Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska’s (BCBSNE’s) latest internal wellness challenge, Blue Moves, used the power of teamwork and competition to motivate employees to stay active.
Blue Moves was a wellness challenge hosted by BCBSNE as a part of its internal wellness program, Be Well at Blue. During the six-week challenge, employees formed teams and were tasked with tracking a minimum of 30 workouts between Monday, March 1 and Friday, April 30 by syncing a fitness tracker or logging their activity directly into the company’s wellness program app.
Plus, if participants completed the challenge successfully, they earned points towards their year-end wellness reward.
To further fuel the fun, employees could watch the leaderboards to see how their team stacked up to the rest and motivate themselves to jump ahead to win bragging rights.
Karah Thompson, who tracked all 61 workouts during the challenge, enjoys how wellness challenges like Blue Moves breed competition and community at BCBSNE.
“It’s fun to start a group Microsoft Teams chat with your team to make sure everyone is getting their workout in for the day,” said Thompson, agile project manager at BCBSNE. “It keeps everyone at BCBSNE connected, even when we are not physically together. Plus, it’s fun to see the names of teams and how creative people can get. It creates a fun and healthy environment for everyone.”
Over the six weeks, 247 employees tracked a total of 9,860 workouts. Employees could only count one workout per day toward the challenge.
“I’ve focused a lot on lifting weights, cardio and yoga,” said Thompson. “My balance and my muscles have improved the most throughout the challenge.”
Beyond the Blue Moves challenge, the BCBSNE wellness team encourages employees to stay moving with free virtual workout classes through the Wellbeats app.
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