Quote
Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body; it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.
- John F. Kennedy
Here's a statistic that should be on every HR dashboard in 2026: 66% of U.S. employees reported feeling burned out in some form over the past year, and 72% are now operating under moderate to very high stress at work, a six-year high according to the Aflac WorkForces Report. The cost is brutal. The American Journal of Preventive Medicine puts the price tag at $3,999 to $20,683 per employee per year, with 89% of that loss coming from presenteeism rather than absenteeism. If you want to reduce employee burnout with wellness challenges that actually move the needle, the good news is that the research is finally clear on what works. The catch? Most companies are doing it wrong.
Here is the question a finance partner will ask the first time a wellness program shows up in the budget: what do we get back? The answer, increasingly, is a number that finance leaders cannot ignore.
Here's a number that should give every HR leader pause. A 2025 systematic review of more than 40,000 workers found that sedentary work raises the odds of mental health issues by 34%, with some models pushing that risk as high as 85%. Add in a 37% jump in insomnia symptoms from a separate 10-year study, and the picture gets uncomfortable fast. The truth is, sedentary work health risks aren't a fringe concern anymore. They're a measurable drag on your workforce, your healthcare costs, and your retention numbers. The good news.
Discover the step-by-step process of setting up a new step challenge using DistantRace. Embark on this exciting journey with us.
- John F. Kennedy
The leaves are turning, the calendar is sliding toward year-end, and most HR teams are watching the usual fall problems unfold.
Picture this scenario: two of your senior product managers spend 45 minutes locked in a windowless conference room debating a roadmap.
Here's a number that should worry every People Ops leader: only 31% of hybrid workers and just 23% of fully remote workers say they feel engaged at work, according to recent workforce research.
Here's a number that should land hard for any small business owner: the RAND Corporation's 2025 Workplace Wellness Review found that small firms running low-cost wellness programs see $1.
If you've been asked to launch a step challenge at work and you've never run one before, here's a number that should make your week: a 2025 CoreHealth Technologies analysis of more than 500 corporate programs found that themed step challenges boost participation by 30 to 50 percent compared with basic step counting. Even better, Motion Connected's 2025 case study of a distributed hospital system hit 85 percent participation with a simple office-to-office virtual tour format. The catch.
Only 21% of employees reported being actively engaged at work in 2024, according to Gallup data analyzed by CoreHealth Technologies.
Pacer is a familiar name for individuals tracking daily steps on their phone, and many HR teams have wondered whether the same brand can power a serious workplace step challenge.