Human Resources staff step up to a challenge

17 Mar 2014

During February, the 65 members of the Directorate of Human Resources took part in the ‘pedometer challenge’ devised by the Directorate’s Green Team.

This activity encouraged people to get fit, reduce their carbon footprint and donate to charity! Participants paid £3: after the cost of the pedometers was covered, there was a final balance of £67, which will be donated to Wood Street Mission.

Teams of three, four or five people were formed with the steps by the team averaged to a team size of four. Competition was fierce between the 16 teams, with some high steppers really throwing down the gauntlet. Different strategies were used to increase the number of steps, including walking to work, walking between the north and south campuses and not using the bus to reach the train station. Overall, the Directorate covered 8,416,309 steps – enough to walk to Azerbaijan and back.

The winning team came from the Pensions office with Helen Scott, Andrew Taylor and Paul Hirst covering a massive 920,699 steps between them: Helen was the star stepper with 422, 873 steps from her own two feet. Their prizes of Travel Guides to The City of Manchester will encourage them to walk even more and explore the city. A trophy was also presented in recognition of their achievements.

The picture shows the team’s trophy and books.