Case Study 4: A Large Technical Services Company 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 technical services company based in a major city with over 200 staff at its local site, with more staff at other sites across the state and the country, as well as staff who work remotely. There is a mixture of staff working in offices conducting sedentary work and outside staff who conduct skilled technical manual work. The organisation has run Tournaments for a few years, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. A small handful of staff participate in the Tournaments every year. The Tournaments are run annually, around Spring to ensure that staff across various Queensland will collectively have good weather outside. The Tournaments are run by a handful of workplace coordinators and this work is done as part of their roles in the workplace Wellness Group.
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.
- Tournaments were an event initiated by the work of the Wellness Group, as part of a broader portfolio focussed on improving multiple aspects of health and wellbeing of staff.
- Tournaments were seen as an easy-to-use physical activity event to implement amongst staff.
- Due to prior success in implementation, Tournaments had become part of a greater body of initiatives dedicated to wellbeing throughout the year.
- Team leaders supported the initiative and were an important conduit for encouraging participation. Leadership was seen as leading by example by participating while demonstrating authentic support for the initiative.
… I’m not saying this about our organisation particularly, but I think there’s a lot of lip service about these things. Like, the directors and everybody on board so that they’re out walking or whatever they’re doing, so you know, they’re leading the charge as well. It’s not just lip service. (Coordinator)
- The staff were a mixture of sedentary workers and active workers, with Tournaments being an opportunity for sedentary workers to reflect on levels of physical activity while there was less perceived benefit to active workers.
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, particularly because of its ease of use.
- The CSV export function was used for tracking team performance and progress.
…I like to see, you know, how many steps people are doing and yeah. I think we walked enough that we walked across the country and back or something like that. (Coordinator)
- Few other online coordinator resources were utilised beyond the Tournament and Leaderboard functions on the website.
- However, health and physical activity facts available on the 10,000 Steps website were often used in regular communications with participants to make Tournament updates sent to participants more interesting.
- The Activity-to-Steps converter was a popular feature for participants who were already engaging in non-steps-based physical activity.
But yeah. I think most of us are pretty – we’re all doing either running or walking or cycling or swimming or something. So you know, I think the cyclists and swimmers don’t get the steps, but because they have the exercise period in there that you can put in. I’ve done it now. I cycle. Then their steps get up too whatever they should be. (Coordinator)
- Strategies for encouraging engagement were viewed by the workplace as homegrown, adapted to the conditions of the workplace itself rather than drawn from the program coordinator resources. However, many of these strategies aligned with strategies provided by the Program such as sending regular email updates, getting support from leadership to encourage participation, encouraging the sharing of photographs of walks with team members, and a prize incentive for the winning team.