Sporty habits at SGB Bank

Over 1,800 active employees, thanks to well-planned promotion, competition between the banks and the involvement of the bank presidents. In a month and a half, participants covered more than 500,000 km, and satisfaction went beyond our expectations.

People invited each other to compete, got together on group bike trips and beat their personal goals, and on top of that we donated PLN 21,000 to charity. The competition has definitely become part of our culture, and we can't wait for the next edition.

Taking part in the challenge increased my physical activity and improved my well-being. My figure got better. I'm left wanting more because it ended so quickly. Thank you so much for the great fun. I'm counting the days to the next challenge! - Marcin, challenge participant

Preparations

Really, we wanted to continue what we did last year. We wanted to get people moving, so that outside work they could get to know each other better and release the stress they deal with every day. Bank employees don't know each other well, so the sports challenge (with teams) was meant to unite them and bring them together. Increasing physical activity and reducing stress were also important.

Because the bank units are so spread out, early promotion and the involvement of the presidents of the Cooperative Banks were essential, and the presidents also competed against each other. Choosing the right tool was key as well. Last year we got to know Activy through RakReaton, and it was a bull's-eye!

The app has everything you need to run a competition, it is clear and easy to use (our employees vary widely in age) and it integrates with other apps, which mattered to the group of athletes.

More self-confidence, proof that I can do something on my own. All the more so because I never exercised and hardly moved. This app showed that I, the heaviest person at the bank, am in third place at my workplace, and that I did it myself, without any help. - Karolina, challenge participant

We started promoting and preparing the challenge a few months before the start, mainly because of our distributed structure, and also because we wanted to make sure as many people as possible would get involved :)

Since the pandemic was still going on, we skipped posters and went with the intranet, where in a separate tab we posted all the news, trainers recorded exercise videos, and once the challenge started, employees sent in their photos, hundreds of photos!

Materials from Activy helped explain the rules of the game and how the app works. Besides the individual competition, we ran a competition between banks (thanks to a separate app access code for each bank, employees were automatically added to the right team) and between bank presidents.

From the very start we published results as they came in, ran extra contests (for example for team photos, road absurdities and funny names of towns visited), and employees also used the "Recommend to a friend" feature in the app to invite colleagues and other banks, which made things much easier!

The challenge

Effective communication, well-thought-out rules and carefully chosen prizes all contributed to the success of the campaign. We encouraged the banks to promote the challenge, news spread by word of mouth, people had new things to talk about, and each person invited the next, so in total we brought together more than 1,800 employees.

It was real integration. People arranged to train together, and the president of one bank invited employees to a bonfire on the condition that everyone walked, ran or cycled there. As a result, the team jumped several places in the ranking.

Our Ambassadors, the vice president and one of the directors, cheered everyone on and also took part in the competition. Employees made it their goal to beat these authority figures. The Ambassadors also sent motivational recordings and videos with important information from time to time.

In the official competition, we rewarded more than just the top places. Everyone who did 200 km on the bike and 200 km of running or walking got a company T-shirt. That was the only way to get the T-shirt, so employees tried really hard, and at the end there was a lot of joy.

The charity goal was also a big motivation: in total we donated PLN 21,000 for sports equipment to eight public benefit organizations. The winning teams could not only choose the foundations but also hand over the check, which gave people even more motivation to be active. We know that some banks also rewarded their own employees. 

It may sound a bit lofty, but the challenge started to really change other people's lives! Because the competition was not aimed only at top performers, many employees started doing something for themselves. We have hundreds of messages and photos from happy people showing off their results. And the proof that together we did a good job is that people want more and are already waiting for the next challenge! - Rafał Łopka, challenge coordinator

Results

Those were intense days. From the photos, messages and results we know that hundreds of people really got into the competition! In total, we covered more than 500,000 km!

‍Now we definitely need some recovery. The evaluation survey shows that points for streaks were one of the biggest motivations for daily activity, and they really did their job.‍

People didn't know that walking the dog could count as daily activity, and thanks to the competition they found out they could go for a 5 km walk every day, and that habit stayed with them.

Employees are unlikely to go back to bad habits. They may not exercise quite as intensively, but we expect they will still spend 3-4 days a week on physical activity. Once someone has seen the results, they won't want to change that.

The competition in Activy had positive effects not only for the bank employees, but also for their families. Parents encouraged their children to go on bike rides and to cycle to school and to extracurricular activities.

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