The City of London Corporation achieved a 9% take-up rate for its first employee stair climbing challenge.
The challenge, which took place between 23 January and 17 February 2017 in conjunction with StepJockey, aimed to encourage employees to collectively climb to the summit of Mount Everest using the stairs within the organisation’s offices, at sites including the Guildhall head office and satellite offices such as Epping Forest.
The Climb Everest Stair Climbing Challenge was designed to promote physical activity in the workplace for the organisation’s 1,500 employees, as well as encourage staff to develop healthy habits, for example taking the stairs instead of the lift.
The four-week challenge involved 132 employees in 38 teams, who collectively took more than one million steps.
A post-challenge survey found that 90% of respondents are now using the stairs more frequently, and 65% believe the challenge has had a positive impact on their personal health. In addition, 90% of respondents have asked for another challenge to be run in the future.
The stair climbing challenge formed part of the City of London Corporation’s CityWell programme, a health and wellbeing initiative that focuses on general health, mental health, physical activity, and social wellbeing. It includes initiatives such as making health assessment kiosks available to employees across 16 sites, mandatory mental health first aid training for all line managers, an education campaign around the importance of a balanced diet, and an employee volunteering scheme.
Rebecca Abrahams, wellbeing project officer at the City of London Corporation, said: “We were looking for a fresh approach to keeping our employees healthy, incentivising movement and tackling physical inactivity in the office.
“It has been great to see the positive response to the [stair climbing] initiative and most importantly the changing attitude towards using the stairs to stay active at work. Our employees really engaged with the [Climb Everest Stair Climbing Challenge] and it created a wonderful atmosphere within the building.
"We’re keen to keep up the momentum, build on the numbers and motivate even more staff to stay healthy on the stairs.”
