Wellness challenges are so much more than a fun break from the workday. If you execute them right, they can be a smart way to boost morale, build healthy habits, and strengthen team culture.
The right challenge can spark real change without feeling forced or complicated, whether your team is remote, in-office, or hybrid. In this guide, we’re breaking down the best employee wellness challenges your team will actually enjoy, plus tips to make them a success.
And if you’re looking to simplify the process, employee wellness software (like Teamupp) can help you launch, track, and manage everything without the admin headaches.
Let’s dive in and get your team moving!
Our best 33 employee wellness challenges to boost happiness and health
Here are some of our favorite employee wellness challenges to boost employee engagement:
Step challenges for in-office and remote employees!
Walking challenges are hands-down one of the easiest ways to boost wellness, create a sense of shared goal-setting, and get your teams moving. Step challenges help bridge the physical gap and build engagement across the board, whether your employees are hybrid, remote, or entirely on-site.
Here are our favorite wellness challenge ideas that will engage your team and make them happy!
Challenge 1: 10K a day- company step challenge
This challenge is quite simple. You ask your employees to hit 10,000 steps a day over a 4-week period. You can run this as individuals or in small teams. The daily goal is simple but adds up fast, and people love healthy competition.
You can add weekly leaderboard shoutouts, surprise incentives (like a wellness hamper), or even team badges.
Best for: Large teams, hybrid or remote setups
Price: You can easily organize and gamify such wellness challenges for employees with Teamupp at just a few cents per employee!
Tip to organize:
If you want your office fitness challenge to be practical, consider syncing it with free step-tracking apps (like Apple Health or Google Fit) or go pro with Teamupp, which integrates all the tracking, team boards, and real-time leaderboards in one place.
No messy spreadsheets. No “I forgot to log it” excuses!
Challenge 2: Around the world virtual team trek
Let your team “walk” from London to Tokyo or New York to Sydney to add an engaging twist to traditional step challenges. Assign a total step goal and turn it into a global adventure. You can add fun milestones like virtual postcards or trivia when they “reach” Paris or Cairo.7
Best for: Your distributed remote teams who need a shared goal will love such a challenge.
Price: You can easily organize such a challenge for your remote or hybrid team with Teamupp starting at just a few cents per teammate.
Tip to organize:
You must remember that your goal is to make the challenge not seem overwhelming and attainable. The best way to ensure this is to break the global route into smaller weekly goals.
With an employee wellness platform like Teamupp, you can map the journey and use in-app updates to show progress visually. It’s super motivating, and your team will just love it!
Challenge 3: Walk & talk weekly step pair-ups
In this interesting challenge, you pair employees randomly for a 30-minute “walk and talk .”You can even do this challenge with your remote teams, where two members chat on their phones while walking.
It’s low-pressure, builds social ties, and encourages a midday movement break. All of which is crucial for remote employees who might feel disconnected from the team over long periods of isolation.
Best for: This is an excellent initiative if you are looking for cross-department bonding and reducing screen fatigue
Price: You can use Teamupp check-ins to make this challenge fun and easy to organize. At just a few cents per employee, the employee wellbeing platform is one of the most effective tools for setting up and executing such office wellness challenges.
Tip to organize:
Encourage people to schedule this during a regular break or a low-meeting time. Use Teamupp to automate pairings and track who completes each week’s walk. The intuitive and easy-to-use dashboard of Teamupp wellness app will make follow-through a breeze!
Health challenge to emphasize the company’s priorities
If your company values wellbeing, resilience, and a balanced lifestyle, show it through focused health challenges that align with your mission.
These are great for internal branding and boosting trust with your team.
Challenge 4: Hydration nation challenge
In this simple yet effective office fitness challenge, you can encourage your employees to drink a set amount of water daily. Typically, around 2–3 liters. Aim to run it for at least 21 days to help build a lasting habit.
Best for: If your team works for long hours or is engaged in screen-heavy jobs, this challenge can be a simple yet effective way to boost their health and inculcate a great habit.
Price: You can track it for free using spreadsheets or use wellness apps like Teamupp.
Tip to organize:
If you want to improve engagement, offer reusable water bottles or tracking stickers. It will help your task transform into a shared goal, which is more fun and engaging for your employees.
Just don’t push excessive water intake, and remember everyone’s needs are different.
Challenge 5: No junk January (or any month!)
Healthy employees are happy employees, and nothing ruins your employees’ health like junk food. In the Winter Challenge, your team members cut back on processed snacks, sodas, and fried foods for 30 days.
Your goal in this office weight loss challenge should be to focus on making mindful swaps, not strict dieting.
Best for: Promoting mindful eating and better office snack habits
Price: Free
Word of caution:
It is best to avoid language around weight loss or calorie-cutting. You don’t want your employees to feel that they are being judged based on their eating habits. Keep it about energy and nourishment, not numbers or shame.
Challenge 6: Know your numbers challenge
It’s a great way to encourage your employees to schedule basic check-ups and know their blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose numbers. You can also offer support materials and possibly partner with a local clinic.
This office weight loss challenge is an investment in their health, and if you execute it correctly, your employees will feel that they are cared for, improving their engagement.
Best for: Companies emphasizing preventive care and health awareness
Price: Varies. You are looking at ~$25–$50/employee for optional screenings
Tip to organize:
The most important thing you should remember while organizing such an office fitness challenge is normalizing the conversation. You can even consider offering optionality to improve participation. Some of your teammates may be uncomfortable sharing any personal medical info, even anonymously. So, the last thing you want them to feel is pressured.
Challenges to integrate new hires and pass on a culture of health
Starting strong matters. These employee wellness challenge ideas help new employees feel welcome while introducing your company’s wellness-first culture.
Challenge 7: Wellness onboarding bingo
Create a bingo card with wellness activities (e.g., take a 15-minute walk, attend a wellness webinar, meditate, meet someone from another department) in this challenge. You can play this “wellness Bingo” with your new hires and ask them to check off each box in their first 30 days.
Best for: New hire cohorts or mixed small teams
Price: Free to a few cents/employee with printables or digital cards
Tip to organize:
The biggest challenge of organizing such a challenge is to make it light and fun. You can celebrate completions with a shoutout or a small reward like a lunch voucher. It will make your new teammates feel welcome and valued.
Challenge 8: Buddy walk and wellness chat
It is a great way to make your new hires feel at home. Pair new employees with a “wellness buddy” for a casual 20-minute walking chat (virtual or in-person). This activity will help break the ice, encourage movement, and is very simple, and best of all, free to organize!
Best for: New hire mentorship and hybrid teams
Price: Free
Tip to organize:
You might want to rotate buddies weekly or biweekly to keep things fresh. Also, encourage open-ended prompts like “What helps you de-stress at work?” to guide conversation naturally.
Challenge 9: First 30 days self-care goal setting
The first month is filled with the biggest challenges for your new hires. You can ease them into the organization’s culture by organizing this activity. Ask new hires to pick one personal self-care goal (e.g., walking daily, eating breakfast, reducing screen time). Check-in after 30 days as part of their onboarding review.
Such activities will help your new hires set realistic goals around their health and help them achieve a better work-life balance.
Best for: An activity like this is great for instilling a habit-building mindset early on in your employee’s journey.
Price: Free
Tip to organize:
When you organize such a challenge for your new employees, emphasize that the activity is not about performance but personal wellness. You should also consider offering them a few goal ideas to get them started.
Photo-based wellness challenges
Photo challenges are a great, low-effort, high-engagement format that you can use to boost your employee morale. These employee wellness challenge ideas encourage creativity, accountability, and some healthy FOMO.
Plus, they’re easy to organize and track, especially with Teamupp’s group boards and challenge updates.
Here are a few office wellness challenges you might want to try out:
Challenge 10: “My physical activity of the day” photo challenge
This activity can come in handy if your employees need a bit of push and motivation to keep moving. Employees post a photo of themselves being active each day for 10 days. It could be a walk, yoga, a weekend hike, anything that gets the body moving.
Best for: All teams, especially remote
Price: You can start this incredibly engaging challenge with Teamupp at just a few cents per employee.
Tip to organize:
Use Teamupp wellness app to create a challenge board where everyone can upload their daily photo. Add fun emojis, reactions, and comment threads to keep the vibe upbeat and inclusive. Remember, the goal is to encourage physical activity and not to judge your teams.
Challenge 11: “Low-carbon commute” photo share
If you want to promote sustainability and eco-friendly practices in your organization, try this incredibly engaging challenge.
Ask your employees to share a daily or weekly photo of their sustainable commute. It can be them walking, cycling, carpooling, or taking the train to work. Anything but solo car rides. Create a leaderboard using Teamupp and get a bit of a competition started!
Best for: It can be a great initiative for your hybrid employees that promotes eco-consciousness and
sustainability.
Price: Get started for just a few cents per employee with Teamupp
Tip to organize:
Offer digital badges or weekly spot prizes for creativity. For instance, you can reward the “best view on the way to work” photo. It’s easy to scroll through everyone’s entries and even vote anonymously with Teamupp, making your job easy and the challenge interesting.
Challenge 12: “What’s on your plate?” weekly photo thread
Healthy eating is a bedrock of good health. You can create an interesting challenge around healthy eating by inviting everyone to snap a photo of a healthy meal or snack they’ve enjoyed one day a week.
You can even theme it (Meatless Mondays, Rainbow Plate Thursday, etc.). This keeps your employees engaged and motivated. You can even consider having a “picture of the week” by creating polls within an employee wellbeing platform like the Teamupp app.
Best for: Such a challenge can really go well with themed wellness initiatives like wellness weeks.
Price: Just a few cents per employee with Teamupp, you get everything you’ll need to create a fun and engaging challenge.
Tip to organize:
Make it inclusive. Remember, “healthy” means different things to different people. Encourage diversity of food choices, and don’t center the conversation around calorie counts or diets.
Icebreaker wellness challenges
Need your team to warm up to each other without the awkwardness? These wellness-based icebreakers offer a connection with a purpose. And no, you don’t need trust falls either!
Challenge 13: My go-to energy boost challenge
The best way to break the ice between your team members is to find something common. In this task, each team member shares their favorite way to re-energize (e.g., playlist, stretch, snack, quote).
You can compile the responses into a shared doc or group board. It can be a great conversation starter and help break silos and promote camaraderie.
Best for: Kicking off wellness month or new team initiatives
Price: Free
Tip to organize:
You can keep the challenge creative and low-pressure by encouraging photos, voice notes, or even short videos.
Challenge 14: Two truths & a wellness lie
It is just like the classic icebreaker but with a wellness spin. It can be a fun way to get to know your teammates and instantly put them at ease in the new environment.
Ask one of the participants to say three things related to wellness, like “I’ve run a marathon, I meditate every morning, I hate smoothies.” Teammates guess which one’s the lie.
Best for: It’s a great initiative if you have a small team or are kicking off new projects with a new team.
Price: Free
Tip to organize:
Keep it inclusive by giving a few example prompts beforehand. You should also avoid any topics tied to body image or illness.
Challenge 15: Mood tracker Monday
Mondays are challenging as they are, and when you are new, they can feel even more so. In this activity, you can ask each team member to use a simple emoji or phrase to describe their feelings each Monday.
No deep dives, just a gentle weekly check-in. This will keep the activity light, breezy, and more fun and enjoyable for your teams.
Best for: Remote teams or mental health kickoffs
Price: Free or a few dollars/team for template tools
Tip to organize:
The goal of this activity is to normalize that it’s OK to feel off. It will also be better to keep participation optional and never use it to judge productivity. This is about team empathy and connection more than anything else.
Nutrition challenges focused on encouraging healthy eating habits
Nutrition wellness challenges for employees can be fun and meaningful, but need a careful approach. The focus should always be on energy, enjoyment, and nourishment, not restriction.
Here are our favorite nutrition-based office fitness challenges that work very well, whether your team is on-site, remote, or hybrid:
Challenge 16: Add one plant a day
Adding more veggies is always a welcome change in your diet. In this challenge, ask each team member to add at least one plant-based item to their daily meal for 21 days. It can be anything from vegetables, fruits, legumes, herbs, or nuts.
Best for: Building sustainable, healthy eating habits
Price: Free
Tip to organize:
Ask your employees to share what they added and why they liked it. Keep it positive and flexible. Make sure to communicate that there’s no “wrong” plant!
Challenge 17: Meal prep Monday
Employees share a snapshot or short description of one healthy meal they’ve prepped for the week each Monday. It’s a great way to swap recipes and tips and get your team to eat healthy.
Best for: Such a challenge can be a great way to help if you want a structured approach towards healthy eating for your busy team.
Price: Free or ~$1–2/person for prep templates
Tip to organize:
Offer sample templates or video links to get people started. Ensure no one feels judged. This is inspiration, not a competition!
Challenge 18: No sugar week (or just one sweet a day)
According to National Geographic, limiting sugar intake can improve your body within days! You can ask your team members to reduce added sugar for 5–7 days, either cutting it out or limiting it to one treat a day.
Remember to tell your team that the goal is awareness, not perfection. Occasional slip-ups are okay, and the challenge is not about rewarding or punishing.
Best for: Short-term reset or awareness-building
Price: Free
Word of caution:
You should avoid running this challenge alongside weight-loss messaging. These wellness challenges for employees should focus on energy, mood, and balance, not restriction or guilt.
Are you interested in contributing to employees’ daily wellness?
Mindfulness challenges to address mental health
The mental wellness of your team members is just as important as physical health. These mindfulness office wellness challenges help your employees slow down, refocus, and reset—together.
Challenge 19: Five-minute mindfulness break
Ask your employees to take five minutes each day for two weeks to breathe deeply, stretch, or sit quietly. You can use a daily check-in or reminder to help them stay consistent.
It might sound like a small activity, but it can greatly impact your team’s productivity and mood.
Best for: High-stress teams, customer service roles
Price: Free or ~$2–3/user if using meditation or employee wellness software access
Tip to organize:
Make this a team effort. Try “silent starts” to meetings or Slack-wide quiet hours. Share calming audio links or prompts for variety. Doing all this will improve engagement and keep things light and fun.
Challenge 20: Gratitude journal streak
Ask your employees to write down one thing they’re grateful for every workday for two weeks. They can keep it private or share one a week with the team.
Best for: Remote teams or individuals managing burnout
Price: Free
Tip to organize:
Offer printable or digital journaling templates. Also, avoid making it a requirement. Gratitude practices are powerful, but only when they feel authentic.
Challenge 21: Mindful nature walks
Walking amongst nature soothes you. Employees take a short walk outside and pay attention to what they see, hear, smell, or feel. Run this once a week for a month and share reflections via chat or a photo thread.
Best for: It’s a great employee wellness challenge if your team needs a break from screens
Price: Free
Tip to organize:
To keep the activity gentle and focused, offer reflection prompts like “What surprised you today?” or “What color did you notice most?”.
Financial wellness challenges: educational resources about money
Helping your team members manage their financials can also be a great way to improve their wellness. Here are a few challenges that you might want to try out.
Challenge 22: Money moves Monday
Share a small, actionable financial tip with your team every Monday for a month. Tips like setting up a savings goal, unsubscribing from impulse-buy emails, or checking your credit report are great options. Employees can reflect privately or discuss what worked.
Best for: If you want to promote financial literacy without overwhelming your team
Price: Free (or minimal if bringing in a guest speaker or coach)
Tip to organize:
Keep it bite-sized and pressure-free. Also, you should avoid asking people to disclose their income or debt. Remember that the activity is about empowerment, not exposure.
Challenge 23: Expense tracking challenge
A great way to improve your employees’ financial health is to help them track their expenses. Over 14 days, employees track their daily spending. No judgments, just patterns.
At the end, offer optional prompts for reflection: “What surprised you?” or “What felt worth it?”
Best for: These wellness challenge workplace ideas help your employees build long-term awareness around spending
Price: Free
Tip to organize:
You can use this as a lead-in to a budgeting workshop or financial planning session. Pair it with anonymous team-wide insights (e.g., common spend categories).
Challenges to promote personal and environmental health
You can also create workplace wellness challenges, specifically promoting your team’s personal health.
Creating smart office wellness challenges like the following can also help you club other issues like environmental health to such initiatives.
Challenge 24: Low-waste living week
Challenge your employees to reduce single-use plastics, bring their own lunch containers, or repurpose one item a day. Great way to kick off Earth Month or eco-focused initiatives.
Best for: Sustainability-conscious organizations
Price: Free
Tip to organize:
Offer a simple checklist or printable tracker. Celebrate even small changes. This one’s all about awareness and ripple effects.
Charity challenges to support good causes
According to Harvard Business Review, corporate philanthropic initiatives can help improve employee morale and give your business a competitive edge. Here are a few challenges in this category that are very effective:
Challenge 25: Steps for a cause
For every 1,000 steps walked by your team, donate a small amount to a chosen charity. Over a week or a month, this can add up to meaningful support and movement.
Best for: Remote or hybrid teams wanting to combine wellness and impact
Price: Free to run; optional donation pool
Tip to organize:
Let employees nominate and vote for the cause. Public recognition for team milestones keeps motivation high.
Challenge 26: Give back bingo
You can transform the beloved Bingo game into a charitable initiative. Create a bingo board of simple charitable actions like donating food, helping a neighbor, picking up litter, etc. Plan it so that each member in your team completes 5–10 squares over two weeks.
Best for: Community-focused companies with diverse interests
Price: Free
Tip to organize:
The best way to organize such an event is to avoid competitive scoring. You can also use Slack threads or internal channels for people to share what they did.
Vacation exploration challenge for meaningful time off!
You can turn vacation or time off into a valuable team-building event. Here are a few examples of getting it done:
Challenge 27: Vacation reflection share
When someone returns from vacation, ask them to share a moment, photo, or insight from their time off. It creates a connection and helps fight burnout stigma.
Best for: It’s a great initiative if you’re looking to normalize time off and improve your work-life balance
Price: Free
Tip to organize:
Make this optional and casual. Think of this challenge as a “Vacation Vibes” channel where people can post memories when they return.v
Sleep challenges to boost health
Sleep is an important part of both your physical and mental recovery. Here are a few workplace wellness challenges that you can use to improve healthy sleeping habits:
Challenge 28: 7-Day sleep routine reset
For seven days, team members commit to a consistent bedtime and wind-down ritual (no screens 30 minutes before bed, stretching, journaling, etc.). It’s a simple yet effective way to encourage a healthy habit.
Best for: Anyone feeling overworked or wired
Price: Free
Tip to organize:
Offer science-backed resources or simple trackers. Emphasize better sleep = better performance—not just more hours in bed.
Creative expression challenge to cultivate creativity
If you are looking for an employee wellness challenge to boost creativity amongst your team members, here is an initiative you can try:
Challenge 29: Doodle or sketch of the day
Each day for a week, ask your team members to doodle something random (a tree, a word, a mood). They can share it or keep it private.
Best for: Breaking monotony and sparking joy
Price: Free or low-cost with supplies
Tip to organize:
Create a no-judgment zone and remind people that stick figures count! It’s about fun, not talent.
Digital detox challenges to recenter
It’s important to switch off from time to time and recharge your batteries. A digital detox can be a welcome effort that will engage your employees and contribute to their overall well-being.
Challenge 30: One app-free evening
Employees delete or disable one non-essential app (Instagram, email, etc.) a few evenings a week to reclaim attention and time.
Best for: Your screen-fatigued or ‘always-online’ teams
Price: Free
Tip to organize:
Offer journaling prompts or team reflection check-ins: “How did your brain feel without the scroll?”
Communication challenges: wellness in words
Open, healthy communication is the lifeblood of any team, but it doesn’t always come naturally. These challenges are designed to help employees connect, express themselves, and practice empathy in a low-pressure, engaging way.
Think of them as mini exercises in emotional intelligence with real impact.
Challenge 31: Say It Saturday
Once a week, ask your employees to share one kind thing about a teammate. It can be in a dedicated Slack channel or part of weekly meetings.
Best for: Building trust and appreciation
Price: Free
Tip to organize:
Model vulnerability and authenticity from the top down. Keep the tone light and genuine.
Social challenges to boost cohesion
Work friendships matter. When your teammates feel they belong, they’re more engaged, productive, and motivated.
These employee wellness challenges are about building trust, sparking conversations, and creating shared experiences, whether your team works together or miles apart.
Challenge 32: Team show-and-tell
Each week, a team member shares something personal, like a hobby, recipe, playlist, or object that matters to them.
Best for: Breaking silos and sparking conversations
Price: Free
Tip to organize:
Rotate through departments. This can be done asynchronously or as a 5-minute add-on to team calls.
Happiness challenges
Wellness isn’t just about steps and smoothies. These happiness-focused challenges aim to shift your team’s mindset, nurture gratitude, and promote small daily actions that boost emotional well-being because a happier team is healthier.
Challenge 33: One joyful thing a day
For 10 days, team members do one thing just for joy, like listening to music, dancing, or calling friends. You can also allow your participants to share their experiences on a common team-wide forum or photo-sharing app.
Best for: Mood boosts and habit-building
Price: Free
Tip to organize:
Frame this as a micro-habit with macro impact. Tiny joys add up.
Office wellness challenges for remote employees
Remote work has its perks, but also brings isolation, blurred boundaries, and screen fatigue. That’s why if you are planning employee wellness challenges for your distributed teams, you should focus on connection, structure, and small, repeatable habits.
Your goal should be to build community and support mental, physical, and emotional health, no matter the time zone.
These challenges work exceptionally well for remote and hybrid teams:
- Random coffee chats: Casual 15-minute chats between colleagues to spark a human connection
- One joyful thing a day: Encourage employees to do something daily that lifts their mood
- Tech-free power hour: A daily hour without screens to recharge
- Inbox kindness notes: Weekly positive messages between teammates
- Vacation reflection share: Share stories or photos post-PTO to normalize meaningful time off
- Hydration + stretch challenge: Build structure into the day with water + movement breaks
These challenges are simple, flexible, and made for remote life.
5 tips to create an employee wellness challenge
Launching an employee wellness challenge at work is a great move to boost productivity, morale, and overall employee experience. But before you dive in, a little strategy goes a long way.
Here’s how to set your challenge up for success:
1. Set clear objectives
What do you want the challenge to accomplish? Is it about movement, mental health, team bonding, or all of the above?
Define your goals upfront to shape the experience of your teammates.
2. Define the “why”
Your employees are more likely to participate when they know the purpose. Be transparent and upfront about the ‘why,’ whether it’s improving morale, reducing burnout, or encouraging healthier habits.
3. Read the room
Consider your company culture and people’s current energy levels before deciding on any specific employee wellness challenge. A step challenge might work wonders in spring but not during crunch time or holiday burnout.
4. Choose an engaging theme
Make it fun. A catchy name, playful format, or creative twist keeps your team invested. Themes like “Move for Your Mood” or “Hydrate & Celebrate” go a long way.
5. Get help
Don’t do it all yourself. Tools like Teamupp make organizing and tracking employee wellness challenges super easy. Plus, they boost participation with automated nudges and visual leaderboards.
Plan smart, launch with purpose, and watch your team thrive.
What’s the ideal duration for a wellness challenge?
The sweet spot for most worksite wellness challenges is between 2 to 6 weeks. This duration is long enough to create a meaningful habit but short enough to keep energy and motivation high.
A two-week challenge works well for focused themes like hydration, sleep, or gratitude. If you aim for more behavior change or competition (like a step or nutrition challenge), lean toward 4 to 6 weeks.
The key is to match the duration to your goal and then clearly communicate the timeline.
Workplace wellness challenge: free tools
You don’t need a big budget to run a wellness challenge; you just need the right tools.
Here are a few of our free favorites to get started:
- Google Forms: Perfect for gathering sign-ups or asking pre-/post-challenge questions
- Google Sheets: If you want to track progress manually or with team submissions
- Canva: Design fun posters, digital badges, or leaderboards
- Slack or Teams: Create dedicated wellness channels for updates and sharing
- Trello: Organize milestones and tasks for more extended challenges
These simple tools will help you create a big impact while engaging your team and keeping your workplace wellness challenge fresh!
If you need more help organizing and executing worksite wellness challenges, the Teamupp wellness app can be a great asset.
Book your free Teamupp demo today to get started!
Are you interested in contributing to employees’ daily wellness?
