Case Study 4: A Division of a Large Media Organisation is one of five Workplace Case Studies developed by the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) as a part of the Strategic Evaluation of Prevention Programs (SEPP). These Case Studies were informed by 10,000 Steps Coordinators to investigate the relationship between the implementation of 10,000 Steps strategies and their impact on the success of Tournament implementation.
1. Descriptions of the staff composition, local environment, and 10,000 Steps program engagement of the workplaces profiled for case studies.
A large media organisation based in a major city. The organisation comprises a mixture of different divisions where staff work within teams. The most recent tournament run from this organisation was in 2022 with participants solely from one division, with a first-time coordinator. The previous couple of Tournaments were office-wide and spread across divisions. The Tournament was run as part of a month of wellbeing initiative.
2. How the social, organisational, environmental, community and policy levels of support for physical activity in the case study workplaces were influenced by Tournament implementation.
- Although implementation of Tournaments at this workplace had been conducted by different coordinators over the years, awareness of the Program through prior implementation had nonetheless led to future implementation.
- A greater focus of the workplace towards improving workplace health and wellbeing led to the most recent Tournament.
…I mean, you know, even the federal government is talking about – their budget is being based on wellbeing. So it’s a new buzzword. So if you’ve got the resources to tap into the buzzwords of wellbeing, you know. (Coordinator)
- Although leadership buy-in was not present, Tournaments were still viewed as a valuable
- ‘KPI’, with no opposition. Tournaments and similar initiatives were thus people-driven, rather than management driven.
… Actually, the organisations look for ways to tick a box and if you can tick a box with this and you’ve got an off-the-shelf package that you say, ‘Hey, roll this out in your workplace’, you know, that’s part of the game, isn’t it? (Coordinator)
- Due to the work of the industry, the workplace had greater interest and knowledge in the value of health and wellbeing in society and the community.
3. The influence of 10,000 Steps workplace resources in determining Tournament success - profiles of how 10,000 Steps resources were used or adapted by workplace coordinators.
- Made good use of the Tournament and Leaderboard functions of the website and mobile app. The Tournament and team management functions were adapted to suit the needs of the division itself.
- Although the workplace implemented Tournaments in the past, new coordinators lacked ready knowledge or existing mentors to support Tournament implementation. Contacting the 10,000 Steps Project Team was described as an important resource to rapidly learn how to implement the Tournament, due to limited time to get started.
…I think I ended up doing a lot of one-on-one email supports and telephone calls to people in Central Queensland […] University. And then said, ‘This is what I want to do, how do I do it?’ And then they were able to send me links – I think it was all basically there in the resources, I just didn’t – I was too lazy to start looking or didn’t – wanted a quick way to solve it because I needed to solve it pretty quickly to say, ‘Yeah, this will work’ and get it ticked off. (Coordinator)
- This workplace did not customise or use any of the online resources provided to them, instead relying primarily on the Tournament function on the website and mobile app.
- The Activity-to-Steps converter was well used by participants who had an interest in capturing their existing physical activity as part of their steps performance.
- Strategies employed by this workplace included pitching the Tournament at team meetings and providing regular weekly updates on Tournament progression. Skills unique to the media industry were also leveraged such as building in an emotional element into Tournament communication and messaging to encourage participation.