7 Unique Step Challenge Ideas Our Clients Use to Engage Employees

Explore these unique step-challenge ideas our clients use to engage their employees.

Today's forward-thinking companies are adopting more dynamic and fun ways to keep their teams motivated and healthy, regardless of their log-in location.

Enter the world of step challenges – and not just any step challenges, but creative & unique ones that have made a real difference in our clients' workplaces. In this article, we’ll share 7 unique step challenge ideas our clients have used to engage their employees. Each of these are designed to bring energy, camaraderie, and a competitive spirit to the office, transforming the daily grind into a collective stride towards wellness.

March Madness

In this unique step challenge, employees are separated into teams to compete in a March Madness-style tournament bracket. Each team goes head to head against another to determine who can accumulate the most steps in that week.

The winners of each bracket will advance to the next phase where they will continue facing other winning teams until there is an undefeated victor. This challenge is great for teams of all sizes and is particularly effective at engaging employees who enjoy sports.

The Amazing Race

One of our clients holds an Amazing Race-style step challenge which is hugely successful for the 90 school districts in their insurance captive.

The idea is to split everyone into teams and have the challenge begin in a local city that everyone knows well. Everyone is then given a clue to the whereabouts of the first destination city, let’s say Paris, and then each team has to collectively walk the number of steps it takes to get the city to get access to another clue to the next destination city. Whichever team completes all of the destinations first is the winner!

Don’t worry, you don’t have to literally send your employees to France for the step challenge. It’s just a fun way for employees to work together, make friends, and stay healthy -virtually anywhere.

City vs City Challenge

One exciting twist that you can do for your next step challenge is to compete against other nearby cities to see which city can get the most steps. A few of our clients actually perform a Tri-City step challenge where the three cities compete over the summer months to see whose employees took the highest average amount of steps.

This doesn’t have to be limited to just cities either, as many of our business clients also compete with other local businesses to see who can claim the title of most active employees in the community.

Golf Challenge

Another unique concept is the golf-styled step challenge. This challenge is an 18-day challenge where each participant has to walk at least 6,000 steps to earn points for that day. People can earn a better score each day by taking more steps, such as taking 6,000 steps to earn a Par (4 points), 8,000 steps to get a Birdie (3 points), or 10,000 steps to get an Eagle (2 points). The employee who has the least amount of points at the end of the challenge is declared the golf champion!

World Series Challenge

If your company has a ton of baseball fans, then you’ll like this step challenge!

To start this challenge, divide your participants into two teams with fun baseball-themed names. The challenge is then broken up into 9 innings with each inning lasting 1 week. A single run will be scored for every 1000 steps a team takes and the total amount of runs will be tallied at the end of each inning.

The team to score the most runs at the end of the World Series step challenge will be crowned the new world champions of baseball, at least in your company that is!

Appalachian Trail Challenge

For those of you outdoorsy folk, you’ll be familiar with the famous 2,200-mile-long Appalachian Trail. For this challenge, participants will hike to various destinations throughout the trail, gaining fun and interesting nuggets of information at each resting spot.

This type of step challenge can be done with any one of the many famous hiking trails that span our globe, such as the Continental Divide Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, or the Tour du Mont Blanc for our European friends.

Texas Holdem Challenge

In this Western-style step challenge, contestants are dealt two playing cards after completing the first week of the challenge. Players who want to use the Flop, the Turn, and the River cards of Texas Holdem must complete the remaining weeks’ challenges.The players who make it to the end of the step challenge can then play their hands against the other remaining players and can use their steps as currency to bet on the card game.

This step challenge is a great option for smaller teams and If you want to add an extra layer of difficulty, try adding steps to each subsequent week to make the game even more competitive.

Final Thoughts on 7 Unique Step Challenge Ideas Our Clients Use to Engage Employees

We hope that these 7 unique step challenge ideas help guide you in your journey towards creating a healthier and more engaged workforce. Regardless of which step challenge you choose to move forward with, creatively weaving together the core elements of teamwork, physical activity, and fun can make any step challenge a success.

While step challenges offer huge benefits for employee engagement, they can be hard to manage without the proper tools. Motion Connected offers a solution that offers easier management, customization features, and automation that will help take the challenge out of your step challenges.

If you’re interested in taking your future step challenges to the next level, contact our employee experience specialists or book a free demo to get started today.