“We believed people would feel more motivated if they were choosing a charity close to their heart.”
“We wanted to increase employee well-being and improve engagement within the company,” says Peter Boultbee, who handles plant operations for the OE Braking unit at Tenneco. “We got a team together across functions and sites to look at well-being and engagement, and one of the ideas that came out was a step competition to foster team spirit and having fun together while keeping healthy.”
Since Tenneco’s OE Braking business has 11 manufacturing locations and several Research & Development centers across Europe, China, and North America, they needed something that could work globally.
“That was not the easiest thing to find!” Peter laughs.
When they found Charity Miles, the team jumped into a three-month challenge called “Make Miles Matter – Together”. In total, employees moved an amazing 103,500 miles – more than four times around the equator.
Each employee chooses their charity to support, explains Sarah Theyer, the executive assistant organizing the challenge. “We believed people would feel more motivated if they were choosing a charity close to their heart.”
Supporting charities was an “added good thing that came out of it,” says Peter. “The aim was to get people active, working together, and engaged. The fact that we could also support charities was great.”
“The challenge also touches on our values of One Team, Make Tomorrow Better, and Will to Win,”
Tenneco’s OE Braking employees organized themselves into teams of eight for the Charity Miles challenge. That got people working together as a team while also adding some friendly competition, according to Peter.
“The challenge also touches on our values of One Team, Make Tomorrow Better, and Will to Win,” explains Paula Dolan, who leads HR for OE Braking at Tenneco. “We have the friendly competition and the charity aspect.”
Sarah adds that employees enjoy the competition: “They’re saying that they wake up and can’t wait to get on the app to find out whether they’re still at the top. And if they’re lower down the list because of someone in the same team or the same location, they try to beat that person.”
“Our most successful team is a team of bikers in Barcelona who go out and cycle several hundred kilometers each, which leaves everybody else behind,” Peter laughs. “It’s great to see them doing all that exercise.”
But the most important part isn’t the competition, points out Neville Rudd, Group Vice President, and General Manager for OE Braking. “It’s working together as a team to make a difference. We encourage everyone to join in, because everybody makes a valuable impact, no matter how many miles you do.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. #EveryMileMatters