I work for a Canadian based company, having offices in several countries in the world. All our employees are affected by this pandemic. With this new situation, some people work from home, others need to go to the office, some people don’t have work to do and must stay home. In some countries, you are not allowed to leave your home, in others you may walk around your neighborhood. Our employees all face different situations depending on where they live, but we all share a common bond, our company and this pandemic.
In the last few years, I have put on a May Fitness Challenge, where we group employees into teams and each person in the group records their time exercising into a mobile application we have specifically created to track time. We post weekly progress on points and teams and at the end of the challenge, we give out prizes and medals.
Two weeks ago, I have been asked to help create an internal worldwide Health and Wellness initiative for our 1600 employees. The purpose is to create an online community, where people are able to communicate freely about how they are doing and by giving them a choice of daily activities to complete, it will present a forum for discussion. The daily activities could include, a fitness or yoga class, a meditation challenge, a bingo game, a cooking class or a smoothie challenge.
The tool that we have at our disposal is the Office 365 suite. We have the ability to publish a mobile application from this platform to eventually record points – perhaps in May. For the month of April, we want to reach out to everyone, have them sign up and sign a waiver (disclaimer on any physical activities they may undertake). Once they sign up, they will be given access to a SharePoint site.
The Health and Wellness SharePoint site, would contain areas where people can post their pictures, videos and comments called Yammer, a weekly and daily schedule, links to activities and other such information.
We are setting up a working group to review any posts that are logged and also to suggest new activities to do and post links to recorded videos or live videos.
This is a first initiative for me. I would love to hear any other ideas on tooling or activities that would benefit our initiative! Please help!
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Hi Francine!
This is a great idea to help people connect, especially in times like these! I like that there would be a place they could share their experiences and that there would be a variety of activities to choose from, especially because health and wellness isn’t necessarily just physical fitness. So I would definitely try to promote that aspect as much as you can, so that everyone feels like there are things they can do.
That’s the one thing about the May fitness challenge that struck me, that if people were teamed up with other employees who aren’t particularly active for physical, mental or other reasons, would that have any negative impact on the less active employees in terms of how other employees saw them or treated them. It just reminded me of the stress of getting picked for sports in elementary school. For someone like me, who was terribly shy and not great at sports, it could be difficult to be put in a position where you know you might let people down.
But the health initiative seems to address that issue with more variety in activities! Try to expand the range for that as much as you can to try to give everyone some options for activities they’re comfortable doing or trying for the first time. You could even include things like arts and crafts, gardening or indoor planting, photography, or even poem or song writing! Everyone will have different thresholds for what they can handle mentally and physically through something like a pandemic, so it definitely helps to have enough ideas that everyone can find something that suits them. Good luck, it sounds like a great idea!
Great ideas! Yes, in some cases, during the fitness challenge some people opted out, although they still participated in some of the activities – such as meditation, nutrition talks and cheering on others during a sports challenge. This year, we are softening the rules a lot more and including more general activities to keep us busy and trying to engage them in the Yammer tool. Thanks for the ideas!!!
Hi Francine
A very interesting concept! I used Yammer years ago – – loved the ability to collaborate on documents. Google allows that same sort of function (along with Smartsheet – – a must-have tool for micromanagers lol!)
Maybe something like an kindness calendar with different tasks each day. https://www.actionforhappiness.org/calendars
Scavenger hunt i.e. Pick up 10 discarded tim hortons coffee cups (must wear gloves), or take a selfie with a hockey stick (you may not get the couchpotatoes moving but you may be able to engage them mentally)
There’s also the TikTok dance challenges #BlindingLightChallenge or the #StairChallenge https://www.cambstimes.co.uk/news/blinding-lights-cops-tiktok-dance-1-6601139
When I’m stuck, I usually fall back on ‘Who will play us if we were made into a TV movie’. I’d usually pick someone like Michelle Pfieffer to portray me, but the group would decide on the actress that played Mrs. Roper (Three’s Company) or Jean Stapleton (All in the Family). If I don’t get to a hairdresser soon, you can add Cousin It (Addams Family) to that list.
The kindness calendar is a great idea! My daughter has mentioned the TikTok challenge to me – thanks for suggesting it. Too funny – I love Mrs. Roper!!! She was a darling! I’ll have to think of who would play me? Perhaps Jane Fonda – with her kick ass fitness routines? Lol
This is a great idea! Each May I sit on the Mental Health committee and we plan activities for the month for our staff in various offices to participate in. Some activities have included planting, yoga, daily walks, paint night and more. As we continue to work from home I wondered what that might look like this year, after reading your blog it has given me some ideas!
Thanks for sharing Stephanie! Good luck!
Hi Francine
The company I’m working for is also using Office 365 suite and sharepoint, it is very convenient once you updated the files you can send the email to your team to notify them with a single click, and also you can see everyone’s calendar on Outlook so you can make a meeting with no conflicts for everyone. Although under the current situation we have to work from home, there is no difficulties communicating with my colleagues with such tools.
Hi Francine,
I am sorry that I do don’t have any tips or tricks to help you, but I appreciate your post. It brought back memories when I worked for my previous employer. I participated in Mud Hero, CN Tower Climb and a walking challenge. I am very impressed that your company has asked you to do this during this time. I find this very motivating and empowering. Office 365 and sharepoint should get the it done! All the best.
Michelle