Who doesn’t like to have fun, especially at work? One way to have fun and take care of our mind and body is to take a recess. Remember back to elementary school when we took a morning and afternoon recess. We ran around, played, stretched our muscles, socialized with friends, and got some fresh air. How about doing the same at work? Playing games at recess was fun as a kid and still is as an adult. Our goal is to look at self-care as fun and an integral part of self-wellness programs; thus, Get Your Recess Rolling was created.
Our goal is to look at self-care as fun and an integral part of self-wellness programs
Get Your Recess Rolling is a corporate wellness program designed to improve employee morale, fitness, motivation, productivity, and break up the 9 to 5 monotony. This is a win-win for the employee and the company. Studies show that micro-breaks or recess at work lead to increased performance through relaxation and socialization (Kim, Park, & Headrick, 2018).
We can inject fun into the workday by engaging individuals, promoting behavior change, and creating a culture of self-care. This can be accomplished by taking four recess breaks during the day and incorporating self-myofascial release techniques. Breaks are 5-10 minutes in length and engage the employee by using self-care tools for muscle compression, foam rolling, and self-massage. What if we take this one step further and make a game out of it?
Get Your Recess Rolling is the perfect way to gamify self-care at work. Individuals and/or teams are rewarded for participating in challenges.
Gamifying at work is on the rise and can promote teamwork, goal-focused activities, and team building by setting up group challenges (Larson, 2020). These challenges can be set up in both virtual and in-person settings. Get Your Recess Rolling is the perfect way to gamify self-care at work. Group challenges or reaching individual goals can promote intrinsic motivation (Johnson, Deterding, Kuhn, Staneva, Stoyanov, & Hides, 2016). The key to gamifying at work is the reward. Rewards are at the center of the Get Your Recess Rolling program. Individuals and/or teams are rewarded for completing rolling sessions, participating in challenges, and achieving goals.
So, what are you waiting for? Let’s Get Your Recess Rolling!
References
Bosworth, A. (2012). Keas: developing a successful game-based employee wellness program. Games Health Res. Dev. Clin. Appl. 1, 189–191. doi: 10.1089/g4h.2012.0020
Ferguson, B. (2012). Games for wellness—impacting the lives of employees and the profits of employers. Games Health Res. Dev. Clin. Appl. 1, 177–179. doi: 10.1089/g4h.2012.0023
Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and well-being: A systemic review of the literature. Internet Interventions. (6), 89-106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002
Kim, S., Park, Y., & Headrick, L. (2018). Daily micro-breaks and job performance: General work engagement as a cross-level moderator. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103(7), 772–786. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000308
Larson, K. (2020). Serious Games and Gamification in the Corporate Training Environment: A Literature Review. Tech Trends. 64(2), 319-328. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-019-00446-7
