CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – In May 2019, the City of Clarksville began encouraging its employees to take part in a Step Challenge. Since the start of the challenge, city employees have logged an impressive 50,867,057 total steps.
The challenge was arranged by the city’s new wellness commission. The commission is led by First Lady Cynthia Pitts and backed by department representatives. The commission works to provide city employees and their families with tools and encouragement to make a lasting change to their health.
The contest ran from May to June, with categories including small department, large department, top male, and top female steppers. Employees used an app to log their daily steps, as per a conversion chart that could calculate how many steps are in certain daily activities.
Wes Golden is the City of Clarksville Health and Safety Manager, as well as the coordinator of the Wellness Committee. “Having a healthier workforce can decrease absenteeism, improve productivity, reduce healthcare costs for the city and the employees, and lower the elevated risks for our employees and their families,” Golden said.
Pitts added, “The step challenge was exciting to see unfold, because the departments took their natural, good-natured competitiveness and used that to really pursue a healthier lifestyle change. It worked to bring not only City employees together, but employees’ families, as everyone joined to raise their step counts.”
The Wellness Committee presented the winning departments with trophies, the top steppers with a prize and plaque, as well as awarded multiple participation prizes to various city employees.
The top female stepper for the City was Heather Fleming with Purchasing, and the top male stepper was David Nelson with the Clarksville Street Department. For the large department category, Clarksville Street Department took the most steps, and Internal Audit stepped away as the winners of the small department category.
The wellness committee is planning various new programs to continue promoting healthy habits among city employees. Beginning August 1, City of Clarksville employees will conduct various tasks like making better food choices, spending a day off social media and numerous physical activities to complete a “black-out” on a BINGO card.
Like the Steps Challenge, departments will compete against each other and individuals will be awarded participation prizes. Wes Golden added, “Contests like this are a great way to encourage employees to create healthy habits. These challenges can build and help sustain high employee morale.”