Sprint Get Fit Challenge

Transcription

1 Sprint Get Fit Challenge Sprint and made it happen. For Sprint employees, they delivered the company s first-ever nationwide fitness competition a fun, effective, and highly successful wellness program.

2 How Sprint boosted employee wellness through social networking Social networks are transforming the ways people communicate and collaborate. For companies such as Sprint that are committed to improving the health and well-being of their employees, social networking offers unique opportunities for cost-effectively addressing a wide range of common workplace health challenges. A good case in point? The Sprint Get Fit Challenge. At Sprint, employee health and wellness is a calling Sprint s wellness mission is to be the healthiest company in America by building a sustainable culture of health and wellness. To that end, Sprint offers employees a wide array of free health resources through Sprint Alive!, powered by. Sprint and share a strong commitment to revolutionize the traditional approach to health management. In the spirit of innovation, the companies partnered to design a highly motivating, results-oriented program one that could reach more people and transform the work environment into an energetic, collaborative culture of health and vitality. The result? The Sprint Get Fit Challenge motivated thousands of Sprint employees to take charge of their health and wellness. What s more, it quickly became a source of fun, camaraderie and spirited competition throughout the company. And the results were simply amazing. Collectively, Sprint Get Fit Challenge participants lost more than 41,000 pounds, took almost 4.8 billion steps, and logged nearly 22 million exercise minutes. For many participants, the experience was both exhilarating and life-changing. Sprint Get Fit Challenge is expected to save Sprint more than $1.1 million as a result of healthier lifestyles and improved behaviors that ultimately lead to reduced medical and pharmaceutical expense. The Sprint Get Fit Challenge helped more people take charge of their health than ever before. It connected 14,000 people to vital resources that will help people live healthier lives. This connection, in turn, opens up the opportunity to provide critical health and wellness services to more people if and when they need them in the future. Sean McNattin, Vice President, Innovative Health Solutions Program design and execution The Sprint Get Fit Challenge was designed to engage workers not only with rewards but with results. By extending the program over 12 weeks and building support both at the grassroots and executive levels, Sprint Get Fit Challenge designers hoped to see individuals realize dramatic progress and that s exactly what happened. At its essence, the program was structured around a distinctly social approach to wellness and had three key characteristics: Turnkey Easily scalable to employees in all locations Engaging Teams of up to 11 people provide motivation and encouragement working together makes it fun Value-centric Enthusiastic participation across the board Significant, measurable outcomes Participants were recruited through various means of communication, including , posters, departmental announcements and more. Many early adopters registered as team captains and leveraged recruitment toolkits to build teams of fellow colleagues. By close of registration, team captains had recruited over 14,000 employees, driving enrollment to 35 percent of the overall employee population. Registrants were provided with free pedometers, health and nutrition tips, and access to prize drawings and awards based on sustained participation. Results are their own reward By any measure, the Sprint Get Fit Challenge was a tremendous success. Nearly 6,300 Sprint employees finished all 12 weeks of the challenge. Of those people, 67 percent were first-time participants in a health and wellness program. Even more important, 20 percent of enrollees nearly 2,800 individuals were identified as high-risk, having been flagged by predictive models as having at least one clinical risk factor. What a gratifying program to be a co-executive sponsor on! Wherever I go in the Sprint community, I hear employees talking about the challenge...and I received a particularly meaningful from someone who is bound and determined to stay healthy for his family. Of course, wherever I go, people are showing me their pedometers... Judy Train, Sprint vice president- Small Business and Sprint Get Fit Challenge co-executive sponsor 2

3 On average, participants lost 8.4 pounds. In aggregate, they shed more than 20 tons. That s equivalent to the weight of almost 110,000 Sprint HTC EVO 3D handsets. The biggest winners were also the biggest losers: 1,511 participants lost at least 10 pounds, 270 individuals lost at least 20 pounds, and 73 people lost 30 or more pounds during the 12-week Challenge! In total, approximately 4,000 program participants reported a weight loss of one to five percent. According to analytics research validated by Emory University, a one-to-five percent body weight reduction is associated with approximately $140 per participant in annual medical expense savings. Encouragement through ecoaching To motivate participants and help them reach their fitness goals as efficiently as possible, the Sprint Get Fit Challenge offered a series of personalized interactions with ecoaches highly trained wellness coaches who supported participants weight management, exercise, nutrition, and stress management needs. Personal ecoaching was delivered via a private 1:1 messaging process, with functionality similar to Facebook or LinkedIn, whereas team ecoaching was delivered via a Twitter - inspired Conversations feature, in which a coach posted educational and motivational content to a blog. During the Get Fit Challenge, 2,000 individuals and more than 250 teams engaged with an ecoach. The power of social networking The social networking platform proved to be an excellent area for employee results tracking and teammate interactions that were instrumental to the success of the Sprint Get Fit Challenge. Provided by ShapeUp SM, a social-wellness technology vendor, the platform enabled constant communications, as well as anytime-anywhere connectivity from just about any device. While the marketing tactics and incentive program drove initial activation on the platform, it was participants social networks that kept them engaged and motivated throughout the duration of the program. Individuals could track and compare their personal progress against their own goals, their team s progress, or an average user s results. How much each participant weighed was not viewable by the team. Only percentages of weight change per individual were posted online. Engaging the right people participation in the challenge 20% of participants flagged by our predictive model 67% first-time wellness users 1,892 "high-risk" people were engaged What an eye opener!...this program [the challenge] has jump-started me into action. I walk with team members around campus every day. I signed up at the gym and joined the Healthy Weighs program. I m now getting over 10,000 steps most days and can notice the difference. Ann, Sprint senior tax analyst For a first attempt at a national wellness challenge, the Sprint Get Fit Challenge results were amazing for the employees and for Sprint! We wanted to provide a simple, fun, team-focused challenge that would get employees excited about getting and staying healthy. The fact that the challenge was a 12-week program really helped people develop a pattern that could positively shape their lifestyle behavior for the future. Around the company, we saw people really stepping up showing incredible team camaraderie, participating in sporting events for the first time, and doing everything in their power to achieve their goals. We look forward to offering more programs like this one to help employees make fitness an essential part of their lives at home and at work! Stacey Nelson, Sprint senior professional in Human Resources and manager, Health and Welfare Figure 1: The Sprint Get Fit Challenge successfully engaged the target population in unprecedented numbers. 3

4 Participants could also share workout plans, schedule healthy activities at their worksite, comment on a teammate s progress, encourage lagging participants, and celebrate healthy achievements with a graphical high-five. And everyone on the social network could take advantage of the helpful information and personal communications offered by ecoaches. Executive sponsorship makes all the difference In addition to incredible grass roots support from individual employees and team captains, the success of the Sprint Get Fit Challenge was due to active and enthusiastic executive sponsorship. Co-executive sponsors were featured prominently in everything from recruitment posters and updates to inspirational newsletter blogs on the Sprint Get Fit Challenge portal. From start to finish, employees knew that management was exercising alongside them, and cheering them on. Incentives never hurt To start registrations off with a bang, a pair of high-tech devices that track steps taken and calories burned during exercise were raffled off to two lucky registrants. Then, once the Sprint Get Fit Challenge was underway, employees who logged on to the social networking platform at least once a week to record their results were automatically entered into weekly drawings for Sprint devices. Those that made it to the mid-point of the challenge received Sprint e-points that could be redeemed for prizes. And at the end of the contest, there were Grand Prize drawings for employees and teams. Those prizes included additional e-points, Sprint devices, game consoles, and a laptop computer. And, of course, who can forget the Keds sneakers emblazoned with the Sprint logo that were given to participants who walked one million steps? That milestone was reached by 680 employees! Shifting the BMI curve 40% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% Increasing healthy weight +27% 15% 19% 37% 26% -8% 24% Reductions in the obese population 13% -8% 12% -27% 11% 5% 8% 0 Healthy weight BMI <_ 24.9 BMI BMI BMI BMI >_ 40 Before Sprint Get Fit Challenge After Sprint Get Fit Challenge Figure 2: A decrease in all obesity categories shifted employees into healthier weight ranges. 4

5 Author Kari Severson Product Consultant Innovative Health Solutions, Kari Severson brings a strong background in health care innovation and product development, as well as a personal passion for health and wellness, to her role at. She has leveraged her expertise in social media and worksite wellness to partner with top Fortune 100 employers to design and pilot innovative health management solutions that change the way health care is delivered. Kari holds a bachelor of science degree in business administration from the University of Minnesota and is currently pursuing an MBA with a concentration in health sector management from Duke University. Contact us: Call: resourcecenter@optum.com optum.com/resourcecenter optum.com Circle, Eden Prairie, MN All trademarks and logos are owned by, Inc. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered marks of their respective owners. Because we are continuously improving our products and services, reserves the right to change specifications without prior notice. is an equal opportunity employer. 2014, Inc. All rights reserved. OPTPRJ