Winner: Ireland’s Fittest Workplace Challenge, Zevo Health

Sponsored by: SBFM

Zevo Health, a fully integrated workplace wellbeing provider, rolled out its app and related services to more than 20 companies across Ireland.

The team at Zevo Health consists of psychologists, performance nutritionists and physical health experts to deliver research-backed, tailored strategic corporate wellbeing programmes to achieve change on micro (individual) and macro (organisational) levels.

The Zevo Health app, a core component of the company’s workplace wellbeing technology, helps employees to connect and engage with each other while promoting positive wellbeing.

The company’s wellbeing solution, named Ireland’s Fittest Workplace Challenge, brings organisations together to engage in healthy competition to boost activity and improve health and wellbeing while generating a lot of excitement amongst employees.

The challenge was rolled out during three phases:

  1. Planning phase: an action group between the different departments was put together to engage in regular catch-up meetings and set key dates and decide on key processes;
  2. Planning phase and beginning of execution phase: marketing materials were designed and the competition was launched with information shared in newsletters, webinars, social media and podcasts, and through a welcome pack for new client sign-ups; and
  3. Execution phase: between product, marketing, and CX, demo material and FAQs were created to support the clients. Daily content was also uploaded to the Zevo App as an accompaniment to the initiative.

The benefits, particularly in the post-pandemic malaise of employee burnout and reduced morale, are obvious.

Results gleaned

Zevo Health discovered that approximately 30% of Irish adults gained weight during the pandemic, which became a useful health focus of Ireland’s Fittest Workplace – in addition to boosting employee engagement and team morale.

Using data from previous activity challenges with clients, Zevo Health tapped into existing enthusiasm for wellbeing-focused initiatives. Past data offered enabled better benchmarking of activity.

Data from before and after the challenge showed that:

  • More than 164 million steps were taken during the two-week challenge;
  • Overweight/obese individuals were the most active during the competition (based on mapping BMI against average daily step count);
  • Employees in desk-based jobs logged equivalent or sometimes higher scores than employees in more active roles;
  • 100% of HR respondents reported observable improvements in employee morale and wellbeing;
  • 82% of respondents rated the challenge as highly valuable;
  • 70% noticed a significant improvement in their wellbeing; and
  • 91% of respondents said they would sign up again.

Best practice learnings

The key elements behind not only successfully managed change, but change delivered in a way that employees enjoy, include:

  • Friendly competition;
  • Time to focus on wellbeing;
  • Easy access to resources;
  • Connecting with colleagues; and
  • Increasing physical activity.

Given the sustained employee engagement with the Zevo Health app, the company has expanded the support resources to include free monthly wellbeing content calendars and team fitness challenges, which help to boost morale through friendly competition.

Additional improvements will focus on broadening the selection of point-earning content activities such as listening to meditations and watching videos on the app. This, the company believes, will enable a more diverse group of people to take part in the challenge and earn points in a way that is accessible to them.

Key quotes

“It has boosted morale, and I got a chance to interact over our team WhatsApp group with colleagues I’ve not really interacted with before. Overall, this has been a super wellbeing boost,” says a participant of the challenge.

“The challenge was a great way to connect with the team,” says a challenge participant.

“It’s a great kickstart to an active lifestyle,” says a challenge participant.

“Really enjoyed taking part in this challenge and looking after my own wellbeing. This kept me focused and active the last two weeks,” says a participant of the challenge.

“We get to feel included in our community,” says a participant of the challenge.