645 Santander’s employees Santander Bank Poland proved that cycling is not just sportsmen’s thing.

Company:
Santander Bank Poland
Description:
Until 2018 Bank Zachodni WBK; one of the biggest banks in Poland in terms of the asset value and the number of branches.
Industry
BankingNumber of employees
11 000Office
Branches around Poland
Goal
Health and sport promotion among employees
645
employees34948
rides3
months of competition70
teams61%
rides to work97 tons
of saved CO2387 000
kilometers3
supported charitiesSummary
With our project we complemented Santander’s long lasting internal program ‘Zdrowie na Bank’ which had been interesting mostly for already active people. ‘Bike to Work’ contest engaged 645 employees (not just athletes!) and beat with this all previously organised there activities. Out of all registered by our application bike rides in Santander 61% were the commutes. The charity turned out to be a huge motivator for the users - during three months of the project we achieved it twice!
Challenge purpose
In the place where health topic has been around for years, implementing another sports program is a big challenge. Well, just until you find a bigger one! Together with Santander we set as our goal to engage these employees who had not been exactly interested in physical activity. We focused on connecting everyone - professional riders, road hogs and those who can’t even remember when was the last time they rode a bike.
„I am the best example here. I brought a bicycle from my hometown and started riding. On weekend instead of car I was choosing bike to catch up to others in the ranking.”
Grzegorz Słowik
DIRECTOR OF THE EHS OFFICE SANTANDER BANK POLANDBefore the start
One of the 'Zdrowie na Bank' program assumptions is: ‘be active’. That is why both rules and the goal of our activity were caught on pretty fast. Santander shared our promotional materials on company’s intranet so everyone got to know when the competition started. To integrate employees even more we’ve split them into teams - attendees were encouraging their workmates to join the competition. Finally we got 75 teams which were competing on two levels at the same time: inside and between each other.

During the challenge
We found Activy being effective not both as an separate program and an element of already existing company’s strategy. For Santander we connected it not only with ‘Zdrowie na Bank’ but also ‘MyBenefit’ program by adding its points as one of the prizes. Thanks to user friendly application everyone could join this competition, whatever the age or previous bike-using rate. As the project was happening during the company’s rebranding we decided to support the onboarding system. Integration with spanish bank inspired us to create a special tasks for the players, e.g. ‘Who’s first to Madrid?’ with a recognition for a team who would move 3000 km as the first one.
„You guys hit home with this idea. This activity made me fulfill few goals same time: do something good as volunteer, improve my fitness, play with my workmates and finally lose some weight - it seemed to be impossible :) Thank you!”
Simon P.
AtendeeResults
We made it! Sportsmen were not the only ones getting to the office by bike anymore - people who had not been interested in physical activity joined them. Even public transport lovers and drivers willingly switched to cycling. The action was happening in all the Bank’s offices around Poland. Due to outstanding attendees engagement in three months we managed to support two child care homes. It is hard to say who was happier at the end: kids or Santander’s employees who were giving them bikes purchased for the prize.
95%
wants to take part in next edition
79%
feels more efficient at work thanks to commuting by bike
74%
is motivated to commute by bike more often