Staff Take Part in Health and Wellness Challenge

January 24, 2020

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GNS

Many of the GNS staff are kicking off the New Year with a Health and Wellness Challenge! Staff from both campuses are taking part in the voluntary challenge as they start 2020 with a healthy mindset.

“It was something we thought we would do that focuses on the mind, body and spirit elements — it’s not just fitness related, but the whole health and wellness aspect,” said Kim Holmes, HR Director, GNS. “It is just meant to be fun, try something new and get people to get into teams and have a little bit of camaraderie, team spirit. We want staff to have some fun with it and make some healthy choices along the way.”

In teams of three, the staff is encouraging and helping to support each other through the Health and Wellness Challenge. There is a competitive and non-competitive stream that employees are taking part in. Some will be counting points, while others are doing it for enjoyment purposes only. The competitive stream has 25 teams, while the noncompetitive group has six teams.

“It’s just meant to be fun and help with overall health and wellness. Also, for people to understand that we think it’s important and it’s something we need to support in our environment,” said Holmes.

After doing a bunch of research, Holmes came up with a format she felt the staff would have fun with.Some of the examples on the challenge include “crank the radio and dance like no one’s watching,” “write down five things you are grateful for today,” and “get moving with colleagues.”

With the challenge being half underway already, Holmes many teams have got into the competitive spirit.

“We have some very competitive natured folks, so there are some teams that are striving for first and second,” she said. “I think it’s been going pretty well so far.”

Holmes hopes that if staff can take anything away from the challenge it’s that they identify something new they want to continue with that will help them on their wellness journey.

“It’s putting yourself first and making sure your health and wellness is front and centre, because when we are healthy and feeling good about ourselves then that naturally flows outwards to the people we have influence over, or the people we deal with regularly.

There are prizes for the top two teams in the competitive stream, while there will also be prizes drawn at random.

Good luck to everyone taking part!