“Some days, the little extra push of our competition makes the difference for me getting out to do my daily exercise. Our competition is making a difference for me. It has only been a few weeks. But I’ve lost weight. I’m stronger. And I’m thankful to participate and leverage our competition for the extra bit of motivation that I need some days.” -Kent Campbell, Product Assurance Engineer
For the past three months, Juniper Systems employees have worked to improve themselves physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially through a variety of activities and challenges presented by Juniper’s Human Resources team. Split into groups of 8-9, these seven teams fought hard to earn points and bring their team to the top. Points were scored on both the individual and team level with a number of points awarded for 30 minutes of daily exercise, including others in your exercise, tracking diet, planning/participating in company-wide activities, mental/emotional self-assessments, getting a physical, and much more. And though this program was voluntary, more than half of the company chose to participate. Talk about a tight bunch.
During the program, teams were asked to come up with one company-wide activity. These activities included hikes up Logan Canyon, a walk to Gossners for ice cream, a basketball tournament, ultimate Frisbee training, and a couple games of outdoor volleyball. Each event was well-attended and full of smack talk and laughter. Oh, and a couple Frisbees to the face, right Jeromy?
Those that decided to steer clear of the heated competition were welcomed to do so, however a few of the team captains were all “eye of the tiger”. These captains would make regular visits to team members’ offices to encourage participation and motivate them. Several employees made comments about how determined this year’s team captains were, like they’d never seen before. One employee even made the comment that he would rather “face his team captain’s wrath that fill out his diet tracker one more week”. That gave us all a good laugh.
Several employees were excited about reaching personal goals and going to extreme lengths to earn additional points, and the results definitely showed. With over 100 personal goals set and met, 120 monthly exercise plans created, 50 enrollments in athletic competitions outside of Juniper, and several other major accomplishments, this wellness program was one for the books.
Another fun part of our company wellness program was a weekly photo competition. Employees were encouraged to share pictures of their adventures in hopes to win the points associated with the winning photo. These pictures, displayed in the building, sparked conversation and lead to new experiences. On several occasions groups would gather around the television to watch the slideshow each week. We’ve included some of these pictures below to show just how incredible our team really is!
Watch out for the 2018 wellness competition. We’re going to become Olympians in just three short months, just wait and see.
If you’re interested in joining the Juniper Systems team, check out our current job openings by clicking the page below! We’re a blast.
