Press Release
Release date:
25th March 2015
‘Walking lunches’ boost employee wellbeing for
international consultancy
Swapping working lunches for walking lunches, holding
conferences calls whilst stepping on the spot, and walking the longest route to
the shop have all contributed to boosting employee wellbeing and raising over
£13,000 for charity at one international consultancy company.
Staff at Columbus have put their best foot forward and walked the equivalent of twice around-the-world as part of a 4 month Fitbit® charity challenge in aid of the Bone Cancer Research Trust. And in addition to raising a staggering £13,062, the company is reporting an increase in employee wellbeing and productivity levels as a result of getting out from behind their desks and encouraging each other to undertake more physical exercise.
Mary Hunter, Managing Director of Columbus explained: “When we agreed to take part in the Fitbit® charity challenge we all knew that it would be difficult to walk the equivalent of 49,802 miles over 4 months especially when a lot of us are usually desk-bound or spend long periods driving. And what we weren’t immediately prepared for is just how difficult it was for over half of us to walk the equivalent of 10,000 steps each day, every day for 4 months.
“The whole exercise was a huge success and instilled a real team spirit throughout the entire company; we all motivated each other to reach our daily and weekly targets. That ethic remains today and we have seen productivity increase as a result of having a healthier happier team. Employee wellbeing is higher than ever before and many of the healthy living initiatives this challenge brought remain with us today – walking lunches and taking the stairs over the lift in particular, have become a regular occurrence.”
When its team is not walking around the planet, Columbus staff are assisting manufacturing, distribution and retail businesses worldwide to increase their own efficiencies and productivity with cutting edge Microsoft Dynamics Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions. The Fitbit® charity challenge saw the team at Columbus achieve their target whilst still undertaking everyday business duties; ERP planning, implementation delivery and customer service, all activities that are heavily desk-based.
A recent survey from Financial Director magazine found that 86% of directors in the UK consider employee wellbeing a significant part of their job, whilst a similar report from office furniture manufacturers, Steelcase, reports that 83% of employees in the UK are not engaged with their work because employee wellbeing is poor.
Mary Hunter revealed that this charity challenge has not only helped a worthy cause, but has boosted team spirit within the company and increased engagement levels.
“The team spirit that everyone showed throughout this
initiative is still part of our culture, but it’s more apparent today with
everyone you talk to and visibly evident also in the way we support our
customers and help them to achieve their long term goals. I would definitely
recommend that other businesses run an activity like this and see for
themselves the advantages it brings to their team for the long term.”
Bone Cancer Research Trust’s Head of Fundraising, Kate Connor also commended the team at Columbus on their fantastic achievement. She said: “The tens of thousands of steps taken by Columbus will enable us to take a giant leap in the support we offer in the fight against bone cancer. The incredible achievements of Columbus will mean that we can be there for even more families at the start of their bone cancer journey, when they need us most, alongside our continued investment in research to find better treatments and make this a curable disease.”
-ENDS-
About Columbus
Columbus is an international
consultancy serving customers worldwide. We are experts in developing and
providing business applications to the retail, food and manufacturing
industries. We’ve proved this through 25 years of experience with more than
6,000 successful business cases. Columbus has offices and partners all around
the world. For more information please contact Mary Hunter (UK) on +44 (0)1623
72 99 77 or email mhun@columbusglobal.com.
For further information, please contact: - Denise Taylor, Bridge PR & Media Services on 024 76 520025, or e-mail denise@bridgepr.co.uk