“We are delighted by the enthusiasm for our first annual Get Moving Challenge,” said Casey Ryan, Global Head of Legal Personnel at Reed Smith, a member of its Senior Management Team, and a Wellness Works stalwart. “June and July are wonderful months to be out and about with co-workers, friends and family, and the firm’s encouragement and support have helped many of us take another step forward in our personal journeys to improve overall wellness.”
Wellness Works was launched in January to promote, support and sustain the well-being of all employees of the firm in response to the inherently high pressure environment of the legal profession. The initiative comprises stress management, work-life balance, healthy habits, and health mindfulness.
The six-week Get Moving Challenge has fired up the imagination of Reed Smith personnel throughout the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Asia, with 27 of the firm’s offices already involved in local walks, runs and other planned fitness events organized by Get Moving Champions in each office.
Participants use their smart devices or other fitness trackers to log their daily activities and advance across a virtual map of the firm’s offices. The Wellness Works Team will award grand prizes to the three Challenge participants who log the most physical activity in the period, as well as award weekly prizes to participants chosen randomly throughout the initiative, which ends July 20.
Reed Smith’s Senior Management Team has its own competition going, with one member asking wryly if his airline miles would count toward his total--- the miles do not, but the steps in the airport and in the aisle do.
The office with the highest participation rate will also be honored. So far, leading the pack, in the top five, are the firm’s Abu Dhabi; Silicon Valley; Princeton; Richmond; and Dubai offices, with nearly two-thirds participating in the top office. The firm’s Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Singapore, Houston, Paris, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Beijing, and Philadelphia offices are close in the running, with participation currently at a third or more in most of the firm’s larger offices.
Information about the Get Moving Challenge and other planned activities under development as part of the Wellness Works initiative is available on the firm’s Intranet. In addition to an updated “Leaderboard” of the most active Get Moving Challenge participants, the site provides an individual page for each office with information about the Challenge and other firmwide and local wellness programming options.
With friendly competitions heating up – not only between offices, but within them and across practices – local activities and events are multiplying quickly. For example, some recent highlights so far include:
- In Princeton, personnel on the second floor challenged those on the third floor to an activity contest, with the prize still undecided, but with 30-minute walks scheduled each morning, noon and at 5 p.m. and planned weekly events, including lunchtime strolls, evening ambles, circuit training, a scheduled 5K walk-run and bike rides;
- In Pittsburgh’s two offices, in addition to Get Moving lunchtime walks exploring various city neighborhoods, a personal trainer was brought in to educate personnel on how to make the most of their work outs, with a one month free gym membership to attendees.
- In Century City and Los Angeles, Tuesday and Thursday lunchtime walks are planned, and the Get Moving Champions are circulating information about nearby events at Grand Park, including Tuesday fitness bootcamps; The Music Center’s Dance Downtown LA, KTown Night Market Friday evening Downtown Festivals, Art Walk, Outdoor Yoga and Los Angeles hikes.
- In San Francisco, participants are competing in three groups – including engagement in walks to art exhibits, farmers markets, regional tourist spots overlooked by locals – with the most active group of the three winning a party with a chair masseuse and other healthy rewards;
- In New York, Challenge Champions are providing healthy snacks, weekly walks with a challenge champion, and yoga – with a healthy catered lunch on the line for the top 10 New York participants and an as yet undetermined fabulous prize to the most active New Yorker;
- In Philadelphia, participants are competing head-to-head with one another, with weekly and end of competition local prizes for the most active employees, local Challenge Champions are hosting 30-minute “Lunchtime Strolls” every work day; and,
- In Chicago, walking groups tackle the fantastic Chicago Riverwalk at lunch every Monday, Wednesday and Fridays; two weekday evening 5K walk/runs are being planned; a floor v. floor competition for average number of steps walked has taken off – with health fruit sorbets stocked on the floor freezer for the remainder of the summer for the winning floor – and each floor has a “Get Moving” station to promote physical activities for two to five minutes each hour, including a small basketball hoop, putting green, inflated punching bag and bean bag toss.
For more information, contact Jamie Moss, newsPRos, 201-493-1027.
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