Employees are happiest and most productive when they feel valued at their workplace. Not surprisingly, 93% of employees who feel valued are motivated to do their best work. Workplace wellness challenges are an effective way to support employee health, foster team camaraderie, cultivate a positive work environment, and even increase productivity. However, creating a comprehensive wellness program that meets employees’ needs can require more time than many HR teams have to give.
We’re here to make the planning of a workplace wellness challenge simple for you by providing wellness challenge ideas and a guide to support you in the planning process.
Below are 30 workplace wellness challenge ideas you can incorporate for your team.
Fitness wearable challenges
There is one thing we know: people who work at desk jobs tend to move less. So, it’s important to think of how employees can increase physical activity in a fun, motivating way while being productive. There are so many fitness wearables on the market that it is nearly impossible to find someone who doesn’t own either an Apple Watch, FitBit, or Garmin.
These devices can be passive and worn to track workouts, or they can be a way to create competition at work while trying to increase physical activity on your team. For employees who have Apple Watches, the Challenges – Compete, Get Fit app allows you to participate in group challenges and may be a helpful app to suggest to your team.
Other team challenge ideas using wearables include:
- Step challenge: Rack up the most steps in a certain number of days.
- Exercise minutes: Get the most exercise minutes while still allowing for 1-2 rest days.
- Workout challenge: Tally workouts throughout a given month.
Nutrition challenges
Good nutrition is key to feeling healthy and is directly correlated to energy levels. Healthy eating positively improves employee energy levels throughout the workday, improving productivity and focus. While food preferences and tolerances are different for everyone, here are a few nutrition challenges that will suit any team.
Challenge ideas that encourage healthy eating are:
- Bring your lunch from home: Bring a home lunch each in-office day.
- Try a new healthy recipe with 1 new ingredient: Provide healthy recipe ideas and encourage employees to try one, using a new ingredient.
- Water drinking challenge: Motivate employees to stay hydrated by drinking ½ of their body weight in ounces of water each day of the week. Recommended water logging apps to track progress are: Waterlogged, Water Drink Reminder, My Water.
Workout class challenges
Is your team looking for a way to promote physical fitness, wellness routines, and healthy eating? The ClassPass Corporate Wellness Program provides an easy way to encourage employees to build their own wellness routines. Additionally, the ClassPass Ultimate Guide to Workplace Wellness Challenges makes it easy for HR teams to plan wellness challenges, making wellness accessible for all employees.
ClassPass fitness challenge ideas to try:
- Book with a coworker: Use ClassPass to invite a coworker to class.
- Book a class at a new studio: Use ClassPass’ studio search feature on the ClassPass app to find a new class to try.
- Most reservations attended: Track the number of reservations attended in a given month.
Work break challenges
The impact that prolonged sitting has on us is now being compared to the effects smoking has on our bodies. While many people must sit for much of the day due to work, they can still make positive changes to decrease the risks of cardiovascular disease associated with a sedentary lifestyle. Taking regular movement breaks throughout the day is an important habit, as it reduces the negative effects of frequent sitting.
Ideas to increase workday movement:
- Walking break: Take at least 1 fifteen-minute break to go for a walk each workday.
- Stretch break: Stretch five minutes for every hour of sitting.
- Team workout breaks: Join a 30-minute light mid-day workout via Zoom and allow someone on your team to lead this.
Workday challenges
On average, most people spend about 35 hours a week working. This amount of time can greatly impact overall happiness and health. There are many ways to make the workday more productive that will likely also improve team morale, wellbeing, and overall job satisfaction. One way to influence workplace culture is by encouraging social interactions with other team members.
Challenge ideas that will improve team relations:
- Meeting with a colleague: Schedule a 1:1 with someone new.
- Walking meeting: Take a 1:1 or small team meeting outside for a quick walking meeting.
- Standing challenge: Stand for at least 10 minutes for each hour that you sit.
Wellbeing challenges
Employees’ mental health is directly correlated to their workplace. Recent surveys show alarming statistics that workplace conditions significantly contribute to employees’ mental health. As more employers take responsibility for their contribution to team wellbeing, employees seek jobs that offer ample work/life balance and high-end benefits and give them a sense of value. Employers can show they care for employees by encouraging them to take care of themselves in and out of the workplace.
Show employees they are valued with these challenges:
- Meditate: Count the number of days in which a 5-minute meditation is completed.
- Completing yoga practices: Attend 3 or more yoga classes next month.
- Box breathing: Take a few minutes each workday to complete a few sequences of box breathing.
Sleep challenges
We all know how it feels to get to work after a poor night's sleep – not good at all! Sleep has an impact on energy levels, focus, memory, and productivity. Adequate sleep, which is defined as at least 8-9 hours, is essential for overall wellbeing. With employees often being busy with family or friends after their workday, it’s not surprising that many do not get enough sleep to function at full capacity. Imagine how productive a team could be if they all got eight hours of high-quality sleep. They’d be unstoppable.
Challenges to encourage good sleep habits:
- Get 8 hours of sleep: Track sleep cycles for 1 week to see how many nights eight hours of sleep is met.
- No phone at least 1 hour before bed: Throw on “do not disturb” mode and tally the number of nights this month that a phone is not used for 1 hour before bed.
- Listen to sleep sounds/music to fall asleep: Utilize an app like Calm, Breethe or Headspace to truly unwind and fall into deep slumber, track the nights an app is used before sleep.
Volunteering challenges
What better way to foster team camaraderie than to volunteer together? Many employers encourage employees to volunteer with some of their free time, oftentimes even allowing them to take a half day to complete said volunteer work. When employees receive support for their efforts to back their favorite causes, they are more likely to value their workplace in a higher regard, often increasing overall retention levels.
Volunteering with a coworker, or many coworkers, positively affects how employees view their workplace and has been shown to increase team connectivity and boost overall morale.
Boost team morale with these volunteer ideas:
- Volunteer at your favorite spot: Volunteer for 2 hours at a location of one’s choosing.
- Volunteer with a coworker: Bring a friend and volunteer together for an afternoon!
- Join a group volunteer event: Participate in a team volunteering event to give back to the community while having fun.
Sustainability challenges
Simple, daily changes to routines can significantly improve the health of our world, especially when embraced by an entire team or company. People find satisfaction in positive actions, which is the essence of sustainability—doing better for ourselves, our environment, and our communities. Many employees will be eager to partake in a sustainability challenge.
Challenge ideas that support the health of earth:
- Walk or bike to work: Take an alternative form of transportation to the office and track the days in which this is completed.
- Use reusable lunchware: Utilize at least 1 non-disposable container for lunches all week.
- Reusable water bottle challenge: Switch to a reusable water bottle for one month rather than using plastic bottles.
Screen time challenges
Nowadays, it’s difficult to make time when a device is not occupying our minds. Phones, laptops, and TVs suck people in. It’s easier than expected to have a whole day slip by with some sort of screen occupying one’s attention the entire time. Once the workday is over, taking time to disconnect from screens and relax can greatly influence wellbeing and stress levels. With that said, it’s easier said than done to take that mental break, why not incentivize employees to take this time for themselves?
Encourage decompression with these challenges:
- No screens after 8 PM: Do something to unwind, like read a book or meditate, rather than using a screen. Tally the nights in which this is accomplished.
- Screen-free weekends: Go screen-free next weekend and enjoy the gift of presence.
- The 20-20-20 challenge: For every 20 minutes of screen time, look 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
These 30 wellness challenge ideas provide a starting point for workplace challenges with your team. We know implementing challenges is likely not your sole responsibility and can be time-consuming, so reference our Guide to Workplace Wellness Challenges as you begin the process. This guide helps identify challenge goals and objectives and outlines how to plan, implement, and communicate your challenge so everyone gets involved. We also provide ideas on how to evaluate the challenge at its completion.
Creating a healthy, happy, and productive workplace may take time, but by implementing the challenges discussed above, you'll soon see improvements in team morale, employee wellbeing, and overall success.
