Step Up Employee Wellness with Simple, Effective Walking Challenges

This year, encourage your team to move by participating in a walking challenge. In this article, we dive into how and why you should challenge employees to walk at least 20 minutes daily. Did you know that walking at least 4,000 steps a day can improve your health and reduce the chances of cardiovascular death? The joint study by Johns Hopkins and the University of Lodz found that although at least 4,000 steps a day reduces the likelihood of cardiovascular issues, the more you walk the better for your health.

It's associated with a lower risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and other chronic health issues. And taking 10,000 steps per day aids in weight loss. For even greater benefits, encourage employees to get out in nature to let fresh air and sunshine boost their mood. Simple activities like daily walking are accessible to employees at every fitness level and can create a culture of health in your workplace. Encouraging healthy physical activity at work is easy.

Let’s dive into several proven strategies.

Creative Ways to Encourage Walking at Work

Walking can become part of your workplace culture no matter your budget or employees’ current fitness level. These strategies easily add more activity to your employees’ workday routines:

• Walk during video calls
  Inspire movement by leading the way. Take video calls while walking, whether outdoors when appropriate or on a walking pad. Leadership involvement is key — when managers walk during calls, it sets an example and encourages employees to follow suit. 

• Provide info on local walking paths
  Empower employees to stay active by providing details on nearby walking paths. Consider creating a workplace walking trail with clear signage or encourage remote employees to find paths near their homes using resources like AllTrails. 
  
  
• Make it a game
  Make walking fun and engaging through friendly competition. Award points for reaching daily step goals or organize team challenges with prizes for the most steps. Incentives like premium parking spots, healthy lunches or a spot on a “Wall of Fame” are simple yet effective ways to keep motivation high. 
  
  
• Take the stairs
  Promote stair use with creative initiatives. Making stairwells appealing, clean, and aesthetically pleasing can go a long way to encourage employees to use them. Placing inspiring posters or hanging artwork created by employees’ children along stairwell routes to make taking the stairs a more pleasant experience. Small touches can make a big impact in daily activity levels.
  
  
• Host walking challenges at work
  Foster camaraderie and healthy habits with walking challenges. Whether aiming for 10,000 daily steps or engaging in a virtual adventure, these activities strengthen relationships, boost morale, and improve fitness in a fun, inclusive way. 
  
  
• Use a comprehensive, integrated wellness platform 
  Take your step challenges a step further by incorporating everything into a single wellness platform. With every aspect of your wellness programming accessible behind one single log-in, participants can track steps, get communications, complete HRAs, consolidate their data, and receive personalized guidance to reinforce healthy behaviors — all in one place. It makes the wellness experience seamless and removes barriers to participation. 

How Step Challenges Get People Moving

In today’s hybrid and remote work culture, virtual wellness platforms are a powerful tool for increasing participation and making wellness programs accessible to employees — no matter where they’re working. A well-designed platform encourages healthier habits, fosters engagement, and supports long-term behavioral changes. 

Count Steps: The Simplicity of Walking

Walking is one of the easiest ways to get more exercise and improve overall health. Research from the Mayo Clinic shows that regular walking can lower the risk of heart disease, reduce stress, and boost mood. Adding just a 20-minute daily walk can help employees meet the CDC’s recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week, leading to significant health benefits.

Motivate With Step Goals

What makes step challenges so engaging? They give structure and measurable goals to physical activity. Aiming for 8,000 to 10,000 steps per day — equivalent to roughly 4 to 5 miles — can promote cardiovascular health and maintain a healthy weight. Everyday activities, like walking through the office or grocery store, contribute more steps than many people realize, making these goals both achievable and motivating.

Create Healthy Competition

Harness the power of friendly competition by incentivizing physical activity. Simple, meaningful rewards — like recognition in a company newsletter, a complimentary healthy meal, or the chance to choose the next wellness challenge — can be surprisingly effective. Pair these with clear goals to drive engagement and reinforce a culture of wellness.

Enhance Participation With Wearable Technology

Wearable devices, from fitness trackers to pedometers, make it easy for employees to monitor progress toward step goals. Platforms like CoreHealth enable users to log their steps while accessing other wellness tools, creating a seamless and integrated experience. This technology supports participation and helps sustain long-term engagement.

Ready-to-Use Walking Challenges

Standard step goals are a great starting point, but keeping employees engaged over time requires variety and creativity. CoreHealth’s ready-to-use virtual challenges combine step tracking with unique themes to maintain interest and drive behavior change. Try these fun virtual walking challenges:

• Around the World: Embark on a virtual journey exploring landmarks across the globe.
• Amazing America: Experience the beauty of the United States in an engaging walking challenge.
• Mystery Fitness Challenge: Solve a mystery by tracking steps and uncovering clues in a virtual London adventure.
• Route 66: Take a 2,100-mile trek from Chicago to Santa Monica, exploring iconic stops along the way.
• Lost City Trek: Navigate the jungles of South America on a journey to the Ciudad Perdida.
• Tour de France: Follow the iconic race route while tracking your daily activity.
• The Night Before Christmas: Explore how different countries celebrate the winter holidays while walking Santa’s route.

These challenges are not just about steps — they’re about fostering engagement, building connections, and encouraging a healthier lifestyle in an inclusive, fun, and global context.

By integrating these creative walking challenges into a comprehensive wellness program, your organization can foster a culture of health and well-being while maintaining high participation and enthusiasm year after year.

Encourage Employee Wellness With CoreHealth

There are lots of fun ways to engage your team (including remote, hybrid, and in-person employees) in activity challenges that are easy to implement and track, with the help of a comprehensive wellness platform. If you're looking to boost the physical activity of your workforce, contact us to learn how our wellness platform gives you full control to design, deliver, and administer all your well-being programs — including challenges for nutrition, physical activity, mental health, financial wellness, and more.

About CoreHealth Technologies