EquipmentShare Goes the Extra Mile—930,000 Miles, to be Exact—in Promoting Employee Health with Wellable Employee Wellness Challenge in 2020

Workplace wellness programs and perks are not new concepts when it comes to attracting and retaining talent at corporate businesses. Today, employees expect to be offered benefits that help them build and maintain healthy lifestyles, and often, it’s a deciding factor in the job selection process—especially for millennials and those entering the workforce. Employee wellness programs are mutually beneficial for both staff and employers. If your company wants to keep its employees happy, healthy and engaged, then wellness should be a top priority in your recruitment and retention strategies and in how your business is operated on a daily basis. 

EquipmentShare walks the walk when it comes to employee wellness. Based in the center of the country, EquipmentShare is a growing construction tech company with a mission to solve contractors’ problems and accelerate productivity. At just six years old, the company currently employs more than 2,000 team members across the country. These team members are of varying backgrounds, experiences and mindsets, and all have different ideas of what constitutes a healthy lifestyle. Like most other ploys to pique one’s interest and institute change, there is something to be said about how a good, old-fashioned contest can motivate the human spirit. 

In 2020, EquipmentShare launched an Employee Wellness Challenge to encourage employees to better themselves and their health. Using Wellable, a mobile app that educates, engages and tracks company health and fitness efforts throughout the year, EquipmentShare again harnessed data to accelerate productivity and help others adopt change. What started as a friendly competition with one particular employee and his coworkers, turned into an overall lifestyle change for not just Delivery Driver Chris McKinley, but his son, as well.

“My son came to me and said he wanted to join the U.S. Navy,” McKinley, who’s based at EquipmenShare’s Little Rock, Ark., branch, said. “‘Dad mode’ kicked in, and I decided we needed to make a change for both of us. We made a deal to help each other get healthier. I set a goal to lose 40 pounds, and he set a goal to lose 50. I knew this wouldn't be easy, but we started exercising every day after work, no matter what time it was. Our 30-minute walks turned into hour-long walks and weight lifting. It was great for any parent of a teenager who doesn't get as much quality time with their kid as they used to. We also changed the way we ate. That was maybe the hardest part of getting healthy!”

McKinley and his son lost a combined 65 pounds, which made him the winner of the challenge and the recipient of a grand prize of $5,000. Watch the video of him receiving the surprise announcement that he’d won the challenge here. 

“The wellness challenge gave me the motivation to not only concentrate on my own health and wellbeing but also my child’s,” McKinley said. “I feel better, physically and mentally. The new year will be a continuation of a happier, healthier me for years to come!”

Collectively, the EquipmentShare team logged enough steps to take nearly 38 laps around the earth, ran a whopping 930,000 miles and checked into Wellable to track their activity nearly 35,000 times! Now, that’s getting some steps in. As a result, team members were awarded more than $35,000 worth of gift cards and over 1,200 hours of paid time off.

“The program was voluntary, so we were thrilled when more than half of our staff participated in logging and tracking their healthy habits, such as exercise time, nutritional information and more, through Wellable,” Danielle Schlacks, wellness champion and member of the executive leadership team at EquipmentShare, said.

The latest wellness challenge makes EquipmentShare not only a company dedicated to leading in the construction tech space, but also one that views employee wellness as a foundational component for its overall success. atest wellness challenge makes EquipmentShare not only a company dedicated to leading in the construction tech space, but also one that views employee wellness as a foundational component for its overall success. 

“I think it's great that EquipmentShare empowers its employees to make our personal health as high of a priority as we can,” Eli Marchbanks of EquipmentShare’s Customer Experience team said. “Good health practices, whether they are for physical, mental or emotional health, are important to me, and I've never had an employer be this supportive of that.” Marchbanks took second place in the contest and won a $2,000 prize.

“This was all about our employees taking time for themselves and creating habits that would set them up for a lifetime of health,” said Schlacks. “Good health is truly a blessing. And like any other job, it takes work. We want our team to know we support their wellness journeys when they are on and off the clock.” 

EquipmentShare employee Jessica Heisler put the time and effort in to prioritize her health and received third place in the challenge, taking home a $1,000 prize.

As EquipmentShare kicks off its 2021 Wellness Challenge, one thing is for sure: Our employees are determined to better themselves, their families and their communities, and we will always make it our priority to reward and celebrate them for that.