellness #HealthyHabits #Teamwork