Cultivate a healthier work environment by starting an office-wide, step-count competition using fitness bands, smart watches and other wearable technology to track your steps at home and the office. By collaborating to set fitness goals, create rewards and provide motivation, you and your co-workers can work on fitness even when you're too busy to make it to the gym.

Recruit Participants; Set a Start Date

To begin a step-count competition in the workplace, you first need to set goals, engage your co-workers and enroll participants by getting the word out about the fitness goals, workout incentives and start date for the competition.

For large companies, contact your corporate wellness office or human resources department to help you spread the word. For smaller companies, you may be able to discuss the competition with the owner and other employees in person. The more people you involve, the better the chance of a successful and ongoing competition.

The enrollment period for the competition should give workers enough time to purchase a fitness band or other device capable of tracking step count. If your company has the resources, a great way to get people involved is to have the company bulk order fitness bands for workers who sign up. Some companies may even offset some or all of the price of the wearable technology to better encourage fitness in the workplace.

Set Fitness Goals

Setting goals is an essential part of any step-count competition. Fitness bands and other wearable technology are an easy way to track each participant's daily step count, allowing each person to set daily, weekly and monthly fitness goals.

Depending on the fitness level of the employees participating in the competition, you can set the same step goal for everyone, such as 10,000 steps per day, or let participants set goals based on their personal fitness levels. In either case, chart the number of days participants meet their step goals, and set weekly and monthly goals as either a certain number of steps or a number of days goals were met.

Provide Workout Incentives

To help motivate everyone to reach their step goals, provide workout incentives, such as an office party if everyone reaches their fitness goal or individual rewards for workers that achieve success. You can also have awards for various categories, such as most total steps each week or the largest increase in steps taken from one month to the next.

Check with management to see whether your company can provide prizes or other incentives to promote corporate wellness. If not, participating employees can pool money for prizes. To encourage teamwork, base the best incentives on group achievement, such as if 90 percent of employees reach their monthly fitness goal.

Encourage Each Other

Approaching fitness as a group offers many opportunities to work together and motivate each other. Consider starting a group chart or calendar that shows the days each person has met their goals, as well as the total number of steps taken each week and month. The visual display, along with discussions between participants and group goals help cultivate a sense of teamwork and camaraderie. It's also a good idea to motivate each other by joining forces, such as group walks during lunch time, break-time strolls or after-work jogs.

Workplace step-count competitions come in many different forms but no matter where you work, the goal is the same: to provide a fun way to help employees stay fit during their busy lives. Fitness bands and other wearable technology that track your step count make the competition a worry-free means to set goals and to cultivate camaraderie among participants.

**The contents of this article are for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute a medical consultation and cannot replace medical advice. Any information should never be used as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other health care provider. Before you start working out, you should get a medical checkup or otherwise be fit for this type of activity. It is important that you warm up and stretch before each workout, and that you use common sense while exercising: do not go over the top when exercising! If you experience any pain, feel weak, dizzy or exhausted or become short of breath, immediately stop your workout.