Study Shows Incentive Program Promotes Exercise in the Workplace

While health and wellness have been a major focus in recent years, employees still struggle to get one of their basic needs—exercise.

With workers heading back to the office post-Covid, it can be a struggle to get daily physical activity.

Many employees feel they can’t get away from the desk to get exercise. For this reason, various companies have begun to implement incentive programs to get employees moving in the office.

In one recent study, researchers wanted to see if a specific gamification program, known as the "15-Minute Challenge", could help employees get their daily exercise.

However, before we get into that, let’s see why it’s so important for workers to be physically active in the first place. 

Jump to:

• Benefits of Daily Exercise for Employees
• The Study
• The Results

Benefits of Daily Exercise for Employees

The modern workforce environment often involves long periods of sedentary time, which isn’t good for the body.

Implementing simple strategies like activity breaks, walking meetings, or standing desks can provide a lot of relief by getting employees moving during work hours.¹

Research shows that regular exercise at work helps reduce stress, boost energy levels, enhance mood and concentration, and decrease muscle discomfort that contributes to lost productivity.¹

Additionally, physically active employees take less sick time and have lower healthcare costs.

Most people spend the majority of their day at work, so it’s difficult for them to be physically active outside of that time frame.

By providing programs and incentives that push employees to get their exercise in at work, employers can boost employee health and job performance—it's a win/win.

The Study

A study titled "Evaluation of the “15 Minute Challenge”: A Workplace Health and Wellbeing Program", published in MDPI, looked at results from over 11,000 participants in 73 different companies in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK to see how workplace initiatives can impact workers' physical activity levels.

The study evaluated a specific program called the "15-Minute Challenge"—an mHealth workplace wellness initiative. The program uses gamification to promote physical activity among employees, with the goal of enhancing health and wellness outcomes.

The challenge promotes regular physical activity during the workday through short, manageable exercise routines that can be easily integrated throughout the day.

The 15-Minute Challenge encouraged daily 15-minute physical activity sessions over the span of six weeks. Participants self-reported their physical activity and fitness, energy, overall health, sleep quality, and mood before the start of the program and after the six-week period.

The program gamifies the experience of exercise through team competitions, activity logging, social sharing, and personal milestones that employees can track with an app.¹

This helps motivate employees by making exercise social, fun, and something they can work together with co-workers on.

The 15-Minute Challenge also differs from similar programs in that the only commitment is 15 minutes a day. Rather than trying to burn a certain number of calories, or get a specific number of steps in, all you need for the challenge is to complete 15 minutes of exercise. This makes things more doable and less intimidating, especially for those who aren't accustomed to being active.

The program specifically focuses on creating change through micro-habits that are easy to integrate into your day—this helps motivate everyone to join and actually stick to it.

The Results

The study's results showed that employees significantly increased their daily physical activity levels, with 95% meeting or exceeding international guidelines (up from 57% at baseline).¹

Participants also reported that their fitness, energy, overall health, sleep quality, and mood significantly improved.

Additionally, participants reported high satisfaction, with 92% recommending the program. All in all, the 15-Minute Challenge effectively increased physical activity levels and improved health outcomes among participating employees.

Researchers note that the positive results of the study emphasize the potential of these programs to combat sedentary behaviour and promote a healthier, more active lifestyle.¹

Although the program only required 15 minutes of exercise a day, many employees exceeded that number and even surpassed the daily recommended requirements (determined by international guidelines).

Therefore, the program was a strong success, making employees happier and healthier.

Take Home Message

Even if you can’t sneak away to the gym during your workday, there are other ways you can still get your daily physical activity. If your workplace has an incentive program like the 15-Minute Challenge, try getting involved—the results speak for themselves.

If you don’t have access to a company-wide exercise program, try making your own by incorporating exercise into your work routine in manageable doses and getting your co-workers in on the fun. You got this.