How Team Challenges Can Transform Employee Wellbeing this Summer

By Emma Attenborough-Sergeant Wellness Expert at GoVida - The Employee Wellbeing Platform

Summer has arrived. Traditionally, a season to bring colleagues together, but with so many people working remotely in these post-pandemic days, we’re far less well connected than ever.

To meet up with colleagues for a good old-fashioned face-to-face takes some stellar organising in the current climes; not to mention the fact that travelling to and paying for expensive summer parties or company days out has never been more difficult (or stressful) for everyone involved.

So how can employers help their teams to keep a sense of camaraderie alive when they’re in disparate locations, working on different schedules, and coming together so rarely?

With a Team Challenge – that’s how!

Either virtual or real-world, a team challenge brings people together in a fun, easy and simple way. Unifying everyone around a single goal – be that miles walked, hills climbed, money raised or activities completed – has a universally positive impact, along with the shared joy of achievement. A little healthy competition doesn’t hurt either.

GoVida was built on the philosophy that all colleagues deserve to thrive: mentally; physically; socially. And that shouldn’t change with location, or the season. Because while summer is most often associated with happier times, a lot of people feel lost during these months – particularly if they don’t have much planned, they’re struggling financially, or they’re seeing people less than they’d like.

As a conscientious employer, you want to do all you can to support your people. And even if budgets, travel plans or timings might be restricted, you can still do something to inspire a sense of fun and celebration; community and togetherness.

In fact, we help people to do it all the time.

How Tailored Team Challenges Work

One of the things our clients love best about GoVida is our platform’s company-wide wellbeing challenges. With GoVida, it’s incredibly easy (not to mention fast and cost effective) to set up a team challenge that will bring all of your people together this summer – and beyond. We can create a completely bespoke challenge in less than a week that will get your people working, thinking and moving together – across different teams, offices and even countries.

But we don’t just build it for you: we work with you to personalise it, launch it, and run it – making sure that everyone gets involved (and stays involved) through regular updates and milestone announcements. We do this by learning about your culture, vision, charity partner, and what your people like to do.

• Want to walk a virtual tour of some of the World’s most iconic cities? We can do that?
• Want to take your people around your Global offices? We can do that. 
• Want to get your people involved with different teams? We can do that. 

Whatever your goals, we can build – and theme – a wellness challenge that your people can undertake individually, or as a team. And it doesn’t have to be physical! It can be mental, educational or social too; or even a combination of the lot. 

The bottom line? We create wellness challenges specifically for your business, and your people. It’s also much cheaper than you might think – and it makes a real difference.

The Benefits of Team Challenges

Companies that invest in the health and wellness of their people ultimately make big savings in terms of reduced absenteeism and getting the best out of their people! In fact, The Harvard Business Review found that employers saw an almost 3-to-1 return on their investment in comprehensive health and wellness initiatives; while a more focused study into employee wellness programs suggested that the ROI was actually closer to 6-to-1.

From our own data, we’ve found that companies see a 40% increase in daily steps during a physical challenge – attesting to just how effective team challenges can be in increasing movement; which, as we all know, has an extremely positive impact on wellbeing. And the great thing is, this sort of challenge works just as well when people take part virtually as well as in person – making it ideal for the hybrid workplace.

What’s more, team challenges inspire a sense of belonging, remove the sense of disconnect often felt by remote workers, spark innovation and ideas-sharing, boost productivity and engagement, and inspire creativity – all of which is great for your people, but brilliant for your business, too. If you’d like to learn more about how GoVida’s employee wellbeing platform can facilitate and encourage team (and personal) challenges, as well as support emotional and mental health amongst your teams, get in touch. We’d love to set up a free demo to show you what we’re all about!