Member Article

‘Walking lunches’ boost employee wellbeing for international consultancy

Swapping working lunches for walking lunches, holding conferences calls whilst stepping on the spot, and walking the longest route to the shop have all contributed to boosting employee wellbeing and raising over £13,000 for charity at one international consultancy company.

Staff at Columbus have put their best foot forward and walked the equivalent of twice around-the-world as part of a 4 month Fitbit® charity challenge in aid of the Bone Cancer Research Trust. And in addition to raising a staggering £13,062, the company is reporting an increase in employee wellbeing and productivity levels as a result of getting out from behind their desks and encouraging each other to undertake more physical exercise.

Mary Hunter, Managing Director of Columbus explained: “When we agreed to take part in the Fitbit® charity challenge we all knew that it would be difficult to walk the equivalent of 49,802 miles over 4 months especially when a lot of us are usually desk-bound or spend long periods driving. And what we weren’t immediately prepared for is just how difficult it was for over half of us to walk the equivalent of 10,000 steps each day, every day for 4 months.

“The whole exercise was a huge success and instilled a real team spirit throughout the entire company; we all motivated each other to reach our daily and weekly targets. That ethic remains today and we have seen productivity increase as a result of having a healthier happier team. Employee wellbeing is higher than ever before and many of the healthy living initiatives this challenge brought remain with us today – walking lunches and taking the stairs over the lift in particular, have become a regular occurrence.“

When its team is not walking around the planet, Columbus staff are assisting manufacturing, distribution and retail businesses worldwide to increase their own efficiencies and productivity with cutting edge Microsoft Dynamics Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions. The Fitbit® charity challenge saw the team at Columbus achieve their target whilst still undertaking everyday business duties; ERP planning, implementation delivery and customer service, all activities that are heavily desk-based.

A recent survey from Financial Director magazine found that 86% of directors in the UK consider employee wellbeing a significant part of their job, whilst a similar report from office furniture manufacturers, Steelcase, reports that 83% of employees in the UK are not engaged with their work because employee wellbeing is poor.

Mary Hunter revealed that this charity challenge has not only helped a worthy cause, but has boosted team spirit within the company and increased engagement levels.

“The team spirit that everyone showed throughout this initiative is still part of our culture, but it’s more apparent today with everyone you talk to and visibly evident also in the way we support our customers and help them to achieve their long term goals. I would definitely recommend that other businesses run an activity like this and see for themselves the advantages it brings to their team for the long term.“

Bone Cancer Research Trust’s Head of Fundraising, Kate Connor also commended the team at Columbus on their fantastic achievement. She said: “The tens of thousands of steps taken by Columbus will enable us to take a giant leap in the support we offer in the fight against bone cancer. The incredible achievements of Columbus will mean that we can be there for even more families at the start of their bone cancer journey, when they need us most, alongside our continued investment in research to find better treatments and make this a curable disease.“

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Columbus .