In April, Plant Manager Teri Blumenthal and her staff decided to hold a walking challenge.
“We’re doing a lot on wellness for our facility,” said Teri. “Wellness is important to all of us and it was one of the things our employees talked about in Global Voices. They asked if we could do something, and the walking challenge is one of the things we did.”
They started the challenge by giving each employee at the Ladysmith facility a pedometer, explaining the challenge and describing the health benefits associated with exercise and walking. Using the “Walk Around the Facilities” theme, they encouraged associates to reach walking checkpoints at familiar Rockwell Automation locations. They also grouped employees into four teams based on their physical activity potential while at work: material handlers, general assembly, support staff and technicians/maintenance/injection molding.
“The response was phenomenal,” said Teri. “We had 60% participation.”
Each morning, someone from Teri’s team collected step counts from all the pedometers and tracked them in a centralized location. To make the competition fun, they also awarded prizes to the first employee to reach designated step checkpoints. From April to June, they awarded:
- 20 gift cards for smaller checkpoints
- 16 Fitbit trackers for larger checkpoints
- 4 grand prizes for the first employee in each group to reach 700,000 steps
The friendly competition was a great health and employee morale booster. And it led to amazing results. Ladysmith employees tracked more than 35 million steps between April and June! And their activity helps them qualify to earn up to $200 off their 2016 medical premiums.
Best of all, Teri says there’s a noticeable change at their location. “Everyone is thinking about wellness for many different reasons. With the walking challenge and Weight Watcher meetings, a lot of people are getting healthier and losing weight. It’s really cool,” she said. “We had a lot of fun with it, too. We’re going to keep doing different things to build the excitement and get the facility well.”
Winners (left to right): Wanda Read, Paul Goldbeck, Tavane Popp, Lynn Weingarten, Donna Mabie, Cheri Lambert, Kathy Lehman, Tiffany Guthrie, Joseph Makovsky, Liz Elam, Dan Bates, Pat Lynch, Sam Barg, Stacy Eichner. (Winners not pictured: Merri Marten, Lisa Moreau, Sandra Liazuk, Jeff Hayden, June Pavlik)
Start a Walking Challenge at Your Location
You can do the Rockwell Automation Walking Challenge on your own or with a group. Simply choose one of the five walking challenges and print your tracking map from ra.staywell.com.
- 100 Miles in 100 Days
- Rockwell Automation Sales Office
- ROK Around the World
- Mayfield ROKs
- Rockwell Automation Operations
Just remember: Any physical activity counts. You can use the conversion chart found on the back of your tracking map to convert your activities into steps. To complete this activity for $100, you need to walk the equivalent of 700,000 steps. Once you complete your challenge, log in to the StayWell website to report your completion.