Help your employees start 2025 on the right foot and crush their health and well-being goals with a really fun and engaging wellness option! Corporate wellness challenges have evolved from the original step challenges to more robust and meaningful programs. Your employees are looking for solutions on mental health, financial wellness, environmental wellness, disease prevention, time management, and much more. What if you could provide a wellness challenge that can help them with the health that matters to them and get them to be more productive and engaged at work? If it sounds too good to be true, keep reading.
Types of Wellness Challenges
- Physical Wellness Challenges. You may have heard about these types of challenges before – step tracker, healthy hydration, weight-loss, well-balanced diet. Physical Wellness Challenges help employees develop healthy habits for their physical well-being. We have found with our clients that having several categories of physical wellness in the challenge is the most effective and engaging for employees. Physical wellness challenges generally encourage participants to track their progress daily, and can run from one-week to ten-weeks, or longer, depending on the challenge and the participants. We have also uncovered the “magic time” for challenges and will share that with our clients. Physical wellness challenges are usually good for an introduction for a challenge for an employee group.
- Step Count Challenge: Employees aim to reach a specific number of steps per day or week, tracked via fitness trackers and smartphone apps.
- Exercise Streak: Employees commit to exercising for a certain number of days in a row, such as 30 minutes of movement each day (walking, yoga, strength training, etc.).
- Active Commuting Challenge: Encourage employees to walk or bike to work (if possible), or engage in another form of active commuting.
- Fitness Buddy/Team Challenge: Pair and/or Group employees to support each other in achieving fitness goals.
- Fruit & Veggie Challenge: Encourage employees to eat a specific number of servings of fruits and vegetables each day (e.g., 5 servings).
- Hydration Challenge: Track water intake, aiming for a target like 8 glasses of water per day. Reduce sugar-sweetened beverages and alcohol.
- Mindful Eating Challenge: Encourage employees to practice mindful eating for a week, which can include eating slowly, savoring each bite, and avoiding distractions. Add on a B.Komplete Mindful Eating Webinar to increase employee engagement and participation.
- Healthy Meal Prep Challenge: Employees commit to preparing healthy meals for the week (e.g., meal prepping for 3–5 days) and share recipes or tips. Add on a B.Komplete Meal-Prep Virtual Cook-a-Long for increase challenge utilization and happy employees.
2. Mental/Emotional Wellness Challenges. Mental Health and Well-Being is one of the top concerns that employees have. Mental and Emotional Wellness Challenges help employees with reducing stress, improving sleep, reducing negative mental health symptoms, and increasing happiness. These challenges go deeper and can be more meaningful.
- Mindfulness Challenge: Practice mindfulness exercises, such as meditation or deep breathing, for a set amount of time each day.
- Gratitude Challenge: Take time each day to reflect on and express gratitude for the things you’re thankful for.
- Sleep Challenge: Aim for a specific amount of sleep each night and track your progress.
- Self-Care Challenge: Encourage employees to practice a self-care activity (e.g., taking a bath, reading, healthy movement, a hobby) every day for a month. Add on a B.Komplete Self-Care Webinar to help your employees take this evidence based guidance and make it stick!
3. Financial Wellness Challenges. Employees often state that financial stress is another top concern. Financial stress can include things like not being able to meet basic expenses with their current income, high debt levels (especially student loans), rising cost of living, unexpected expenses, lack of savings, and concerns about future financial stability, all of which can create a feeling of being unable to control their financial situation and lead to significant anxiety. Financial wellness challenges help employees take control of their finances, and in turn reduce their stress and anxiety.
- Savings Challenge: Challenge employees to save a specific amount of money over the course of a month or week, or start an emergency fund with automatic contributions.
- Debt Repayment Challenge: Encourage employees to commit to paying down a specific portion of any personal debt over a certain period.
- Spending Awareness Challenge: Ask employees to track all their spending for a week and reflect on areas where they could reduce unnecessary expenses.
- Financial Goal Setting: Challenge employees to set and track personal financial goals, whether it’s for saving, investing, or budgeting. Add on a B.Komplete Financial Well-Being Webinar to empower your employees and help them make the right financial goals for themselves.
Online wellness challenges help improve business results in several ways
- Increased employee engagement and morale: Wellness challenges create a sense of community and camaraderie among employees, leading to improved morale and a more positive work environment.
- Reduced absenteeism: By promoting healthy habits, wellness challenges can help reduce employee absenteeism due to illness or stress.
- Improved productivity: Healthier employees tend to be more focused and productive, leading to improved overall business performance.
- Enhanced company culture: Wellness challenges demonstrate a company’s commitment to its employees’ well-being, fostering a positive and supportive company culture.
- Lower healthcare costs: By improving employee health and reducing absenteeism, wellness challenges can contribute to lower healthcare costs for the company.
By providing employees well-being challenges, employers can promote healthier, more engaged, and productive teams. The key to success is ensuring that the challenges are engaging, achievable, and tailored to the diverse needs of employees, while also providing a sense of fun and camaraderie. Regular check-ins and small rewards or recognition for meeting milestones will help maintain momentum and keep employees motivated throughout the challenge period. Overall, online wellness challenges can be a valuable tool for businesses looking to improve their bottom line by investing in their employees’ health and well-being. Schedule a wellness challenge consultation and/or demo with B.Komplete and we will build out a custom, wellness challenge that will work for your workforce.