How Sunday makes sports part of their company culture

By setting up this sports challenge, the management wanted to stimulate the group feeling by working together towards a common goal. We had to complete 20,000 minutes of sports (moving) in one month. Specifically this meant 2 hours of sports for every colleague every week.

Besides the team spirit it also stimulated having a culture of healthy employees. As mentioned in previous blogs healthy employees do not only feel better, they also perform better and are more motivated.

In the same meeting everyone received a sports shirt and a pair of lime green sports socks of our very own Essentials SS21 collection. Having no stylish sportswear to give the best of you was no longer a valid excuse. It immediately made everyone feel like a real team. Besides that, a lot of colleagues shared a picture on their social media wearing their sportswear. This provided extra brand visibility for the company.

Despite all the positive aspects not everyone likes to go cycling, jogging or going to the gym. That’s why some colleagues decided to go for 30 min walks during lunch break. By suggesting ideas like this, we really wanted to perform as a group and stimulate each other to do things together if it made moving easier. Bonus? Everyone felt more energized by getting some fresh air and briefly exchanging the office for nature.

Of course, being challenged without a reward is a bit more difficult than when there is a cool goal to work towards.

This is something the management understood quite well. That’s why they wanted to reward the team with fresh smoothies, made by every country manager for his or her team. And what better way to get everyone to give their best than some healthy competition?

By setting up an employee engagement platform, every colleague could track his/her minutes with the description of the sport he/she did. Every monday we got an update of the top 3 performing colleagues. Besides that, a groupchat made it possible for everyone to share pictures in his or her new Essentials sports outfit.

To support you while exercising, the team created a spotify list. Everyone could add his or her 3 favorite exercise songs. The list got the name “ME Ultimate Workout Motivation”.

The week before the challenge ended we still missed some minutes, so it got exciting! Everyone supported each other to make one more effort.
The challenge ended 2 days before our new Family reunion meeting where we would get to know if we succeeded or not.

Of course we succeeded! We smashed the 20,000 minutes with an additional 3,303 minutes. Smoothies coming our way!
All the country managers rolled up their sleeves and got some fresh fruit and a blender to make everyone a healthy, refreshing smoothie.

Even though the challenge is finished we still keep the chat alive and keep sharing pictures of us sporting in our Essentials sports shirt. One proud and healthy team over here!

Looking to do something alike for your company and colleagues? We love to help!