By Virginia Leonard, Senior Manager, Total Rewards
As a global organization, with Cerence team members located everywhere from Seattle to Tokyo, finding ways to unite our team with exciting initiatives that create meaningful connections is one of our most important priorities. From our Global Wellbeing Week – a bright spot for our team at the beginning of the pandemic, especially the Cerence Olympic Challenge – to our Employee Appreciation Week at the end of 2020, we’ve loved watching our team come together virtually for moments of celebration and fun.
Employee wellness is also a critical piece of the puzzle. Now more than ever, it is so important that we take the time to take care of ourselves, moving our bodies and, as an added perk, personally connecting with our colleagues in the process. Taking our Cerence Olympic Challenge to the next level, we recently launched a four-week “Step it Up” challenge, aimed at encouraging employees to get their steps and movement in and using the Wellable platform to track activity and report results. Hundreds of our employees around the world participated, organizing into teams by business unit or function for some friendly competition. This competitive spirit united us, as we stepped, cycled and moved our way to a hopeful win for our respective groups, we also had the added benefit of carving out time for some much-needed self-care. In the end, our global sales team came out on top, earnings bragging rights over their colleagues. But in reality, we all won: together, Step it Up challenge participants traveled a collective 63,789 miles!
So, what’s next? Based on employee feedback, we’ll soon launch an individual challenge, encouraging our team members to exercise their minds and bodies as they compete against each other and get motivated to meet and beat their personal goals. My favorite part? Seeing employees from across the globe compete, connect, and inspire and celebrate each other, finding ways to keep close even when we are far apart.
For more on what it’s like to work at Cerence, visit www.cerence.com/careers.