30 Warm Weather Challenges To Get Workers Excited About Spring

Spring is just around the corner, and that means new beginnings are on the horizon. As the world rejuvenates from winter, it’s the perfect season for employers to breathe new life into their workplace wellness programs. 

With the days growing longer and the weather warming up, wellness activities are a great way to get employees active, outside, and focused on their wellbeing. But developing fun and engaging workplace wellness challenges isn’t a walk in the park. From disinterested employees to issues with the way challenges are set up, devising these activities can feel like an uphill battle for employers. 

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be. We’ve curated a list of 30 spring wellness challenges that span the gamut from physical health to purpose-driven tasks—all aimed at boosting morale, enhancing overall health, and fostering a greater sense of community. But before we get into it, you might be asking…

It’s clear that an employee wellness program is no longer a “nice-to-have;” instead, it’s quickly becoming a necessity. However, these initiatives can get a bad rep, especially when they fall flat. In these cases, employers are often left disillusioned by the idea of implementing wellness challenges when employees don’t seem like they want to participate.

Whether they’ve tried implementing wellness programs before with little engagement or they’re dubious about the tangible benefits, employers can often be skeptical about these initiatives. However, a Zippia survey found that 87% of employees consider corporate wellness offerings before they take a position. Not to mention that, on average, companies with a wellness program demonstrated a six-to-one ROI and 84% reported higher employee productivity and performance. 

Wellness challenges themselves can also offer targeted benefits, such as reducing absenteeism, or more nebulous ones like improving employee morale. Some common benefits include:

• Improved Employee Health: Increasing physical activity, encouraging healthy eating habits, and guiding employees through mental health activities all contribute to improving their overall health across all dimensions of wellbeing.
• Increased Employee Engagement: When employees are excited to participate in the next workplace wellness challenge, they become more engaged at work. These initiatives also demonstrate that the company values its employees’ wellbeing, further elevating their drive and loyalty.
• Greater Productivity Across Teams: Studies show that regular physical activity can improve employees’ attention, memory, cognition, and decision-making throughout the day—all of which translates to greater productivity. Plus, employers can use challenges as team-building activities, further improving collaboration among and across departments.
• Reduced Healthcare Costs: As employees participate in wellness challenges that improve their overall health, they become less likely to require medical treatment. This can lead to savings for both employees and employers as it can reduce health insurance premiums, healthcare expenses, and even sick days.

But with all of these clear benefits, why is it that some employers believe wellness programs are ineffective? If you ask us, it often boils down to the approach. 

With this multi-faceted approach to overall wellness, companies can better support their workers in and out of the office.