White Cross Vets has come up with another clever team-building initiative for its staff: giving them all a £50 contribution towards a new Fitbit and then holding a competition to see which of its teams logs the most steps.

60 veterinary surgeons, nurses and other team members from White Cross practices in Tividale, Guiseley, West Derby and Alvaston have formed 20 teams of three people, logging a total of 30,000 miles since the initiative was launched in February, or an average of 11,000 steps per team member per day.

James Harris MRCVS from White Cross Vets said: "We spend a lot of the day on our feet but really had no idea about the distance that we clock up. There are about 2,000 steps in a mile so we are walking more than five miles every day! We are always encouraging our clients to make sure their pets have a healthy lifestyle, so it’s great to practise what we preach.

"As well as the steps we take throughout the day many of us are also committed to sports and exercise regimes outside work and that has helped us to reach the top of the leaderboard for a few weeks. You might even find some of us marching on the spot to boost our step-counts and heart rates, so the Fitbit challenge is definitely keeping us active."

General manager Jo Jobling said: "We understand the vital importance of both physical and mental wellbeing, and our Fitbit challenge is a great way for our teams from across our 19 practices to work together to achieve a worthwhile healthy goal, as well as creating some healthy competition with colleagues in other practices. We also have an individual steppers league table which was recently topped by one of our veterinary nurses, Katie Rose from our Tividale practice. It might have helped that she completed a half marathon over that weekend though!"

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