A workplace step challenge is a simple way to encourage employees to move more, connect with colleagues and take part in a shared wellbeing activity. But a successful challenge is about more than setting a target and creating a leaderboard.

The strongest employee step challenges are easy to join, flexible enough for different employees and designed around participation rather than pressure. They also work best when they form part of a wider workplace wellbeing program, rather than being treated as a one-off activity.

For UAE and GCC employers, there is another consideration: walking activities need to be planned around the local environment, work locations, employee schedules and seasonal conditions.

This guide explains how to plan, launch and measure an inclusive workplace step challenge that employees can actually enjoy.

Quick Answer

A workplace step challenge is a structured wellbeing activity where employees track walking or daily steps over a set period and work towards individual or team goals. To run one successfully, employers should define a clear objective, choose an accessible tracking method, create realistic goals, communicate regularly, offer different ways to participate and measure engagement. The challenge should encourage movement without making employees feel pressured to compete.

What Is a Workplace Step Challenge?

A workplace step challenge is an employee wellbeing activity that encourages people to increase or maintain their daily physical activity over a defined period.

Employees may participate individually or in teams. Their activity can be tracked through smartphones, smartwatches, fitness trackers or a wellbeing platform, depending on the setup.

A challenge might include:

• Individual step goals
• Team-based walking goals
• Weekly milestones
• Daily activity targets
• Friendly competitions
• Team-versus-team challenges
• Charity-based goals
• Recognition for participation
• Non-competitive achievement categories

The important point is that a step challenge should encourage physical activity at work without turning wellbeing into a performance test.

WHO recommends that adults undertake regular physical activity and generally aim for 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week, or the equivalent combination of moderate and vigorous activity. WHO also recommends starting with smaller amounts and gradually increasing activity for people who are not currently meeting those levels.

A step challenge can therefore be one practical way to encourage more movement, but it should not be presented as a replacement for a complete physical activity or wellbeing strategy.

Why Run a Workplace Step Challenge?

A well-planned challenge can support several areas of the employee experience.

1. Encourage everyday movement

Walking is accessible to many employees and can be incorporated into daily routines, commuting, breaks and informal meetings.

2. Create a shared wellbeing activity

A challenge gives employees a common activity that can bring different teams together.

3. Support healthy habits

A time-bound challenge can help employees pay more attention to their daily activity and identify opportunities to move more.

4. Build social connection

Team challenges can create opportunities for colleagues to encourage one another and participate together.

5. Increase employee engagement

A simple challenge can provide a low-barrier way for employees to interact with a wider employee wellbeing program.

6. Support a culture of wellbeing

When leaders and managers participate appropriately, wellbeing can become part of everyday workplace culture rather than an occasional campaign.

7. Give employees a clear goal

A defined challenge period and milestone can make it easier for employees to understand what they are working towards.

8. Create opportunities for inclusive participation

With the right design, employees can participate according to their own abilities and circumstances.

The CDC specifically recommends workplace strategies such as walking clubs and competitions to encourage employees to meet individual or team physical activity goals.

How to Set Up a Workplace Step Challenge

A successful challenge does not need to be complicated. The following process gives HR and wellbeing teams a practical starting point.

1. Define the objective

Start by deciding what the challenge is intended to achieve.

For example:

• Encourage more daily movement
• Increase participation in workplace wellbeing activities
• Create team connection
• Support an existing wellbeing campaign
• Introduce employees to a digital wellbeing platform
• Create a shared activity across multiple locations

Keep the objective simple enough to communicate in one sentence.

2. Choose the challenge format

Decide whether employees will participate:

• Individually
• In teams
• Through individual and team goals
• Through a company-wide collective target

Team-based challenges can encourage connection, while individual goals can give employees more control over their experience.

A combination can work particularly well.

3. Set a realistic duration

There is no single ideal duration for every organisation.

A short challenge may work well when you are testing employee interest. A longer challenge can give employees more time to build consistency.

Consider:

• One week for a quick activation
• Two to four weeks for a focused campaign
• Four to eight weeks for a larger wellbeing program

The right length depends on the workforce, objective and level of support available.

4. Decide how activity will be tracked

Choose a tracking method before launching the challenge.

Options include:

• Smartphone health data
• Smartwatches
• Fitness trackers
• A dedicated wellbeing platform
• Manual reporting, where appropriate

Automated tracking generally creates less administrative work than asking employees to submit their numbers manually.

The CDC recognises activity trackers as tools that can range from manual systems to wearable devices that automatically track activity.

5. Set flexible goals

Avoid assuming that every employee should achieve the same step count.

Instead, consider:

• Personal starting points
• Individual goals
• Team averages
• Improvement over baseline
• Consistency
• Participation
• Milestones

This can make the challenge more accessible to employees with different fitness levels and working patterns.

6. Decide on recognition and rewards

Rewards do not have to be expensive.

Consider recognising:

• Highest team participation
• Most consistent participant
• Biggest personal improvement
• Best team spirit
• Most creative walking activity
• Milestone achievements
• Team participation

Recognition can also include non-monetary rewards, such as certificates, internal recognition or donations to a chosen charity.

7. Prepare your communication plan

Do not announce the challenge once and expect participation to remain high.

Plan communications before, during and after the challenge.

For example:

Before: Explain the purpose and how to join.

Week 1: Welcome participants and explain the first milestone.

Middle: Share progress and encourage teams.

Final week: Celebrate participation and remind employees of the end date.

After: Share results and ask for feedback.

8. Connect the challenge to broader wellbeing

A step challenge can be one part of a broader workplace wellbeing program.

For example, combine it with:

• Nutrition education
• Sleep resources
• Mental wellbeing sessions
• Walking meetings
• Team-building activities
• Stress-management content
• Workplace wellbeing workshops

This creates a more holistic experience rather than making physical activity the entire wellbeing strategy.

How to Make a Workplace Step Challenge Inclusive

This is one of the most important parts of the challenge.

A traditional leaderboard based only on total steps can unintentionally favour employees who already have higher activity levels or who have fewer physical limitations.

An inclusive challenge should give employees different ways to participate.

Use personal progress

Instead of focusing only on who takes the most steps, recognise improvement from an individual's own baseline.

Offer team goals

A collective target can reduce pressure on individual employees and make participation more collaborative.

Provide alternative activities

Where appropriate, allow equivalent activities or movement goals for employees who cannot or should not participate in a walking-based challenge.

The exact alternatives should be appropriate to the employee's abilities and workplace context.

Avoid medical assumptions

Employees should never be required to disclose medical conditions simply to participate.

The challenge should not ask managers to determine who is medically fit to participate.

Make participation voluntary

Employees should not feel that participating in a wellbeing challenge is connected to performance evaluation.

Consider different job roles

An office employee, remote employee and site-based employee may have very different opportunities to walk during the working day.

Do not assume that one challenge format works equally well for everyone.

Consider accessibility

Make sure communications, registration and digital tools are accessible to employees with different needs.

Reward more than winning

Create recognition categories that celebrate consistency, improvement, teamwork and participation.

This is often more motivating than rewarding only the person with the highest step count.

Workplace Step Challenge Ideas to Increase Participation

If participation starts to decline, introduce smaller activities throughout the challenge.

Walking meetings

Encourage suitable one-to-one or informal meetings to be conducted while walking.

Walking meetings should remain optional and should not be used when employees need to work with documents, screens or confidential information.

Team walking goals

Give each team a collective target instead of competing only on individual totals.

Weekly mini-challenges

Introduce simple weekly goals such as:

• Most consistent participation
• Most active team
• Best walking route
• Most improved activity
• Team participation milestone

Leadership participation

When senior leaders participate voluntarily, it can demonstrate that wellbeing is supported across the organisation.

Charity challenge

Connect the challenge to a social cause by making a company donation when the workforce reaches a collective activity milestone.

Walking route suggestions

For suitable locations, share safe walking routes around the office or workplace.

Wellbeing education

Add short educational content about movement, recovery, nutrition, sleep or other wellbeing topics.

Recognition moments

Use internal communication channels to celebrate milestones throughout the challenge instead of waiting until the final day.

Best Practices for Running a Successful Workplace Step Challenge

Keep the rules simple

Employees should understand the challenge in a few minutes.

Explain:

• Who can participate
• Start and end dates
• How steps are counted
• How teams work
• How winners or milestones are decided
• What information is visible
• Where employees can get support

Do not make competition the only motivation

Competition can be engaging for some employees but uncomfortable for others.

Combine competition with personal progress and team participation.

Protect employee privacy

Be clear about what information is collected and who can see it.

Where individual health or activity information is involved, only collect and display what is genuinely needed for the challenge.

Communicate consistently

Short, useful updates are better than constant reminders.

Make the challenge easy to join

The more complicated the registration or tracking process, the greater the potential drop-off.

Plan for different working environments

Consider office, remote, hybrid and field-based employees when designing the challenge.

Collect feedback

Ask participants:

• Was the challenge easy to join?
• Was the goal realistic?
• Did you enjoy participating?
• What would you change?
• Would you participate again?

This feedback can improve the next employee wellbeing challenge.

Workplace Step Challenges in the UAE

A workplace walking challenge in the UAE needs to consider local working conditions and climate.

For example, outdoor walking activities should not be planned as though employees can safely walk outside at any time of day throughout the year.

The UAE Government states that employers are responsible for providing a safe and appropriate work environment and taking measures to prevent occupational injuries and hazards.

MoHRE's Occupational Heat Stress Prevention Policy also restricts work under direct sunlight and in open areas during specified midday hours during the summer period.

For UAE employers, practical considerations include:

• Avoiding outdoor challenges during unsuitable heat conditions
• Providing indoor walking options where possible
• Considering office, site and remote employees separately
• Offering flexible participation windows
• Communicating safety guidance clearly
• Considering Ramadan and other seasonal changes in employee routines
• Providing accessible alternatives for employees with different mobility needs
• Keeping participation voluntary

This is particularly relevant for organisations with employees working across offices, outdoor sites and different emirates.

The goal is not simply to make employees walk more. It is to create a safe and practical opportunity for movement that fits the workforce.

How to Measure a Workplace Step Challenge

A challenge should be measured on more than the final leaderboard.

Track a combination of participation and engagement metrics.

Participation rate

How many eligible employees joined?

Activation rate

How many registered employees actually participated?

Completion rate

How many participants remained active until the end?

Team participation

Which teams or departments had the strongest participation?

Engagement

How frequently did employees interact with the challenge?

Goal completion

How many participants or teams reached their chosen milestones?

Employee feedback

What did employees say about the experience?

Repeat participation

Would employees join another challenge?

These measures can help HR teams understand whether the challenge was simply popular for a few days or whether it created sustained engagement.

Where a digital platform is used, aggregated insights can also help organisations understand participation across departments, locations or workforce segments while avoiding unnecessary exposure of individual-level information.

How VIWELL Can Support Workplace Wellbeing Challenges

A step challenge is more useful when it fits into a wider workplace wellbeing strategy.

VIWELL currently offers digital wellbeing challenges that include step challenges, with formats such as group step races, daily goals and recognition of top walkers.

VIWELL's broader workplace platform connects employee wellbeing experiences with challenges, events, team activities, assessments and employer-level insights. Its workplace offering also includes dashboards for monitoring participation and engagement.

This supports a more structured approach:

Plan → Launch → Engage → Measure → Improve

Instead of treating a step challenge as a standalone campaign, organisations can use it as one activity within a wider workplace wellbeing program.

VIWELL also describes its approach as connecting digital wellbeing experiences with real-world events, group challenges and team-building activities.

For organisations looking to make wellbeing more consistent, personalised and measurable, this can provide a stronger foundation than relying on disconnected activities.

Take the Next Step Towards Workplace Wellbeing

A workplace step challenge does not need to be complicated to be effective.

Start with a clear objective. Make participation easy. Set realistic goals. Give employees different ways to take part. Communicate throughout the challenge. Measure participation and feedback. Then use what you learn to improve the next initiative.

Most importantly, do not make the challenge about who can take the most steps.

Make it about helping more employees take part in wellbeing in a way that works for them.

Ready to build a more structured workplace wellbeing strategy? Explore VIWELL's workplace wellbeing platform and see how digital challenges, employee engagement and wellbeing insights can work together.