Metro Bank, the high-street challenger bank, has revealed the results of its month-long ‘team walk’ challenge during March.
The walks, aimed at improving colleagues’ mental and physical health, were organised by the bank’s real estate finance team, who set themselves the challenge of walking 500 miles as a way of getting outside and taking a healthier lunch break.
Not only was the target reached, but it was also smashed. The team reported that during the 31 days of the challenge, a total of 1,715 miles was walked, which equates to 4,091,311 steps.
The number of steps walked was the equivalent of walking from the UK to Iceland and back again, or a round trip to visit more than half of Metro Bank stores across the UK.
David Riggs, commercial relationship manager at Metro Bank, came top of the leader board, completing around 516,000 steps. Meanwhile team mates, Ben Collins, Arinze Ukwuoma and Paul Glanville all completed more than 450,000 steps.
The walking challenge comes on top of a number of wellbeing initiatives that the bank has recently introduced.
All staff have free access to mindfulness app, Headspace, while last year Metro Bank also created its own bespoke health and wellbeing hub. This comprises a central online space where employees can access tips and share advice about how to look after their physical and mental health.
Commenting on the number of steps completed, challenge organiser Louise Hayward-Ray, a commercial analyst at Metro Bank said: “As we approached the final full month of the lockdown, we knew we needed a distraction from our desks, so we introduced the challenge of walking 500 miles as a team during our lunch breaks.
“We are thrilled that we were able to reach well beyond our target, hitting 1,715 miles in the month. We’ve loved moving every day and are now looking at what our next challenge will be.”