83 People for Walking, 7 for Photo Event | Where Do Participation Barriers to Health Challenges Come From?

📊 The reason there were few participants was not the walking, but the separate photo event.

When planning a health challenge, the person in charge naturally wants to add some fun elements. Walking alone might seem boring, and uploading photos would likely make the bulletin board look more lively. Therefore, they come up with a concept that combines the basic walking with a seasonal photo event.

However, looking at the actual records, the scale of participation in the two activities was quite different. At one IT company, there were 83 participants in the walking challenge and 7 participants in the separate cherry blossom photo event. Participating in the act of walking and selecting and uploading photos were not the same thing.

🔎 How many things do you have to do after pressing the participate button?

Walking allows you to continue activities you would normally do during your commute or lunch break. On the other hand, photo events involve separate actions such as finding a scene, taking a picture, selecting a photo, and uploading it. For employees who do not have the opportunity to see the flowers during the event period or feel burdened by the public disclosure of their photos, even these small procedures can be reasons to delay participation. This is not an individual reason for non-participation confirmed in operational records, but rather a hypothesis to be examined during the next planning phase.

Therefore, rather than concluding with “I wasn’t interested in the photo event,” it is more useful to break down the participation process. You need to distinguish whether they saw the instructions, understood how to participate, were able to prepare photos, and were aware of the sharing scope to determine what to change for the next event.

🛠️ What was confirmed in the Nudge EAP operation records and what to apply to the next plan

Nudge EAP recorded the results of participation in the company's walking challenge and a separate photo event, respectively. However, the announcement text, photo submission screen, and the number of reminders at the time were not confirmed in this data. The design below is not a review stating that performance improved after the changes were made, but rather a follow-up operational plan organized based on these results.

One aspect easily overlooked in practice is the moment when an optional event is perceived as virtually mandatory. Even if you put the walking announcement and the photo announcement on the same screen Separate the basic mission completion conditions, additional event participation conditions, and their respective rewards. You must do so. This is because even if the person in charge thinks they have explained it, the employee may perceive the event as only being complete if photos are uploaded.

🗓️ 5-Day Operation Example You Can Try at Your Company

For a short pilot program, it is advisable to first verify that the participation process is understood, rather than focusing on all employees achieving the same step count. The schedule below is not the company's actual timeline, but an example created by the person in charge for application in future planning. The goals and duration of existing reward-based challenges require separate consultation.

Try separating the reward budget for the two activities as well. Calculate the rewards for basic missions based on defined achievement conditions, while calculating them for optional events based on separately established participation and selection criteria. Suddenly changing the rewards for basic missions to increase photo participation can cause confusion among employees who have already joined. It is better to finalize the conditions before starting and, if changes are necessary, provide re-announcements regarding the implementation timing and reasons.

⚠️ Even the points that did not go well serve as data for the next planning.

One regrettable aspect of this record is that the participation in the separate photo event was limited to just seven people. However, there is no basis to conclude that the photo event reduced walking participation. If the goal was to encourage a walking habit, the results of the basic activities should be considered; if the goal was to share photos on the bulletin board, the results of the photo event should be evaluated separately. Different Not tying goals to a single standard of success or failure This is important.

Even a single comment from a participant can serve as a hint for future operations. For closing surveys, instead of just asking about satisfaction, try briefly asking about “what was confusing at the start,” “reasons for not holding additional events,” and “activities you would like to include again.” You may collect responses without names, and it is best to manage them separately from reward application information.

✅ Check just these four things before publishing

• ☐ Are basic missions and optional events separated?
• ☐ Can the conditions for completing participation be explained in a single sentence?
• ☐ Are there any restrictions on photo visibility and personal information privacy?
• ☐ Are you comparing different activities with the same denominator?

Before increasing participation rates, first check if there are any procedures that make participation difficult.

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This was written based on quantitative results contained in actual operational records of the IT industry. The reasons for individual participants' non-participation were not identified, and Causal hypothesis The subsequent operation examples have been edited and configured. Company names and personally identifiable information have been excluded.