toolkit - ucl · healthy lifestyles toolkit contents introduction03 considerations before starting...

4-Week Steps Challenge

UCL OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING

Toolkit

Healthy lifestyles

Healthy lifestyles

ToolKit Contents

Introduction 03

Considerations before starting the 4-Week Challenge 04

Planning timeline 05

Promoting the Challenge (email templates) 06

Getting started 07

Tips & ideas to increase your steps 08

Posters / wallcharts and Pre-Challenge Questionnaire 09

Weekly email templates (week 1-4) 10

Post-Challenge Questionnaire 11

www.ucl.ac.uk/human-resources/steps-challenge

Many thanks to our sponsors: Formara Print, the 52 Club & Project Active.

IntroductionWalking is one of the most accessible exercises we can do, so steps challenges have been a popular option when it comes to keeping teams active. Therefore, we have decided to put together a resource for Wellbeing Champions to make it as easy as possible to run a 4-week steps challenge.

In this toolkit you will find a ‘Challenge Preparation Checklist’, promotional materials, email templates and award ideas.

This guide is a combination of advice from Christine Gaston (UCL Faculty of Brain Sciences), information from Public Health England (PHE) One You campaign and Walk at Work Steps Challenge Toolkit from Paths for All, Healthier Scotland and Healthy Working Lives, tailored for UCL Wellbeing Champions.

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Healthy Lifestyles - Steps Challenge Toolkit.

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Before you start the challengeThings to consider:

Measuring steps Some people will have step tracking wearables, but most phones will also have a step-counting function allowing people without fitness devices to participate and making this activity accessible. If you have wheelchair users, think about how they can be included (for example, tracking distance instead of steps).

Teams Having teams instead of doing the challenge individually has a number of benefits. Team members can motivate each-other and team captains can be responsible for recording daily steps and submitting weekly numbers, reducing the volume of emails to the organiser.

Theme Creating a theme or a goal can be a good way to add extra fun or meaning to the challenge.

Promotion and keeping in touch Think about how you will reach your participants. Email may be the easiest way. Some people would prefer to use WhatsApp. Please make sure that your method works for all participants.

Administration Think about the easiest way to keep track of participants and their steps. • Would you like to receive step counts from team captains on a certain day of the week? • Would you like the steps to be broken down by day/team member?

This toolkit includes an online spreadsheet you can use to log and calculate steps which you can amend to suit your needs, and a poster you can display, so participants can keep track of their progress.

Prizes Think about how prizes will be determined and awarded. Consider the awards you can give to less active team members (best photo from a walk, best improvement, best cheerleader, best team name).

Communication Samples of the emails and promotional materials are included in this toolkit. You can personalise and make communication more interactive by incorporating weekly prizes, photo competitions or treasure hunts.

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@

Prize!

Timeline1-2 months before • Read this toolkit and decide how you will run the challenge.

• Decide on the theme (if you are having one).

4 weeks before • Promote challenge to your colleagues by sending a group email and displaying the posters in your department.

• Explain how to sign up for the challenge.

• Create a spreadsheet with team names and details of the captains and team members, you can use the template provided on our website.

2 weeks before • Send out pre-challenge evaluation survey to all participants. The survey is available via this link: https://opinio.ucl.ac.uk/s?s=61572

• Send a template of the weekly steps submission sheet to the captains.

1 week before • Send introductory email with challenge guidance. (See templates on page 10)

• Remind participants to complete and return the pre-challenge evaluation survey. https://opinio.ucl.ac.uk/s?s=61572

1 day before • Email participants wishing them luck and offering tips on increasing their step count (See templates on page 10).

• Post information about the challenge on intranet, social media and newsletter.

• Display the challenge poster ready for results to be entered.

Week 1 • Use e-mail templates to motivate your teams.

• Ensure captains return their team scores for the week.

Week 2* • Enter week 1 steps on the spreadsheet.

• Display results on the poster and email them to the participants or team captains.

• Send an email to participants (See templates on page 10).

• Pick weekly winners (if having weekly challenges).

• Encourage participants to share their stories – where did they go because of the steps challenge where you wouldn’t have gone otherwise?What did they do to increase their step count?

End of challenge • Send a congratulatory email. You can add up all steps and work out how far you have collectively walked.

• Arrange a time to give out prizes/certificates – turn it into an event!

• Circulate post-challenge survey. https://opinio.ucl.ac.uk/s?s=61581

• We would love to hear how your challenge went, so please send us your stories and photos and we will publish the best in Wellbeing UCL newsletter. Tag us in your tweets & posts @UCL_wellbeing.

* repeat for the duration of the challenge

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Promote the challenge!Send out a group email:

We will be running a steps challenge from [date] for four weeks. This challenge is a great way to get active with your colleagues and create a healthy competition. We encourage you to form teams to support each other through this.

There will be interim milestones and opportunities to win prizes, so you have a chance to win something even if you do not achieve the highest number of steps.

To sign up for the challenge:

• Put together a team (suggested around 4-8 people) • Assign team captain • Send the names of team members and their captain to [Name, email address]

Faculty of Brain Sciences Step Count Challenge Guidance 2018 Thank you for participating in the annual Faculty of Brain Sciences Step Count Challenge! The aim of this event is to encourage some friendly competition and (hopefully) increase our daily exercise activity. What do ‘steps’ includeAll activity which includes taking steps! Walking, hiking, running and any sports such as tennis or squash which your tracker can record!

TimeframeThe challenge will start on [date] and end on [date]. Weekends count.

TrackingPlease keep track of your daily step totals and submit your weekly step totals to your team captain. Team captains need to submit 1) individual team member weekly totals; and 2) team total after each week’s completion (Monday morning is fine). We suggest using pedometers, Fitbits (etc) or the free Stepz app for smartphones.

We operate on a policy of trust but it’s up to team captains whether they would prefer to see evidence of numbers by receiving screen shots etc of totals.

TwitterWe’d love you to post any interesting walk to work/lunchtime etc photos on our Twitter @[enter your details], tag @UCL_Wellbeing and use hashtag [#UCL Steps Challenge]

PrizesThe overall winning team will be presented with prizes for each team member.

We will also have smaller prizes throughout the course of the challenge.

[ExamplesWeek 1: Category – Individual with the most stepsWeek 2: Category – Best lunchtime walk (photographic)Week 3: Category – Individual & Team with the greatest improvement from Week 1 Week 4: Category - Best team photo]

Happy walking!Faculty of Brain Sciences Office

An example of an introductory email from Faculty of Brain Sciences

An example of the initial email to promote the challenge

@

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Start your 4-Week Steps Challenge

Week 1

Week 2

Week 4

Week 3

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Well Done!

Get Started!

AlmostThere!

Halfway through

KeepGoing!

Your Team Challenge has begunMake it fun! Start week 1

You’re doing great encourage your team mate!

Don’t give up!Week 4 is near,

give a big cheer!

🙂


Take the 4-WEEK CHALLENGEto a Healthier Lifestyle

IDEAS TO INCREASE YOUR STEPS -• Walk to your colleague instead of emailing them

• Take a lunchtime walk (try out local parks)

• Take the stairs instead of the escalator/lift & see who climbs the most stairs

• Set a reminder to get up from your desk at regular intervals

• Get your coffee from a café further away • Pace while you talk on the phone or wait for public transport instead of standing still, or replace public transport with a walk for shorter journeys.

TEAM WORK TIPS - Motivate each other & give encouragement to achieve your personal goals.

Team Captain: email colleagues with reminders to keep up the good work & record their progress. Get team members to post images of their achievements.

Announce team results each week & consider incentives/prizes.Tag @UCL_Wellbeing in your and and keep an eye on our social media to see how others are doing.

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WEEK 1MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUNWEEK 2MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN

WEEK 3MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUNWEEK 4MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN

TEAM NAMECaptain:

DEPARTMENT or TEAM: ............................................................................................................................................................................................

Totals

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START THE CHALLENGE!Woo-hoo halfway through! Don’t give up, nearly there!

WELL DONE!

4-Week Steps Challenge - Progress chart 1HOME STRAIGHT!

Team Captain: Please display this chart. Fill in names of team

members & their total steps each day for the 4-week challenge.

Announce best individual team member achievement each week.

4-Week Steps Challenge - Progress Totals chart 2UCL OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING

Display this chart to keep track of weekly totals.

TEAM NAME

DEPARTMENT or TEAM: .............................

................................

................................

................................

End of WEEK 1 End of WEEK 2 End of WEEK 3 End of WEEK 4 FINAL TOTALSWell done!

You’ve completed

the 4-week challenge!

It’s time to celebrate

your achievement!

Please send your final results and

join us for the award ceremony

4-week step challenge

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Well done!Completed week 1


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www.ucl.ac.uk/wellbeing

TOTALS:

Announce best individual team member achievement each week & any prizes.

Your pack includes A3 progress wallcharts for captains to

display (pdf versions are available on UCL Wellbeing website)

https://opinio.ucl.ac.uk/s?s=61572

QUESTIONNAIRE Send out link to Pre-challenge questionnaire:

POSTERS

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You can find all the details at: Healthy Lifestyles - Steps Challenge Toolkit.


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This certificate is awarded to

for successfully completing the

UCL Wellbeing

4-WEEK STEPS CHALLENGE!

Total Achieved

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Date Signed by

Congratulations

Take the 4-Week Steps Challenge to a healthier you


Healthy Lifestyles - Steps Challenge Toolkit

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Get together a Team & download the Steps Challenge Toolkit


Week 1

What a week that was!So it’s the end of the first week, how did you get on?

From what we hear everyone’s staying very determined and has definitely risen to the challenge.

Next week’s prize is for the best photo from a lunchtime walk, so whether you are out with your team or individually, snap some pictures and send them in for the competition!

Also, why not share them on social media to encourage your friends and family to walk more?Tag @UCL_Wellbeing in your instagram and twitter posts.

Keep it up!

EMAIL/MESSAGE templates

Week 2

Woo-hoo halfway through!Brilliant effort so far, keep it up, you’re halfway there! How are you & your colleagues doing?

(Do they need a bit of extra support if they’re wavering?) For a bit of extra motivation at this stage of the challenge you will compete against yourself. Next week’s prize is for the biggest improvement, so can you outdo the ‘week one you’?

Feel free to get in touch if there’s anything we can help with and to share your tips for getting more steps into your day. Email: [email protected]

Good luck!

@

Today’s the day to take the challenge!Hope you and your team are ready to put in the extra steps. Here are a few tips to increase your step count.• Walk to your colleague instead of emailing them• Take a walk at lunch • Take the stairs instead of the escalator/ lift• Set a reminder to get up from your desk at regular intervals• Get your coffee from a café further away than usual• Pace while you talk on the phone or wait for a bus/train/tube, or better still..• Replace public transport with a walk for shorter journeys

Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or would like to share your success.This week’s prize is for the most individual steps.

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[email protected]

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Prize!

Prize!

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Week 3

You are on the home straight!Okay, it’s the third week in and your new habits should be starting to feel like second nature.

Hopefully, over the last few weeks you got a chance to talk to your colleagues more and you had some group walks with your team. If not, this is definitely the week to do it. Next week’s prize is for the best team photo. Get creative and have fun with it!Your captions summarising your experience will also be greatly appreciated! 🙂

Tag @UCL_Wellbeing in your tweets and Instagram posts to enter this week’s competition.

Week 4

Well done! You’ve completed the 4-week challenge!We have collectively walked [number] steps, which is about [number] miles.

This is the same as the distance from [place] to [place].

It’s time to celebrate your achievement!

Please send your final results and join us for the award ceremony. [enter venue, date and time]

@

https://opinio.ucl.ac.uk/s?s=61581

QUESTIONNAIRE Complete the Post-challenge questionnaire:

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This certificate is awarded to for successfully completing the

UCL Wellbeing

4-WEEK STEPS CHALLENGE!Total Achieved

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Date

Signed by

Congratulations

Prize!

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WELL DONE for completing the challenge,

keep up the good work & feel the difference!



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