When you want your employees to amp up their physical fitness game, a healthy incentive is always at the heart of the push. In the case of Navakai vs Bryan Construction’s Corporate Wellness Challenge, bragging rights are the only incentive these two sets of employees need to throw down in an epic five-month challenge.
While the Challenge runs for five-months, employees only compete in activities during April, June, and August. In the off-months of May and July, CEO’s Scott Bryan and Davin Neubacher plan to hold unified mixers where their teams of employees can size each other up while enjoying some friendly comradery. The companies also established a group Facebook page which has allowed employees to share their success and sling some good-natured mud.
The first battle to kick off the rivalry was a steps challenge in April. Bryan Construction’s thirty-two employees aimed to outstep Navakai’s sixteen. But, to make the numbers even, weekly point totals were calculated based on the average number of employees participating from each company.
Navakai has always prided themselves on encouraging wellness, but the competition with Bryan Construction has taken efforts to a new level. On any given day you can find a handful of bikes parked on the patio, staff stepping away on a mini-elliptical between calls, and breathless team members who have hiked five flights of stairs to reach the company’s office on the top floor of the Hibbard building downtown.
However, Bryan Construction has a different source of strength. With workers on the move at job sites, distance runners, incline hikers, and general fitness enthusiasts; Bryan Construction brought a strong game too.
Every physical activity led to steps for the two teams. For example, yoga might not count as steps because you are not physically moving around a lot, but rather it uses controlled strength. Swimmers aren’t always able to wear fitness trackers in the water; and even if they did, it might now calculate the same on their tracker. So, for activities like swimming and yoga, employees used “steps converters” to equivalate that strength building into steps energy.
With the first Challenge under the belt, the mighty Navakai team took home the proverbial gold medal with a total of 447,221 steps verses Bryan’s 424,913 steps. Congratulations to Navakai! Stay tuned to see what the next challenges will be in June and August.
Ultimately, all three months will be calculated together and the grand winner will be announced at the Colorado Springs Business Journal’s Lifestyle: 6035 luncheon in September. In addition to bragging rights, the losing company will present the winning company with a check for $1,000 made out to the winner’s local charity of choice.
Regardless of who wins, the competition between Navakai and Bryan Construction has fostered an unexpected element of team cohesion, and reignited the desire to stay engaged in our overall wellness.
Stay tuned to see which company pulls ahead in June. Steps are one thing, but it’s balanced counterpart nutrition may tell a different story on which company truly values health and wellness.
