Beat the Summer Slump: Keeping Wellness Engagement Hot All Season
Feel like your wellness programming has hit a summer slump?
Summer breaks routines. School’s out of session, calendars are a bit chaotic, and high temperatures make even the most motivated employee less inclined to move. Plus, if the same challenges, rewards, and messaging from January are running on repeat by July, your employees are more likely to tune out.
Summer is often when wellness fatigue becomes visible, but that doesn’t have to mean pressing pause on your wellness program. Make summer the season you lean into it by refreshing your approach with lighter, more flexible, and more social programming that aligns with how your team spends their summers.
What HR Leaders & Wellness Coordinators Can Do
1. Refresh Your Challenge Schedule
Running the same challenge format from January through December will naturally see decreased engagement over time. Introduce a new, themed challenge each month. Play into seasonality to keep things fresh.
2. Lean Into Flexibility
Employees are traveling, working reduced hours, or juggling childcare. Shorter, lower-commitment challenges (one- or two-week challenges instead of month-long ones) make it easier for people to participate even when their routine is disrupted.
3. Make It Social
Team-based challenges and leaderboards help keep remote workers and vacationing employees feeling connected to the group, even if they’re not physically in the office.
4. Change Up Your Communications
Your usual communications may not land the same way in July as they did in January or February. Consider lighter-touch reminders like a mid-summer newsletter or a quick “how’s your summer wellness going?” nudge.
5. Use Rewards to Re-Engage
Small incentives tied to summer-specific goals like hydration, daily steps, or even sun safety can be a low-lift way to pull disengaged employees back in.
6. Offer Virtual and On-Demand Options
Giving employees virtual challenge options and on-demand wellness content means they can stay engaged from a hotel room, a lake house, or their backyard.
Summer Wellness Challenges to Energize Your Team
Big results don’t require a big lift. Steady, small, & seasonal nudges are often all it takes to keep employees moving. Here are a few ideas:
- Hydration Challenge: Track daily water intake as temperatures rise. This is a simple challenge with low barriers that any employee can participate in.
- Labor Day 5K: Tie lightweight fitness to a seasonal holiday for a participation boost.
- Sun Safety & Skin Health Challenge: Promote sunscreen use, hat-wearing, and shade breaks with a habit-tracking challenge.
- Water-Based Activity Challenge: Reward activities that keep employees cool and moving, like swimming laps, paddleboarding, or kayaking.
- Family Fitness Weekend: Encourage family-friendly activity goals to boost participation among parents balancing summer with kids at home.
- Stress Reset Challenge: Support employees as school schedules return and workloads ramp up with a challenge focused on stress management and mindfulness.
(Looking for more seasonal inspiration? Check out our Winter Wellness Challenge Ideas for a year-round view of how to keep programming fresh in every season.)
Don't Let Summer Slow You Down!
The summer slump is predictable. But it’s not permanent. A few small shifts in how you challenge, reward, and communicate with your team can keep momentum going all season long.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does employee wellness engagement drop in the summer?
Employee wellness engagement usually drops in summer due to vacations, new routines, hot weather, and simply more scattered schedules. Programs that don’t refresh their content seasonally also see more participation fatigue midway through the year.
How can HR teams keep wellness programs engaging during summer?
HR teams can boost wellness program engagement with themed monthly challenges, virtual participation options, social activities and feeds, and integrating small rewards or incentives.
What are good summer wellness challenge ideas for employees?
Popular summer wellness challenge ideas could include hydration challenges, outdoor step challenges, sun safety challenges, water-based activity challenges, and family fitness challenges. Rotating a new themed challenge each month also helps reenergize your workforce and see better ROI.