WELCOA’s On The Move Program Gets America Moving

WELCOA is happy to announce our results from the 2016 national On the Move Challenge. The program was designed to engage employees in physical activity, help better manage their stress levels and promote long-term behavior changes. Eighty-four companies representing almost 80,000 employees participated in this 12-week online challenge spanning from April to June of this year. The challenge engaged employees with educational resources, device-integrated tracking, behavior change incentives and social support.  Some of the key program findings:

• The number of employees who reported sedentary lifestyles decreased by 64%.
• The percentage of employees who met CDC guidelines of moving at least 30 minutes a day, 5 times per week nearly doubled.
• 130% more employees were physically active at a moderate intensity level every day.
• 91% of employees in the program migrated into an activity category associated with weight loss and improved aerobic capacity.

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Beyond just counting exercise, the Challenge gave participants credit for all movement throughout the day, as research shows that moving every hour is just as important to one’s health as exercise.

One of the key differentiators leading to the tracking of daily activity and the success of the program was its partnership with Validic. Validic powered the Challenge’s activity data connection to enable participants to connect almost any brand of fitness device and application. By using Validic, WELCOA was able to offer companies and employees an easy means to track their fitness and health.

Being able to leverage wearable devices for the challenge does more than meet a market demand; it has allowed WELCOA to change the conversation about physical activity and help people be more hopeful than ever that they can meet a meaningful fitness goal.

“Being able to leverage wearable devices for the challenge does more than meet a market demand; it has allowed WELCOA to change the conversation about physical activity and help people more hopeful than ever that they can meet a meaningful fitness goal.”

“We knew that people sitting at their desks all day was killing them and that workplace cultures were suffering along with employees,” explains President Ryan Picarella. “Traditional wellness program challenges do not zero in on culture change or connect employees with “whys” for being active that matter to them—so we created something that did. On the Move is designed to build a culture for more movement into an organization. We thought, why not start a movement where employees can move when they want, how they want and how much they want and get credit for all of it?”

Small, large and enterprise organizations participated in the Challenge, representing a range of industries including manufacturing, retail, healthcare, education and professional services. The Group Health Cooperative of Eau Claire of Wisconsin won Most Active Company in the large business category (100+ employees). SIG (Silberstein Insurance Group) out of Baltimore won in the small business category. To see the full leaderboard, click here.

For companies interested in learning more about or participating in the 2017 On the Move Challenge, please visit https://www.welcoa.org/about/on-the-move-initiative/.