Global Challenge-Final: COSMO CONSULT teams circle the globe six times

There are many initiatives for employee health and the fact that companies are increasingly committed to the physical and mental health of their employees shows clearly that in the case of work, performance and success--in every entrepreneurial activity--it is the people involved that are the most important factor. However, not every initiative strengthens team spirit, and not every program motivates the participants to stick with it over the long term. This is where the basic idea of ​​the Virgin Pulse Global Challenge comes in: teams of seven employees each embark on a virtual 100-day trip around the world.

Together with their own colleagues and in a spirit of friendly competition with other teams, the participants follow their progress through an activity tracker and work towards a daily goal of 10,000 steps. As they do, they explore new places along the virtual journey via the web and smartphone app, exchanging their ideas in community forums with the prospect of gaining additional trophies. "The participants' feedback has been extremely positive," said Kim Helmig, COSMO CONSULT's personnel manager and initiator of the program there. "And this is certainly due to the fact that the Global Challenge does not focus on performance and competition, but the achievement of a goal, curiosity about the unknown and the fun of exploring that unknown in a team."

At the end of the journey, we now know for sure what we could already see coming over the course of the Global Challenge: The COSMO CONSULT teams from Europe and Latin America have together traveled a distance that would have taken them around the world six times. Employees took over 13,000 steps per day on average, an impressive daily amount. Especially the Spanish colleagues were on a run in the truest sense of the word: Significantly over 15,000 steps per day represents an extraordinary performance. In addition to Peru, Sweden, Chile and France, five teams from Germany are in the top ten most active participants - a remarkable and impressive achievement.

Our final congratulations for the overall distance traveled goes to the team with the distinctive name "#eatmydust" from Berlin, which was uncontested at the top with over 8,700 kilometers traveled in the end. Two other German teams follow them in the rankings: "The fast and the furious" from Münster as well as "Die Schrittmacher" from Nuremberg, each with a no less impressive contribution to the overall result with over 8,000 kilometers distance covered. Just below the 8,000-kilometer mark were "Sevenapps" and "TIPI-TAPA" from Spain, which took the fourth and fifth places. In total, the 42 participating COSMO CONSULT teams covered a distance of 238,000 kilometers, burning 15 million calories - which is equivalent to over 30,000 large burgers, 90,000 glasses of wine and a remarkable 60,000 pieces of cake.

"The Global Challenge demonstrates in exemplary fashion how dedication, team spirit and a willingness to master a challenge motivate people to get the best out of themselves," said Uwe Bergmann, CEO of the COSMO CONSULT Group and himself a participant in the program. COSMO CONSULT sponsors many other initiatives to promote employee health internally. As a flagship project, the Global Challenge has raised awareness of the issue and motivated many colleagues to remain active, also with an eye to the future. "It is always about pursuing a common cause that is worthwhile", adds Uwe Bergmann. "Promoting the health of our employees is definitely worthwhile, and therefore the congratulations are due not only to the winners, but also to the colleagues from all our international locations who took part in the Global Challenge. The real winner is the health of our employees."