TVH in the Americas (TVH), a leading provider of quality replacement parts and accessories for the material handling and industrial equipment industries, recently concluded its first Global Walking Challenge.
Beginning April 19, 2021, and running through May 16, 2021, TVH employees were encouraged to be active. Whether walking, running, or doing a workout, all steps were captured on personal activity trackers. The end results of the challenge impressively revealed that over 450 employees from 20 locations around the world took 117,301,201 steps during the challenge, for a total of 54,665 miles.
TVH has built a great reputation as an employer that cares about its employees. The Global Walking Challenge was just one of the initiatives from its Nudge program. This program encourages employees to make healthy choices while working on their mental and physical well-being.
Lucy DelSarto, Health and Wellness Coach for TVH and director of the Nudge program for TVH in the Americas, was very excited about the response the challenge received worldwide. “When I first started with TVH, the Nudge program was five years old and doing 12-week walking challenges. I found that many people didn’t participate because of the length of time. So for the past five years, I have restructured the challenge to be four weeks long, four times a year, and the response has been phenomenal,” she said. “With the growth the initiative saw in the Americas, we decided to take the Nudge program and its walking challenge global. Over the last year, we have been coordinating with our headquarters in Belgium to establish different initiatives that would make sense for their location. It was thrilling to see so many employees participate in our first-ever Global Walking Challenge.”
Individual and Company Goals
The goal of TVH’s Global Walking Challenge was two-fold. Each employee had a goal to achieve an average of 10,000 steps each day. The second was for the employees, as a group, to virtually walk from one TVH location to another, circling around the world.
In total, the employees took 117,301,201 steps during the four-week challenge and walked no less than 54,665 miles. This distance is the equivalent to 962,104 football fields, over 2,084 marathon lengths, or a little over two times the world's circumference.
“As a company, we feel it is important to help our employees feel connected. With this global initiative, we managed to find a common goal that also benefited our health and was fun to do,” says Simon Witdouck, senior vice president of TVH Americas.
Boost to the Company Morale
Steps were tracked per country and individually. The Mexico team achieved the most steps per person per day with an average of 16,636 steps. Passionate hiker, Dhanraj Wanve, on the India team, achieved a whopping 1,255,055 steps in total. The physical goals were not the only thing that incentivized employees to participate in the challenge.
“The Global Walking Challenge was a great way for our employees to stay connected while being separated for safety reasons. Being apart for so long has been challenging on everyone, and our initiatives are a great way for them to reconnect,” said DelSarto. “The employees were able to challenge each other through the apps they used. Some even got creative and started using their exercise equipment while listening to podcasts or watching shows.” In addition, DelSarto worked to help everyone find a way to move that would work for them. Her motto is Daily Choices Matter, and by making the choice to move, she hopes that employees will live healthier and stronger lives.
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