A virtual journey through the branches of PGE Energia Ciepła!

Preparations

The most positive part of the "Grzejemy Kilometry" ("Warming Up the Kilometers") event was certainly reaching the charity goal in the planned amount, which was far from certain. How much we would raise depended on the Employees themselves, whose activity was converted into real money. It was an impact everyone could see.

We rate the event very highly. The app is accessible to everyone and lets you add extra features, such as checkpoints that show dedicated stories.

We valued how much we could tailor the app to our needs. We recommend Activy especially to distributed organizations looking for ways to bring their employees together!

We promoted the challenge through various communication channels, including the Intranet and the internal Newsletter, and also "physically" in every location with posters. Because we work in a hybrid model, bringing all Employees together is a big challenge that calls for the widest possible set of tools.

The challenge

We are a distributed organization with assets all over Poland. We wanted to organize an event that would bring our staff together across all our locations. It was also essential to get Employees moving, since during the pandemic they were spending much more time at home.

Participants tell us we achieved this goal, which is an added health benefit as well. The work of PGE Energia Ciepła combines developing the heating sector in Poland with involvement in the life of local communities.

So our event could not do without a charity goal: a donation of PLN 15,000 to a chosen charity. The beneficiary was to be picked by the winning team, which turned out to be the crew from Gorzów Wielkopolski.

The satisfaction of helping people in need. The joy of competing and motivating each other among employees. A wonderful initiative! - Agnieszka, challenge participant

Participants joined the challenge with a code that automatically assigned them to the location where they work. We created 15 teams representing the branches and subsidiaries of PGE Energia Ciepła.

We divided the total points scored by the employees of each location by the total number of people employed there. This showed us how engaged each branch or subsidiary was in the "Grzejemy Kilometry" challenge.

We also let participants form their own 5-person teams, to strengthen integration through smaller groups.

The added value of the challenge was a mission made of checkpoints describing the towns where PGE Energia Ciepła operates, which made it a kind of virtual journey through our locations.

Every employee could learn the history of the company's growth and, while covering the kilometers, discover more fun facts. Reaching all the checkpoints was not easy, though, because the mission was as long as 400 km and had to be completed within 3 months.

I think the healthy habit of spending time actively will stay with some of our Employees for longer. Maybe not as often as during the challenge, but for some people we definitely managed to build new habits around physical activity. The beginnings are the hardest, so if the challenge led to those first activities, the next ones will come more easily.
- Piotr Kwiatkowski, Challenge Coordinator

Results

Employees taking part in the challenge met up and shared their experiences. Participants said the challenge motivated them to ride a bike or simply take longer walks with their dog.‍

Team rankings were a big source of engagement, because individual activities affected the result of the whole branch or subsidiary.

One great example of integration during the event was the team representing Kielce, which shared on the Intranet a bike trip they organized to "warm up the kilometers" together and explore interesting places in the area.

Toward the end of the challenge, the race between the two branches at the top was very close, which kept participants motivated and engaged until the very end of the event.

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