Boosting Employee Morale with a Virtual Walkathon

The past two years have been a roller-coaster ride for everyone. With the lockdown and the never-ending quarantine period, people have gotten lousy. This has taken a massive toll on people's health and will to stay fit.

Even with offices reopening, most companies have incorporated the hybrid work culture. And in between those heavy deadlines, employees often fall short of adopting a healthy regimen. Due to lack of time or work fatigue, fitness somehow does not make it into the routine.

This brings me to introduce the concept of a virtual walkathon.

What is a Virtual Walkathon?

All of us are familiar with the term walkathon. A walkathon or a marathon is a walking event with the goal of covering a predetermined distance or steps. It is a group activity primarily held to inspire people to walk or support a cause.

There has been a decline in physical events since the covid-19 pandemic. As a result, every group event has seen a shift to the digital platform.

It's also interesting to note how walking itself has evolved into a virtual event. There are many digital wellness platforms in the market. Applications for these platforms serve as activity trackers. Additionally, these trackers keep tabs on physical activity, like exercise or movement.

A virtual walkathon is a corporate wellness program organized on a similar digital wellness platform. It connects all the employees and brings them to a common digital space. Such an event involves one taking usual walks. And those steps are further tracked on a digital platform like Vantage Fit..

All the participants can track their steps and distance covered once their cell phone is correctly synced to the application. These apps also display the number of calories burnt in the process.

Why Organize a Virtual Walkathon?

I love walking because it clears your mind, enriches the soul, takes away stress and opens up your eyes to a whole new world. – Claudette Dudley

When was the last time you went on a pleasant walk?

Don't recall? We understand. With heavy and demanding workloads, people in today's world seldom have time to breathe, much less go for a walk. Thus, taking time out, even for 30 minutes, to go on a run or walk is a big deal.

This is why corporates focus on employee well-being and try to motivate employees to indulge in fitness activities. As an employer, you are vested with the responsibility of employee health. If your workforce is not conscious of their health, this will lead to decreased team productivity. Because, at the end of the day, good health drives effective results.

Therefore, businesses strive to provide a healthy working culture. As a result, they are developing a range of wellness programs and activities for their workforce. And one of the simplest ways to keep in shape is to walk.

All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking. – Friedrich Nietzsche

A physical walkathon requires extensive planning and cannot be sustained over time. It can be a one-day event. In contrast, a virtual walkathon can continue without interfering with your regular activities. You can set a daily, weekly, or monthly goal for the participants, who can walk toward the goal at their convenience.

In other words, a virtual walkathon lets your employees walk at their own pace, place, and time. This makes it an effective wellness campaign.

Besides encouraging an active lifestyle, a walkathon is a fun activity that promotes the health advantages of walking. The advantages include calorie burning, weight loss, increased stamina, etc.

Here’s how a Virtual Walkathon helps with the employees' health and the organization's:

• One of the significant benefits of a virtual walkathon is the reduced costs. There is no need for a location if the employers run their marketing on digital channels.

• It keeps employees healthy, which also lowers insurance costs and boosts efficiency.

• This campaign offers your employees the flexibility and choice to walk at their convenient time and place. There is no space and time constraint.

• It is an enjoyable event that fosters positive competitiveness and workplace camaraderie.

• The absence of any sizable social gatherings indicates that safety is maintained and approved by Covid-19 police.

• Organizing a walkathon on a digital wellness platform helps employers check employee health status. As the application will contain accurate data.

• The best thing about an online application is that there is a record of every activity. Just like employers can see their employees' progress, so can the employees. The latter can keep track of their step count and get motivated to do better each day until the end of the competition. This further can help them in developing a healthy lifestyle.

• A fit and healthy workforce implies improved performance without absenteeism or paid sick days.

• Events as such boost the employees and relieve them from all kinds of physical and mental stress and let go of fatigue.

• Companies can promote the program on social media platforms and reach a wider audience. This will further strengthen their position in the industry and inspire other companies to follow the same. Others will also take the path toward employee wellness.

How to Organize a Virtual Walkathon?

Walking is the favorite sport of the good and wise. – A.L. Rowse

Virtual means digital, and launching campaigns digitally- be it fun runs, virtual runs, or walkathons is both a cakewalk and not. The rest of the process is simple after you've chosen the platform.

It's crucial to provide your employees with the best tools for engagement.

1. Identify the right Digital Platform

Employers must make the correct platform selection for their workforce. Before anything else, you must decide the services you will require for the campaign.

An application that can process real-time activity is a basic requirement for a walkathon. The software should reliably determine if your employees are walking and logging a specified number of steps each day, such as 5000 steps. Also, the pace and distance traveled should be measured. The event can only become successful after that.

Furthermore, try to look for a comprehensive wellness platform that is more than just a step tracker. Choose platforms that let you log various health activities, such as yoga, meditation, meals, water consumption, etc.

2. Set up a Goal

Planning the event's structure is necessary after selecting the platform.

You must develop an exciting concept and a proper time frame to engage your employees. Setting up a goal is important to keep the program interesting. Otherwise, it will grow monotonous after a while.

Set a concrete goal for your staff, such as requiring them to walk 3 km per day for a week or to take at least 6000 steps per day on a daily or five-day basis. They can take that as a challenge and put up their best effort to achieve the objective.

A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. – Paul Dudley White

3. Promote on Social Media

Social media is one of the most robust platforms for information. So, if you are launching walkathons, the event should be promoted on social media.

For one, it will gain attention from people beyond your targeted audience. The more people know about the event, the more aware they will be regarding their health and will spread the news further.

Secondly, seeing your effort to ensure employee well-being, other companies may be inspired and might start with their own corporate wellness programs.

4. Give out Rewards

What is that one thing which motivates people to do something they do not usually do?

Rewards. When there are rewards associated with challenges and contests, everyone becomes enthusiastic. For instance, with Vantage Fit, if an employee completes a task, they get reward points that can be converted into gift cards.

Every challenge has a reward. And who does not want to win?

Therefore, integrating rewards into the program is a wise choice.

5. Engage your Employees

Once everything is finalized, there has to be consistency in the virtual events to keep your employees rooted and wanting more.

Hold wellness campaigns every week, so your employees are always into some physical or brain activity and moving. Consistency is key to fitness. It would help if you offered them something to look forward to so they will step outside of their comfort zone.

The campaigns can vary. If you hold a virtual walkathon one week, pick a meal or nutrition challenge the following week. Keep it different and exciting.

Health campaigns will boost their morale and make them stay fit.

Vantage Fit- An All-inclusive Virtual Wellness Platform for your Organization

Vantage Fit is an AI-powered wellness solution for companies looking to build a healthy workplace. This platform is well-equipped with features to ensure users a seamless wellness experience. It allows organizations to host wellness programs, leveraging the features at their disposal.

Vantage Fit includes an array of features that can stimulate workers to participate in fitness activities. From step tracking and squat tracking to meditation sessions and nutrition trackers, it offers its users ample options to choose from. Not to mention the heart rate monitor, 7-minute workout, etc.

The presence of an HR Wellness Dashboard makes the job easier for managers to monitor activities smoothly.

Companies can host virtual walkathon contests as much as they can host custom challenges. The former will primarily use the step count feature. In comparison, the latter can be an amalgamation of tasks- like a goal of walking 20000 steps a week along with drinking 8 glasses of water daily, to name a few.

Vantage Fit has an activity tracking feature with various other fitness activities you may check out.

Thus, the smooth functioning and accuracy of the entire application, with its innovative features, makes it a perfect fit for any corporate.

Do you want to know more?

You can explore all the different features for your employees by scheduling a demo with us. See it for yourself and choose the best for your employees.

Wrapping it Up

Walking gets the feet moving, the blood moving, the mind moving. – Terri Guillemets

A healthy body leads to a healthy mind and vice versa. Although digital, a virtual walkathon can develop the will to maintain wellness amongst your staff.

And as 2023 approaches, various campaigns are ready to shoot and wake up the workforce and push them to go for walks, runs, and whatnot.

So, what are you waiting for? Give your employees a fun event this new year, and welcome 2023 with open arms.

Conduct your own virtual walkathon by scheduling a demo with us.