Dubai Holding steps up for Global Corporate Challenge

The GCC, in its ninth year, is the world's leading corporate health initiative aimed at changing the behaviour and improving the health of employees. This virtual walking journey round the world promotes 10,000 steps per day as a way to tackle the growing epidemic of an obese and overweight global workforce.

In teams of seven, Dubai Holding employees will join 180,000 other employees from around the world to record their daily activity levels on the GCC website over the course of 16 weeks from May 24. These steps will be converted to an overall distance and the team's progress will be plotted along a virtual tour of the world. The more active the team, the further they progress and enhance their fitness levels.

"Sedentary and busy lifestyles can have a serious impact on overall health and well being," said Cedric Betis, Corporate Wellness Manager, Dubai Holding. "At Dubai Holding, we believe that workplace is an important platform to institute change in behaviour. We are committed to support our employees in their move towards a healthier lifestyle, which forms the backbone of our Wellness strategy. This commitment is demonstrated through our continuous support of the Vertical Marathon for a decade, the Dubai Marathon for six years and now the Global Corporate Challenge for the second year."

He added: "Last year, we saw tremendous enthusiasm from the participating teams as well as very positive health benefits for everyone accepting the challenge. We are confident that such sustained wellness initiatives will not only enable us to improve staff health and wellness but also promote teamwork and create a culture of healthy living across Dubai Holding."

In 2011 alone, 130,000 participants from 1,000 organisations participated in the GCC with Dubai Holding employees recording an average weight loss of 4.3 kilos. Since its establishment in 2004, over 500,000 participants across 2,500 organisations in 83 countries have benefited from the GCC.