In early May, Sprint launched its first-ever nationwide employee fitness challenge, the Sprint Get Fit Challenge. Through a recent press release, Sprint announced that the response from employees has been overwhelming. According to the company, more than 14,000 employees representing over 35 percent of Sprint’s total workforce registered to participate in this friendly challenge among co-workers. The contest intends to boost up its employees’ awareness about the value of good heal the personal wellness, Sprint said in the release.
Sprint believes that in order to remain productive, employees should stay in good health throughout the year. The company benefits from employees with healthy bodies and minds. This philosophy guided Sprint to launch the ‘Get Fit Challenge,’ which will offer its employees 24/7 access to free wellness resources. The company believes this will go a long way toward creating a happy and healthy workforce, as according to health experts, health conscious employees often have lower absentee rates and are happier, leading to increased productivity and commitment.
In partnership with OptumHealth, Sprint provides programs and practices that focus on health improvement for employees and dependents. There are many other way, the company helps employees and their dependents improve their well-being. Sprint organizes monthly health and wellness communications for its employees. The company even offers on-site wellness services at some of its locations.
For the Sprint Get Fit Challenge, Sprint and OptumHealth have partnered with ShapeUp, the leading technology provider in the social networking for wellness space. Under this program, the Sprint employees are encouraged to join teams of up to 11 members. Each team member can compete in one, two or all three of the Sprint Get Fit Challenge competition categories which are: Exercise minutes-- any moderate to intense physical activity that increases the employee’s heart rate counts; Weight loss, and the Walking/running steps category.
The competition, which is broken into 12 weekly rounds throughout May, June and July, promises cash incentive for the healthiest teams. Any team with at least five members competing in a given category receives a ranked standing in that round. Throughout the competition, employees who continue to stick with it and log their results will automatically receive cash-equivalent rewards and be entered into drawings for even more prizes, Sprint clarified in a press release.
Opposing the AT&T take over of T-Mobile from the start, Sprint has recently taken its case to the Federal Communications Commission. Sprint recently filed a petition requesting that the FCC “reject parts of AT&T’s application to absorb T-Mobile’s U.S. spectrum licenses,” according to a St. Louis Business Journal story posted on June 1.
Madhubanti Rudra is a contributing editor for HealthTechZone. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Rich Steeves
