When a company invests in employee wellness, it sends a message: we see you as a whole person, not just a job title. That matters more than most leaders realize.
Only 24% of U.S. employees feel their employer actually supports their wellbeing, according to SHRM. The gap is rarely about budget. It is about whether wellness feels genuine and consistent, or like a checkbox that gets ticked once a year.
A well-built team wellness challenge closes that gap in a way most programs never do, because it gets people talking about their actual lives at work. Who hikes on weekends. Who does yoga at 6am and has never mentioned it in a meeting. Who has been quietly learning guitar for three years. Those conversations do not happen in a normal workweek — a wellness challenge creates them naturally, because the stakes are low and people are just being themselves.
Q2 is the perfect time to run one: Earth Day falls in April, Mental Health Awareness Month is all of May, and people are ready for something fun before summer hits.
We put together a full stack of tools on how to build a workplace wellness challenge that actually connects your team. Read on for the core strategy, and check out our 30 ready-to-use daily prompts available as a free download and companion guide.
Two Decisions to Make Before You Launch
Before you post the first prompt, two things need to be settled. Everything else builds from here.
Decision 1
For Slack and MS Teams Users: Where will the challenge live?
Create a new dedicated channel like #wellness-challenge for a clean opt-in feel. Take over an existing culture channel like #celebrations or #shoutouts if you already have an active audience there. Or use your Watercooler channel if your team already has a strong engagement habit in it. Any of these works. Pick the one with the most existing energy.
Decision 2
Collective or competitive?
With a collective approach, the whole team is in it together. No winners, no losers. Great for teams building psychological safety or trying this for the first time.
If your team loves a little friendly rivalry, go competitive — but make it team vs. team, not person vs. person. Individual head-to-head drops participation fast. And whatever you do, make the teams cross-departmental. A wellness challenge is one of the best tools you have for getting people to connect outside their usual circles. Someone in sales bonding with someone in product over a shared love of hiking is worth more than any step count.
A few ways to build the teams
• Color teams: Randomly assign participants to Team Red or Team Blue (or your company colors). Simple, lighthearted, easy to explain.
• Core values teams: Name a team after each company value. Adds meaning without feeling arbitrary.
• Random cross-department groups: Divide participants into small mixed groups. The cross-department mix is the magic.
• Tracking points without a spreadsheet: Give each team a unique emoji. Participants react to daily prompts with their team emoji — visible, instant, no tracking sheet needed.
Ways to Run Your Workplace Wellness Challenge
There is no single right way to run a team wellness challenge. The best format is the one your team will actually show up for. Layer a few of these together for the most energy across six weeks.
Walk and Talk pairings
During Movement week, pair participants from different departments for a Walk and Talk: two people, one walk, no agenda. In person if they are in the same location, on the phone if they are remote. It turns a solo habit into a genuine connection moment — the kind that does not happen in a normal workweek. If your team already does randomized coffee chats or employee intro pairings, use that same mechanic and theme it around movement for the week.
Weekly prize lottery
Each week, randomly select one participant who checked in to win a small prize. Water bottles, stickers, a gift card, an Apple Watch if you want to go big. The randomness is the point: it rewards showing up, not performing. Announce the winner publicly on Friday for a little weekly anticipation.
Wellness trivia
Drop one theme-relevant trivia question mid-challenge when the week-one energy starts to fade. First person to answer correctly wins a prize or earns points for their team. Takes five minutes to write and brings the whole channel to life for an afternoon.
Recognition for personal goals and encouragement
Appreciation is its own form of wellness. Feeling genuinely seen by your teammates has a real impact on how people feel at work. Create a special recognition category just for the challenge, something like “Wellness Win”, and use it throughout the six weeks to celebrate effort, consistency, and the people who bring energy to the channel. That kind of peer appreciation is part of what makes people want to come back for round two.
End-of-challenge survey
Send five questions in the final week: what they liked, what they would change, favorite theme, and whether they would do it again. The feedback makes the next round better, and asking for it signals you actually care how the experience went.
The thread that ties it all together
Daily prompts
Every format above works better when there is a consistent daily thread running underneath it. Daily prompts give the challenge its rhythm: something that shows up in the channel every day, keeps each theme alive all week, and gives everyone a low-lift way to participate on their own terms. They are also what builds the habit — week after week, people know what to expect on Monday and look forward to what shows up on Friday.
We put together 30 ready-to-use prompts across all six themes — organized by week and day, copy-paste ready. Grab the free download below.
The 6-Week Theme Rotation for Your Employee Wellness Challenge
Each week has its own focus. Themes are broad enough to be inclusive and specific enough that each week has a distinct feel. Every prompt is written for any body, any fitness level, and any lifestyle: no gym required, no equipment assumed, nothing that makes anyone feel like they are doing it wrong.
Movement and Walking
Ties to Earth Day, April 22Not about fitness performance. Walking counts. Stretching counts. A lap around the building counts. The Tuesday fact tends to get shared outside the channel: the 10,000 steps goal came from a Japanese marketing campaign in 1965, not a health study. Great opener because the bar to participate is genuinely low. Pairs naturally with an Earth Day outdoor movement nudge.
Hydration
Accessible for everyone and consistently underestimated. The key fact: mild dehydration, around 1-2% of body weight, is enough to affect mood and concentration. The Friday photo prompt (show us your water bottle, full or empty) is one of the highest-participation check-ins of the full six weeks.
Sleep and Recovery
The most undervalued wellness topic at work. The Tuesday fact tends to stop people mid-scroll: sleep is when your brain’s glymphatic system flushes out waste products linked to cognitive decline. Rest is not passive. It is maintenance. The Thursday challenge (set a wind-down alarm tonight) is one of the few actions that actually follows people home.
Mental Wellness
Ties to Mental Health Awareness Month, MayGrounded and practical: reading, journaling, a few deep breaths, a screen break. The Tuesday fact (reading for 6 minutes reduces stress by up to 68%, more than music or a walk) reliably generates real conversation. Running this in May ties it naturally to Mental Health Awareness Month. Good week to pair with a team pulse check.
Hobby and Personal Joy
Consistently the surprise hit of the six weeks. People rarely get asked what they do outside of work, and they love the chance to share it. This is where the cross-department discovery happens: who else hikes, who does pottery, who has been learning guitar for three years. Friday photo check-ins for this week are the most personal and creative of the whole challenge.
Nutrition and Nourishment
Framed entirely around addition, not restriction: adding color, variety, and plants to what you are already eating. No mention of calories, weight, or “eating clean” anywhere. The Monday prompt opens with a soft disclaimer so nobody feels called out. The Tuesday fact on phytonutrients (plant color signals different health benefits) is the kind of thing people save and share.
Free Download: 6-Week Wellness Challenge Prompt GuideAll 30 prompts organized by week and day, including the full Mon-Fri daily structure. Copy, paste, and go.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get people to actually participate?
Pin an intro message before day one that explains the challenge, the theme schedule, and how participation works. Make it clear that all levels are welcome and nobody is being graded. Then normalize lurking: even passive readers benefit from the fun facts and tips in the thread. Celebrate whoever shows up and resist the urge to chase people down. The goal is a channel that feels alive, not a participation report that hits a quota.
What if only a few people participate?
Five active posters is enough to make the channel feel alive. The prompts are still reaching everyone who can see the channel, and passive readers get value from the facts and tips even when they do not reply. Participation tends to grow in round two once people have seen what it actually looks like.
Should I use fitness trackers?
Make them optional, never required. For participants who want one, point them toward free tools that fit the theme: Strava for walking, running, and biking; Apple Health or Google Fit for steps; Komoot for hiking routes; or built-in phone sleep tracking for recovery week. A text reply counts just as much as a screenshot.
Which day gets the most engagement?
Friday photo check-ins consistently outperform every other day. They are low-effort to answer and create a visual thread that is genuinely fun to scroll. Give people permission to share something small: a step count screenshot, their water bottle, their walking shoes. According to SHRM, wellness programs see stronger results when they are social and visible. A photo thread delivers both.
How should we close out the challenge?
Make the finish line worth remembering
A strong close creates the story people tell about the challenge and makes round two feel worth doing.
Announce the winning team (if competitive)
Post results in #general and on LinkedIn. Give winners something tangible: swag, a team lunch, or a gift card. Make it feel like it mattered.
Give out MVP awards
Specific callouts land better than generic ones. “Most Creative Photo.” “Most Consistent.” “Best Hype Person in the Thread.” Use a special recognition category to make them visible to the whole company.
Send swag
Water bottles or tumblers are an obvious fit. Stickers work great for remote teams: cheap to ship and genuinely loved.
Take a group photo
Virtual or in person. Post it on LinkedIn and in #general. Small thing, lasting memory.
Send a feedback survey
Five questions: what worked, what they would change, favorite theme, would they do it again. Asking signals you care how it actually went.
Get the Full 6-Week Wellness Challenge Guide (Free)
The framework above gives you the structure. The guide gives you everything else: all 30 prompts organized by week and day, framing notes for the themes that need a little extra care, and a one-page overview of the weekly rhythm you can share with your team or leadership before you launch.
And if you want to run all of this, the daily prompts, the trivia, the employee pairings, the recognition moments, the surveys, without scheduling everything by hand, CultureBot handles it automatically inside Slack and Teams. The prompts go out on schedule, the shoutouts and recognition are built in, and the pairings take care of themselves.
Free Download
6-Week Workplace Wellness Challenge Guide
30 copy-paste prompts. Six inclusive themes. Zero fitness trackers required.
Want to see how CultureBot automates this inside Slack or Teams? Book a quick demo.
