85 Creative step challenge prize ideas to fit any budget
Planning a step challenge as part of your corporate wellness program is a great way to motivate your teams and encourage them to embrace healthy habits. Whether it’s a step challenge for charity or to improve your team’s wellbeing, these challenges are fun and provide a competitive atmosphere where your staff can get active, bond, and achieve fitness goals together.
One of the best ways to create enthusiasm, and engagement, and encourage participation is to add the element of step challenge prizes.
In this article, you’ll find some creative step challenge prize ideas that can fit into your budget. From budget-friendly tokens of appreciation to more significant rewards, you’ll find options for all your staff members.
How to build a reward strategy
Before you decide on prizes for your step challenges, you should develop a meaningful reward strategy. It’s more than just giving things away after the challenge. They should be an important part of the motivation process.
A well-planned reward system will help boost your employees’ morale, increase their participation, and make the whole challenge more engaging and meaningful. Here are the steps to build an effective reward strategy:
- Set goals and determine what the step challenge should achieve.
- Identify what drives your team, such as monetary rewards, recognition, etc.
- Determine a prize budget that works for your company.
- Decide on the prize tiers so you can offer different rewards for different achievement levels.
- Determine the criteria for winning. These must be simple, fair, and achievable for everyone.
What is your prize budget?
While working on your reward strategy, think of your budget. This should be something your organisation can afford.
Consider this: step challenge prizes don’t always need to be expensive to have a significant impact.
Sometimes, thoughtful or personalised prizes can carry more meaning than flashy ones. For example, custom items such as medals, trophies, or branded water bottles may have more sentimental value than a generic gift card.
How many winners will you reward?
Deciding how many people or teams you want to reward is another crucial part of building your reward strategy. Are you recognising just the top performer, the top three, or multiple categories of winners? This can vary depending on the type of challenge you’re hosting.
When teams are involved, the scope changes. If your step challenge includes teams of different sizes, you could add a mystery prize to add excitement while allowing for flexibility. You can plan ahead with several prize options and adjust the reward based on the number of people in the winning team.
Setting prize qualification criteria: Who deserves to win?
Winning a step challenge doesn’t have to be solely about who records the most steps. It’s often a good idea to reward additional factors such as teamwork, engagement, and consistency. For instance, recognising the team with the best walking team names could add a fun and creative element to your challenge.
Other prize-worthy behaviours include staff members who maintain steady participation throughout the event or those who motivate their colleagues along the way. Social engagement, like posting updates or sharing progress on internal platforms, could also be recognised.
Creating multiple ways to win will keep the competition exciting and inclusive.
Monetary vs. Non-Monetary Prizes: Which motivates best?
For step challenge prize ideas, both monetary and non-monetary rewards can be great. However, it’s a good idea to consider your organisation’s culture or your employees’ preferences, as these can influence the type of prizes that will work best.
Monetary prizes like gift cards or cash rewards are generally appreciated, but non-monetary prizes like custom trophies, wellness days, or extra vacation days can have more impact. Additionally, your staff members may appreciate fitness challenge prize options that support their self-improvement and wellness.
Want to organise a step challenge?
85 Step challenge prize ideas
With your reward strategy ready, it’s time to decide on specific step challenge prize ideas for your team. We’ve put together different walking challenge prizes, categorised according to prices, to help you find the best rewards for your team’s event.
Prizes Under £20
Even with a modest budget, you can offer your employees prizes that are both useful and motivating. Below are some budget-friendly step challenge prize ideas:
- Branded Water Bottles: This will encourage them to stay hydrated. It is eco-friendly since they’re reusable, and you can customise it with your company’s logo or the employee’s name.
- Fitness Resistance Bands: This is very useful for at-home workouts and can help to promote your employees’ ongoing fitness.
- Personalised keychains: They can be custom-made with motivational quotes or the employee’s step challenge milestone.
- Healthy Snack Boxes: Healthy snacks you can include are nuts, dried fruits, and granola bars.
- Portable Phone Stand: Handy for keeping phones in view during virtual fitness classes or tracking steps.
- Branded T-Shirt: Although simple, it’s a practical reward that can promote great team spirit.
- Cooling Towels: These are lightweight and stay cool for hours. They’re perfect for post-exercise cooling down.
- Step Counters (Pedometers): Your team members will love getting digital pedometers for their step challenges!
- Personalised Medals: Give your employees custom medals to celebrate their achievement in the challenge.
- Eco-friendly Tote Bags: These reusable bags are made from sustainable materials and can be used for gym gear or groceries.
- Infuser Water Bottle: Water bottles with fruit infusers are great for encouraging hydration, even for those who don’t like drinking water.
- Jump Ropes: This is a simple and fun gift that can encourage the receiver to keep moving, even after the challenge.
- Socks with Inspirational Quotes: Choose those with cool positive affirmations or even fitness-related quotes.
- Pocket Notebooks: They can use this to write their fitness goals or daily reflections as they complete daily challenges.
- Yoga Blocks: They are affordable and practical.
- Hand Grip Strengtheners: These small, easy-to-use devices work to improve hand strength and reduce stress. They’re thoughtful gifts that your employees will appreciate.
- Mini Foam Rollers: These are great for post-workout recovery.
- Customised Badge Pins: You can create fun, motivational pins as badges of honour. It can come with inscriptions like “Step Champion” or “Fitness Warrior.” Your employees will definitely love this.
- Handheld Fan: This small, battery-powered fan is great for post-exercise cooling.
- Portable Phone Chargers: This is another practical gift. It keeps your employees’ phones charged while tracking their steps on the go.
- Fruit or Veggie Spiralisers: These are fun kitchen tools that encourage healthy eating habits by turning vegetables into spirals for salad.
- Mindfulness Colouring Book: This is meant for stress relief and relaxation. Your team will love it!
- Fitness Journal: They can use this to track workout, meals, and their fitness progress.
- Workout Playlist Subscription: This gives your sporty employee access to music for their workouts. They’ll definitely enjoy this a lot.
- DIY Spa Kit: A thoughtful gift, this comes with simple ingredients for a relaxing spa day at home.
£20 to £50 Prizes for step challenges
If you have more to spend, the following good prizes for step challenge can offer a great balance of value and excitement. We’ve grouped them into categories to make it easy for you to choose.
Work Perks:
1. Extra Day Off: A day of paid leave to reward winning employees for their efforts.
2. Gift Card for a Local Café: Treat them to a coffee or lunch at a nearby café.
3. Office Parking Space for a Week: Provide a reserved parking spot for a week.
4. Upgrade to Premium Office Software: Offer winning employees premium features for apps like Slack or Microsoft Teams.
5. Desk Plants: To add a touch of greenery to their workspace. You’ll get a cute one for $25.
6. Ergonomic Office Chair Cushion: To support comfort at the office. It costs about $30 on Amazon.
7. Work-from-Home Setup Voucher: To improve their remote working environment.
8. Personalised Desk Organiser: To keep their workspace tidy. You can get a quality one for $34 on Amazon
9. Subscription to a Professional Magazine: To support their career development.
10. Custom Nameplate for Desk: To add a touch of professionalism to their workspace.
Recognition:
1. Customised Trophy or Plaque: A symbol of achievement.
2. Employee of the Month Award
3. Shout-out in Company Newsletter
4. Spotlight in a Social Media Post
5. Personalised Medal with the winning employee’s name and accomplishment.
6. A cosy customised hoodie branded with the step challenge logo or slogan.
7. A framed certificate of achievement.
8. Branded company jacket
9. Virtual recognition badge for use on LinkedIn or company profiles.
10. Custom achievement wall plaque featuring the winning employee on the office’s wall of fame.
Experiential prizes for step challenge:
1. Cooking class voucher for an interactive cooking class.
2. Spa day gift card. You can get an eGift card on Amazon for $50.
3. Movie ticket for two
4. Escape room experience to promote teamwork and mental sharpness.
5. Indoor rock climbing passes to a local climbing gym.
6. Concert or show tickets.
7. Guided hiking tour
8. Stand-up paddleboarding lesson to introduce them to a new sport.
9. A year-long museum or cultural institution membership
10. Cooking at Home subscription box.
Lifestyle prizes for step challenge:
1. Fitness apparel like yoga pants, jackets, or running shorts. A 3-pack of men’s athletic sweatpants costs $35 on Amazon.
2. High-quality insulated water bottle
3. Gourmet coffee or tea set
4. Subscription to a meal delivery service
5. Luxury skincare set
6. Noise-cancelling Earbuds
7. Personalised leather journal
8. Travel pillow set – a set costs $28 or less on Amazon.
9. Bluetooth speaker – you’ll get a pair for $40.
10. Fitness magazine subscription.
Wellness prizes for step challenge:
1. Massage therapy gift card
2. Yoga mat set
3. Home workout kit
4. Healthy smoothie blender
5. Sleep aid kit
6. Fitness tracker
7. Air purifier – a good quality one costs around $38 on Amazon
8. Nutritional consultation
9. Guided meditation subscription
10. Herbal tea set.
Learning & development prizes for step challenge
1. Online course subscriptions like Coursera or Udemy for skill development
2. Fitness coaching session
3. Language learning app subscription
4. A year-long MasterClass subscription
5. Career development books
6. Fitness & nutrition books
7. Leadership workshop pass
8. Productivity planner
9. Paid Health & wellness webinar
10. Audiobook subscription
Finding the right step challenge prizes is more than just rewarding the winners. It’s about encouraging your staff members, promoting healthy behaviours, and building team spirit. Reading to start planning your next step challenge? Get creative with the above step challenge prize ideas and encourage your team to reach new fitness heights!
Want to organise a step challenge?
