Photo: Niki Mistiaen (Employee Happiness Advisor)

TVH, a global player in the field of spare parts for lift trucks, industrial vehicles, construction machinery and agricultural tractors, organized a Global Walking Challenge for its employees from 19 April until 16 May. The end result is impressive: 458 employees from 20 TVH branches took 117 301 201 steps in total, accounting for a staggering 87 975 kilometers or 54 665 miles. 

TVH has built up a good reputation as an employer who cares for its employees. The TVH Nudge program encourages the employees to make healthy choices, working on several initiatives for mental wellbeing, sports and healthy food. 

Niki Mistiaen, Employee Happiness Advisor at TVH and organizer of the Nudge initiatives: “We are happy that so many employees participated in this first-ever TVH Global Walking Challenge. In times when colleagues barely see each other physically, common goals encourage connection. The tracking app allowed people to share pictures of their many walks so everyone was able to enjoy images of amazing scenery, luscious forests and picturesque spots all over the world.”

Individual and company goals

The goal of TVH’s Global Walking Challenge was two-fold: firstly, for every employee to take an average of 10 000 steps a day. And secondly, to walk - as a group - virtually from one TVH branch to another, around the world.

In total, TVH employees took 117 301 201 steps during the 4 week challenge and walked no less than 87 975 kilometers (54 665 miles). That corresponds to the distance of over 2080 marathons or 2 times around the world.

“As a company, we feel it is important to make our employees feel connected. With this global initiative we managed to find a common goal that also was to our own health benefit and was fun to do”, says Isabelle Van de Voorde (Corporate Communications Manager).

Boost to the company morale
Rankings were kept per country and individually. With an average of 16.636 steps, team Mexico achieved the most steps per person per day. The most passionate hiker worldwide was Dhanraj Wanve from India, who achieved a whopping 1.255.055 steps in total. But the physical goal was not the only incentive for employees to participate in the challenge.

Niki: “So many benefits can be attributed to walking everyday: higher productivity, better management of stress and anxiety, a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease … Besides that, this challenge was also all about connection. Initiatives like this Global Walking Challenge are a big boost to the company morale. I am already looking forward to the next one!””