The team at EiB, providers of specialist work-winning support to the highways and transport industry, has raised £1,600 for the Birmingham Children’s Hospital by walking 12.6 million steps as part of a strategic network challenge.
The 6,238 miles walked by the team of 24, is equivalent to walking the full length of both Highways England’s and Transport Scotland’s strategic road networks combined. Following a discussion about health and wellbeing during lockdown, the EiB team kicked off the project in January with an ambitious virtual step challenge.
From 1st January, its team then completed the steps to support and enhance the services of the hospital by helping to fund additional facilities and equipment, supporting medical research and providing the extras that make being in hospital a more comfortable and less distressing experience for children and their families. The team completed the challenge the on 29th March, two days early and the effort they put it also inspired their supporters to dig deep and the team smashed their original £1,000 fundraising target.
With 2020 being a year no one was expecting, the EiB team, along with the rest of the world, found themselves in very unique circumstances. Working from home became the norm, whilst it juggled a multitude of other responsibilities. Without the relief of its usual social interaction, the nine months in some variation of ‘lockdown’ affected the team in different ways, according to the company.
“As a business, we continued to develop the wellbeing of our team as we grappled with new ways of working, “ said Graduate Bid Writer, Lauren Hewlett, who managed the challenge: “The team have really put in the work over the last three months and watching our step count increase every day is testament to that. We have raised vital funds for an incredibly worthy local charity and put a focus on our wellbeing during this tough time of year. We’ve have lots of exciting things planned ahead to keep this momentum going.”
“Whilst we all understand that fresh air and exercise brings obvious health and wellbeing benefits; the motivation, time and energy to get it does not always feel feasible. As a team whose day job is centered around winning, motivating the team with a challenge (and some gentle competition between us too) certainly helped! Through our regular staff calls and informal coffee break catch ups, email exchanges and Teams messages – the challenge grew momentum and life. Our different lifestyles required each member of the team to determine how they would increase their step count.
“It encouraged our team to take more regular breaks. Some of us were running up and down the stairs, pacing the kitchen as the kettle boiled, taking new dogs out for lots of walks and forcing our families (for more ‘quality time’) into yet another long country walk! And in true form, between January to March we experienced all weathers; wind, rain, hail, sleet, snow and thankfully, toward the end, some sunshine!”
She added: “Whilst this was a fundraising initiative and a short-term challenge of getting everyone’s steps up, for EiB it really goes beyond this. After a year in some form of lockdown, there is a necessary cultural shift required for us to meaningfully support our team to ensure their health and wellbeing. This challenge created a new sense of teamwork and comradery to help compensate for not seeing each other face to face. With the continuing impact of Covid-19, encouraging balance and wellbeing is a vital cultural focus we plan to maintain, to support our team in the months and years to come.”
The Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity via EiB’s JustGiving page can be found via this link: https://lnkd.in/dHp4Hw8
