What’s the best way to engage employees, increase productivity, induce positive culture and cultivate collaboration? If you’re a Canadian business, the answer is the distinguishing factor between a thriving workforce and a revolving door.
In the shifting sands of evolving workplaces, businesses are facing unique challenges to build structures that embrace employees’ individualities and needs. Philanthropic efforts are being implemented by successful businesses to engage employees, build brand integrity, and create positive change for people in their communities, but how else can it help?
The JDRF Revolution Ride to Defeat Diabetes presented by Sun Life Financial has an answer.
Actually, they have 5.
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JDRF Revolution Ride to Defeat Diabetes Presented by Sun Life Financial
The JDRF Revolution Ride to Defeat Diabetes is a high-energy stationary cycling event taking place in cities across Canada. This event challenges Canadians to go further to defeat diabetes. Whether it’s a 10-minute ride or a 60-minute endurance challenge, participants will be put to the test to help find a cure for type 1 diabetes (T1D).
1. Addressing the increasingly dynamic workplace
A study by Regent Canada indicates that 47% of Canadian employees work from outside their employer’s main offices for half the week or more. Employees working remotely face a greater challenge absorbing a company’s values for one simple reason: less time in the office equals less time to be engaged.
The Revolution Ride creates the flexibility needed to be inclusive of all employees. With the option of a virtual ride (or vRide), anyone can participate remotely at anytime from anywhere in the world, whether it’s a spin studio down the street or a hotel gym; this means employees in Vancouver can compete with their Halifax branch as easily as if they were riding side by side.
Click here to learn more about the vRide.
2. Identifying qualities of effective team-building
Successful team building eliminates barriers, embraces equality, and promotes positive interactions that generate valuable opportunities for employees to forge real relationships tempered by comradery and trust.
The Revolution Ride integrates all participants, from executives to office clerks, into an atmosphere that brings everyone onto the same page and working towards the same goal. It’s the optimal environment to enrich a great team dynamic and help businesses build new foundations on which their team can grow.
3. Eliminating self-interest to conduce effective networking
The purpose of networking is jeopardized when self-interest overrides the notion of building real relationships. The Revolution Ride restores effective networking by creating an organic opportunity to connect and communicate with likeminded individuals in a collaborative setting. While 1 team member rides, the other 4 will be cheering them on alongside 40-plus teams doing the same, creating a social environment that induces high-spirits and friendly competition.
The customizability of JDRF’s Ride format makes it easy for everyone to participate. For example, a small law firm putting together a team of 5 employees to participate in the Ride10 would mean closing up shop for the day. So instead, invite 4 clients and turn team-building into networking. Or, let’s take someone who works for an IT department within a bank. Bankers might not be this person’s ideal candidates to network with, so the IT employee can switch time slots and ride in the tech sector.
4. Using social corporate responsibility to align employee and company values
Employees need a higher sense of purpose through their work, and smart businesses ensure they find it. Employees with a sense of purpose stay longer and are instrumental in attracting and retaining prospective employees. According to Forbes, 50% of millennials would take a pay cut to work somewhere where their company’s values align with theirs. Businesses can create these alignments by tackling corporate social responsibilities.
The Revolution Ride is an opportunity to stand proudly on the upside of change. Businesses that identify with philanthropic efforts not only define their brand as compassionate, they strengthen their relationships with their employees and the public. The Revolution Ride taps into an employee’s sense of purpose and puts them in the driver’s seat to generate positive change.
5. Addressing employee health as a staple of success
Maintaining the quality of employee health is a priority for all recruitment strategists because it directly impacts performance and company culture. Employees want to work where they feel valued, so businesses being considerate of their employees’ health is a critical step in retention. The Mental Health Commission of Canada states that absenteeism related to mental health costs Canada 6-billion dollars per-year. The takeaway is that businesses need to create supportive environments that their employees feel good about coming to work in.
The Revolution Ride thrives because it’s inclusive and provides a physical, fun outlet for riders that is more social than athletic. The supportive and encouraging nature of participants year after year is what continuously attracts diverse groups of people to come together to be physically active while challenging themselves and each other. Businesses can take advantage of this positive atmosphere to instill health as a staple of their company culture, promoting the importance of physical and mental wellness in an environment that is free of judgment and full of positivity.
About Type 1 Diabetes:
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease in which a person’s pancreas stops producing insulin. Insulin is a hormone that enables people to get energy from food. T1D isn’t caused by our lifestyle choices. There is nothing anyone can do to prevent it, and at present, there is no cure. It can affect both children and adults and lasts a lifetime. For these individuals, symptoms can only be addressed with the use of insulin.
Over 300,000 Canadians live with type 1 diabetes, and the national average incidence rate has been growing at an estimated 5.1% per year. Approximately 250 individuals will be diagnosed with type 1 diabetes this week – 50 per day in Canada. JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) tackles the challenges of type 1 diabetes by hosting events to raise funds for vital research into treatments and finding a cure. The support of you and your colleagues will help us turn type 1 into type none.
By joining the JDRF Revolution Ride to Defeat Diabetes, your team will be raising awareness and funds to search for a cure. Register your team today.
