Loneliness is on the rise. Research has shown that as many as 1 in 4 Americans claim to have zero close friends to confide in*. Unfortunately, loneliness comes at a cost to both physical and mental health. With many companies becoming permanently remote or switching to hybrid schedules, workplace isolation is an increasing concern.
If employees aren’t given resources and opportunities to connect to each other, they can still feel lonely after a day full of meetings. On the other hand, people working remotely can feel genuinely supported and connected to their team if the right structures are in place.
So what can you do?
Create opportunities for meaningful social connection. You can do this whether you have a smaller company coming to work in-person or a fully-remote, global company with thousands of employees.
Help your employees improve their social wellness by building meaningful connections. Run the Stronger Together challenge.
Incorporate the Stronger Together challenge in your wellness programming by following this guide.
CHALLENGE DETAILS
Follow these specifications when creating your challenge in the Admin Center. Note that this challenge includes a Team Leaderboard. We suggest that you create and assign users to teams. Follow this guide for help with setting up your teams.
Challenge Name: Stronger Together
Challenge Modes & Goals:
- Team Leaderboard - Compete in teams to have the highest average total step count
- Actionable Content - Complete at least 10 of the 15 social connection prompts
💡 Team Tip - We recommend creating and assigning teams of 5-10 members for this challenge. You can adjust this range if needed depending on your company size. This allows you to randomize teams and encourage interactions between people who might not normally engage with one another.
You can check out this blog post for creative team name ideas. If you have additional time to spend renaming the teams, you could also prompt each team to come up with a fun team name as a group instead.
Duration: 3 weeks
Description:
Research shows that maintaining social connections is as important as nutrition, sleep, and exercise to our overall physical and mental health.
Improve your social wellbeing and get stepping with teammates in our Stronger Together challenge!
Your goals are:
👟 Work together as a team to step your way to the top
💡 Complete at least 10 out of 15 social connection prompts
Enhance your social wellbeing by engaging with friends, coworkers, and others. Let’s connect!
Head to the Admin Center to create the challenge now, and don’t forget to set up teams in the Team Leaderboard.
COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
CHALLENGE INVITATION
Send this invitation as an in-app announcement and as a message in Slack, Teams, or email.
When: 7 days prior to challenge start
Title: Let’s Connect!
Optional Image:
Description:
Join our next company-wide activity challenge, starting [XX DATE] on the MoveSpring app. Build your social wellness muscles by completing various prompts throughout the challenge to connect with others. Get to know coworkers by stepping with randomly-assigned teammates and sharing fun facts in chat!
Follow these steps to sign up:
If you have technical questions or issues, contact the MoveSpring support team.
Happy stepping!
CHALLENGE ANNOUNCEMENTS
Challenge Kick-off Announcement
Engage your users from day 1 by sending an in-app announcement that promotes your challenge.
When: First day of challenge
Title: Hone your social health
Image:
Recipients: Send to challenge participants
Description:
Today kicks off the Stronger Together challenge!
We'll spend the next 3 weeks honing our social health. Complete the connection prompts to begin strengthening your social ties. The prompts are for everyone, whether you already feel socially healthy or want to give your social wellbeing a boost.
Don’t forget to sync your steps to compete in the Team Leaderboard as well! 🏃 Contact the MoveSpring support team if you need any help with syncing.
Let's get stepping and connecting!
Challenge Wrap-up Announcement
Recap your challenge by calling out stats and any rewards or prizes you are giving out. Be sure to include your own information in the placeholders below.
When: After grace period ends
Title: We're Stronger Together
Image: Same as above
Recipients: Send to challenge participants
Description:
You made it to the end of the Stronger Together challenge! We hope you feel socially healthier and more connected to the people you care about after this challenge.
Everyone who completed at least 10 social connection prompts was entered into our raffle. [PARTICIPANT] won the [AIRBNB EXPERIENCE]. 🎉
The competition was fierce on the Team Leaderboard. Our 2 leading teams were [TEAM NAME] and [TEAM NAME]. 🏆 You all win a [CELEBRATORY EVENT] together.
Congrats to all!
Want more announcement templates? Find more in our Announcement Templates for Challenge Updates.
CHAT PROMPTS
All chat messages should be posted from your MoveSpring account in the mobile app or from the MoveSpring web app in the challenge chat. Be sure to include your own information in the placeholders below.
When: First day of challenge
Message:
Our Stronger Together challenge starts today! Get ready for some fierce team competition.
Let’s get to know each other better here in chat. To kick things off, what’s one goal you have this month to try to improve your social wellbeing?
[EXAMPLE: I want to schedule at least one hour of time with friends each week. I spend most of my time with family, so I want to focus on my friendships this month!]
When: Halfway through the challenge
Message:
We’re about halfway through the challenge! Let’s celebrate with a little show and tell. What’s a photo on your phone that represents a favorite social memory? Share it and the story behind it below. 📸
Pro tip: Send chat messages throughout the challenge that are fun, prompt participants to share, and help everyone get to know each other better. Some other suggestions include:
- What part of your daily routine do you look forward to the most?
- What are three words that best describe you?
- What don’t we know about you? Drop a fun fact about yourself in the chat.
REWARDS STRATEGY
Raffle off prizes for your users who complete at least 10 pieces of actionable content. Provide a celebratory event for the members of the top 2 or 3 teams in the Team Leaderboard.
We suggest prizes that will reinforce the themes of the challenge, such as spending time with others and developing healthy relationships.
Prize Ideas:
For completing the actionable content goal (raffle):
- An Airbnb experience (virtual)
- An extra day of PTO
For teams that top the leaderboard:
- Tickets to a paint & sip class (option for virtual or in-person)
- Pizza party at bowling alley (in-person)
- Escape room (option for virtual or in-person)
For all challenge participants:
- Host a fun game night, trivia night, or after work happy hour (option for virtual or in-person)
Want more challenge templates? Ask your client success rep about our Ultimate plan.
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