Over 50% of Arc Infrastructure’s workforce stepped up to walk over 79,000 kilometres to successfully complete a six week fitness challenge.
Thirty five teams made up of 243 employees across our network took part in a six week step challenge to race each other to the finish line and see the many benefits of increasing their daily activity each day.
On average, employees in the challenge took more than 10,000 steps each day, the recommended number of steps suggested by the World Health Organisation and the National Heart Foundation of Australia.
Participants were given a Fitbit and used an app to track their steps to complete a virtual obstacle course in a race to get to the finish line each week.
Manager Health, Safety and Environment Adam Sidebottom said the physical and mental benefits of increasing daily activity was the driving force behind getting employees involved in the steps challenge.
“Increasing daily activity has a huge influence on being fit for work; it can improve sleep and overall physical health as well as enhancing mental functions and assisting to counteract anxiety and depression. With over half of our workforce participating, it was easy to see the small changes that our employees were making to get more steps in every day,” Mr Sidebottom said.
Supervisor Track Services David McLeish, who was a member of the winning team, said his whole team really got behind the challenge and encouraged each other to get in extra steps at work and at home.
“As a maintenance team we are always moving, however our team really put in the extra work and did things like taking a walk during their lunch break or going for a walk with their family in the evening. I’m still wearing my Fitbit and it really does make you more conscious of how much you are moving every day,” said Mr McLeish.
About the challenge:
- World Health Organisation and the National Heart Foundation of Australia recommend walking 10,000 steps each day
- More than 79,000 kilometres was tracked and logged by participants, which is the equivalent of walking around the earth at the equator 1.5 times
- Almost everyone who participated completed the challenge and felt that their health had improved as a result 81% of participants said the challenge encouraged them to walk more throughout the day than they had been and 55% of participants said the challenge helped them create healthier habits they intend to maintain
- The winning team logged 5,916,227 steps, which was approximately 10,300 steps for each person a day
- Four employees took over 1 million steps each during the challenge
Media Contact:
Rebecca Keating
Corporate Affairs Advisor
Phone: 0439 277 980
Email: rebecca.keating@arcinfra.com
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