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Competition and Your Wellbeing Programme

Many employees have a competitive streak and this can be invaluable when it comes to the success of wellbeing programmes. Jeff Archer looks at the ways in which a business can use competition to it’s advantage and how to manage the potential negative impact it can also have when creating a worksite wellness initiative.

Competition can be a real motivator

For those who are outwardly competitive, wellbeing programmes are a great way to direct their energy and in many cases these people are a great asset when it comes to making your initiatives a success. Whether you’re organising fitness sessions, a pedometer challenge, a company entry into a charity event or even a challenge to monitor reductions in weight, body fat, blood pressure or cholesterol over time. You name it and these people will sign up for it.

The benefit of you providing this group with such initiatives is that it provides a way for them to focus their enthusiasm for wellbeing and will give them access to information and resources they may not have explored before. In turn these individuals will benefit from renewed results with their health and wellbeing and they’ll have you and the organisation to thank for this.

Be careful not to alienate individuals

But not everyone is so openly competitive. So how do you ensure that your wellbeing initiatives cater for those who are without alienating the less vocal members of your staff?

This is where group or team initiatives really play their part. For those who generally shy away from competition there is safety in numbers and team challenges provide those who’d usually keep a low profile with an opportunity to get involved but not feel as thought they are centre of attention or are being judged on their performance.

Allow individuals to compete with themselves

It’s also important to remember that often those who aren’t openly competitive with others can be competitive with themselves and you can use this to your advantage when setting up wellbeing initiatives. Most of us respond well to challenges and targets and you can make use of this trait by offering those who may be less forthcoming the opportunity to take part in wellbeing initiatives targeted at the individual. In this environment they have the chance to communicate openly, acquire a sense of purpose and direction with their wellbeing and agree some key objectives to work on.

In many cases you may discover that those who appear less competitive on the surface actually get the best results and, just because they don’t make a public show of what they’re doing and compare themselves to others around them, this doesn’t mean they won’t apply themselves and want to do the best with the opportunities you provide them with for making personal change.

Accountability is key to success

Whether people are openly competitive or not, accountability is a key factor when it comes to success with wellbeing programmes. Everyone loves structure and deadlines as they focus the mind, and we all appreciate praise for doing well. If you design wellbeing programmes that enable staff to establish some benchmark health measurements and key performance indicators to judge improvement, along with the information they need to take positive action and a deadline for measuring progress, they will strive for the best result regardless of whether they’re interested in proving themselves against their team or their department, or if they’re simply more interested in proving something to themselves.

Appeal to a cross section of your workforce

So when considering how to appeal to a variety of different personalities within your business, consider wellbeing programs that capture the imagination of group and individuals and that are structured in such a way as to provide access to information in ways that appeal to different types of competitiveness. If you can combine some high profile challenges that appeal to the more outgoing of your staff with the necessary individual support and coaching to cater for the more reserved employees you’ll be going a long way to achieving widespread results.

About Author: Jeff Archer is Director of The Tonic, a corporate wellness company specialising in helping people achieve optimum energy and performance, every day.