Summer Wellness Challenge Ideas to Keep Employees Engaged
Summer is upon us and between the new season, travel plans, and other distractions, it may be more difficult than ever to engage your employees in wellness challenges. But don’t dismay, with a little simplicity and creativity, you can launch some new wellness challenges to recharge for both the summer months and second half of the year! The key is to design challenges that represent the six dimensions of wellbeing: physical, emotional, social, occupational, financial, and purpose.
Here are six of our favorite summer wellness challenges, no matter where your employees work or live:
1. Physical Challenge: Fresh Air – Walk Outside 20 Minutes Per Day
Walking is one of the easiest and most beneficial activities you can include in your everyday life! The Fresh Air Challenge invites participants to take a walk outside for 20 minutes each day, for 30 days. A 20-minute walk is an easy, effective way to integrate exercise into a daily routine and the fresh air and sunshine also help rejuvenate the mind after being stuck indoors at a desk all day.
2. Emotional Challenge: Wire Less – Take a Break from Your Phone
While essential, our cell phones often create a constant source of stress. Anxiety-provoking news, urgent work requests, and family demands can all be delivered through our phones, interrupting, and distracting us from everyday life. The Wire Less Challenge encourages employees to disconnect for an hour a day to reconnect to themselves and the world around them.
3. Social Challenge: Care Package – Send a Care Package
The Care Package challenge encourages participants to make a connection with someone by sending a care package. Whether it’s sent to a friend or family member who lives far across the country, someone living across town, a member of the military, or a healthcare worker, sending a care package benefits both the giver and the receiver and allows the giver to take their mind off their own concerns and allow them to focus on the needs of someone else.
4. Occupational Challenge: Top Priority – Create a Daily To-Do List
No matter the time of year, there is always so much to do and never enough time. The Top Priority challenge helps participants organize their hectic days by requiring them to start each morning by creating a to-do list and prioritizing each item. To-do lists are not only simple tools for becoming more productive but also help us focus our energy and provide a sense of accomplishment.
5. Financial Challenge: Great Deal – Comparison Shop
The Great Deal Challenge invites participants to comparison shop for five things they buy in the next 30 days. This challenge is great for you financially, as it helps ensure you are getting the best price and helps take the time to evaluate the necessity of the things we purchase.
6. Purpose Challenge: Do It – Do Something You’ve Been Putting Off
The Do It Challenge challenges employees to do something they have been putting off. This is their chance to accomplish something, big or small, they’ve always thought about but never gotten to. Not only will it make them feel good about themselves, but also give them the confidence to try something else that’s new.