Alveo’s 360km Company Challenge – An Employee Story

March 26, 2021 Antje Haberkern

It has been one year that our offices have moved into our employees’ homes. We work now on our dinner tables, ‘temporary’ desks setup in our bedrooms and some lucky people in their offices at home. Modern technology lets us talk and see each other whenever needed, and we are doing very well working remotely. No more lengthy commutes to undertake or chatty colleagues interrupting our train of thought. But something was missing! Without the daily commute, step counts decreased dramatically, and there have been so many people we haven’t talked to in ages. The only person I meet by my coffee maker these days is my husband and he is out working most of the day.

And how about the new starters who joined us this past year? We haven’t met yet because they aren’t in our department or directly involved in our projects and activities.

However, all changed when Alveo organized a global company challenge. The brief was straightforward. Sign up, join one of the international teams and move until your team reaches 360km (225 miles) to raise money for the teams chosen charity. Once the group hit their goal distance of 360km, Alveo would donate €1,000.00 to the team’s charity. Very ambitious groups could earn their charity a bonus payment of €1,000.00 when reaching 750km (466 miles) and 1,000km (621 miles).

The result was astonishing! A total of 8,346 km (5,186 miles) were run, walked, paddled and cycled. The teams raised €18,000.00 for various charities ranging from big global to great local causes (see below for complete list). Everyone reached their goal of 360km; our winning team clocked up an impressive 1,822km! The most significant contributor to the challenge, not part of the winning team, cycled 651km by all weathers through most of the Netherlands’ north.

However, the biggest gain was us taking a break, being active and healthy, talking to each other in our cross-continental groups, chatting to colleagues we have long not seen and spoken to and meeting some of our new colleagues. Let’s keep the momentum going and continue moving and talking to each other more often…. and giving back to our communities.