Community step challenge: activity and team spirit – even during the pandemic

Admin • 2021.04.20

In the fall of 2020 employees of GE Healthcare Váci Greens Campus took part in a community step challenge woth Fitpuli. About their experience we interviewed senior kontrolling manager Gabriella Petrov who is also an active member of the company’s health initiative, Health Ahead. 

Could you please tell me more about HealthAhead?

At GE Hungary, and, as a part of it, at GE Healthcare, we have several affinity groups in operation, HealthAhead is one of the biggest. The mission of the group is to maintain the physical and mental health of the employees. We are talking about a pre-covid and a post-covid state here: before covid we endorsed a lot of sports, running races, team sports, football cups between companies, water polo, squash and so on – or in areas of mental health I could mention mindfulness, yoga, events with singing bowls. We also regularly organized HealthAhead Week, a weeklong holistic health program with screening tests, sports, healthy diet ideas and so on.

But in 2020 the covid pandemic strongly limited our opportunities for such programs, so we were very happy when Fitpuli reached out for us. We really wanted to give our employees an opportunity to get active because we knew that physical activity has a very positive effect on mental health as well. Of course, we provided our employees a lot of other opportunities to physical activities, like spine training or ergonomic gymnastics – but those were solitary activities, while with this community step challenge Fitpuli provided an opportunity for the employees to experience team spirit again.

Tell me about the beginnings, how Fitpuli, the application and the game became a part of your everyday life?

We have put a lot of effort into engaging our employees, and that is not easy within home office environment – it is so much easier to motivate a person in a face-to-face conversation than online. We advertised the program in company platforms, we drew their attention to this opportunity – and to our pleasant surprise a lot of our people applied. The employees clearly wanted to be a part of a community sport activity and the fact that it was gamified and was supported with an app also enhanced the activity levels. We had 160 active participants in the community step challenge which, I think, is an amazing outcome.

It absolutely is. And as far as I know they were really committed and motivated in the challenge. I guess this is the result of the fact that health consciousness is one of GE’s company values.

That is true – and each person’s own motivation is just as important. We have a lot of colleagues who compete in sports, or even if they do not compete, they still take it quite seriously: we are proud to have several Iron Men for example. The fact, that we could check in the app how other teams were doing helped in keeping up the competitive spirit. The prizes provided by the company also contributed to the great results – like the fact that we finished the contest much earlier than you have planned at Fitpuli. The first prize for the winners was a smartwatch or a voucher of the same value, and we also collected a few great items with GE logo for the winning teams and individuals.

Each team had members who were really active and this helped a lot in motivating the teams. These members were almost in daily contact with the support team of Fitpuli, and they pushed their teams towards better results. For example, my team which ended up on the second place – only behind the first team by a little –had a member, who put a lot of effort into motivating the team, which we all really appreciated. On the other hand, I must notice the fact that people were allocated automatically into a team and might have not necessarily know each other, didn’t really help the game. I think it would have been better if people could decide which team they want to belong to, of course, nevertheless paying attention to the teams to have the same number of members so they can have the same chances in the competition.

So, the aim of the game was to collect as many steps as if you walked around Hungary. What kind of solutions did you come up with for collecting steps?

Individual running was definitely a big part of it. Many of our employees went for a run before work, or during their lunch breaks, after work, others decided to walk instead of running. Our team had the goal of taking ten thousand steps each day and everyone found a way to reach that number. We had people who went hiking, also, when gyms were still open, a few members went to the gym, and walked on the treadmill while reading a book.

What did you like the most during this community step challenge?

Maybe the fact that the app made me realize that due to home office, I move a lot less than when I worked in the office, and the game gave me the motivation I needed for that extra hour of walking after work. Also, as a company we were happy to see that you were open to our suggestions and requests, you reacted quickly, and stayed in active, continuous contact with our active team members. What we missed was the ability to contact with our team members within the app, we’d prefer if that was easier – but we already mentioned this in the document with our suggestions, and we are looking forward to seeing them implemented.

What do you think, what kind of companies and teams could profit as much as GE Váci Greens did in a challenge like this?

It could work really well in a company where health-preservation is already part of the company culture, but also I think it could work in a company where they are only getting started in this area. Of course, in this case it needs proper communication and organization. I think it’s important to emphasise that taking part in a challenge like this means a lot of organizational work from the volunteers of the company, you shouldn’t underestimate the amount of effort it needs. But with a good, strong base of volunteers and with the technical support you can provide I believe any company could get itself on track towards a healthier organization. Everyone use gadgets now, and Lupi the dog provides the necessary amount of cuteness as well. And what’s more important: a challenge like this can strengthen the excitement of being part of a team – which is especially important now, when a lot of companies switched to remote working.

If we’re talking not about this exact community step challenge but Fitpuli in general, what do you see, how Fitpuli fits into the health strategy of GE Váci Greens Campus?

In general, it fits very well, it helps the individual to remain healthy or even improve the physical and through that the mental condition.  Since we have thousands of employees, it is difficult to design and finance a plan that supports their personal health goals – so it’s really useful if an app like this “keeps an eye” on the critical areas of an employee’s health.

If there was an opportunity, would you take part in a challenge like this again?

Of course! And we are also open to try new sports in a similar challenge, like cycling or a challenge with activities we can do at home.