Vitality has launched a feature within its UK app to increase employee physical activity and productivity.
The Employee Challenges tool is available for companies with Vitality cover, giving employers access to interactive, team-based challenges. These are designed to promote healthier habits through friendly competition. Staff can take part in four-week virtual step challenges, from any location, to compete for leaderboard positions, virtual rewards, and even prizes, which can be provided by the employer.
Activities such as cross-country walks and location-based challenges are presented as a ‘gamified experience’, with each challenge broken down into weekly milestones. Achievements are showcased with virtual badges and trophies, and the tool encourages further engagement through a team feed, weekly updates, and a final wrap-up summary.
The idea is to enable collaboration via a structured, but fun, framework to improve daily activity. Its developers expect it to help address employer concerns around increasing levels of workplace ill-health.
Data from the provider shows that inactive employees lose 28 percent more productive time than those who exercise regularly. The challenges tool aims to reduce that gap by helping employers motivate staff, build a wellbeing-focused culture, and embed healthier habits throughout their workforce.
“Productivity and ill-health are two of the biggest issues being faced by workplaces and employers alike, and both are Employee Challenges will help them to face head on by creating a collaborative environment that pushes and incentivises them to further embed health and exercise into their day to day lives,” said Pippa Andrews, director of corporate business at Vitality Health.
“We know that increasing physical activity, even by a small amount, can make a difference to a person’s health, and by challenging employees to push themselves that little bit further, employers can expect to see a healthier, happier and more productive workforce.”
