Boost collaboration with these 10 HR-friendly initiatives for World Athletics Day

World Athletics Day, celebrated every year on May 7, began as an initiative by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to encourage youth involvement in sports. However, in recent years, the corporate world has embraced this day as an opportunity to promote health, wellbeing, and team spirit at work.

For HR leaders, this day is more than symbolic—it's a strategic touchpoint to reinforce workplace values like collaboration, agility, resilience, and camaraderie. Done right, a well-crafted Athletics Day activation can strengthen your culture, energise your teams, and promote healthier work-life integration.

Below are 10 practical, inclusive, and low-barrier initiatives that HR departments can roll out—across remote, hybrid, or on-site teams—to foster collaboration, communication, and cohesion.

1. Turn Your Workplace into a “Micro-Olympics” Arena

An Office Sports Day is an evergreen option, but it doesn’t have to mean only sprint races and tug-of-war. Reimagine the concept with inclusive and low-impact games such as:

• Balloon volleyball
  
  

• Indoor bowling using office supplies
  
  

• Ping pong tournaments
  
  

• Relay races with office-themed challenges (e.g., carry-the-coffee without spilling)
  
  

Encourage cross-department teams, fun dress codes, and even playful medals or trophies. The competitive element adds excitement, but the real win is the interdepartmental bonding that happens along the way.

Involve leadership—not just as judges, but as participants. Seeing managers join in reduces hierarchy barriers and boosts psychological safety.

2. Plan an Outdoor Adventure that Pushes Comfort Zones

Many workplaces overlook the power of off-site bonding. Activities like hiking, obstacle courses, or ropes climbing in a natural setting remove the distractions of the office environment and foster a more authentic kind of teamwork. These aren’t just adrenaline moments—they are trust-building experiences.

When colleagues navigate physical challenges together, they build shared memories and develop empathy that transcends work-related interactions.

Remote team adaptation: Offer virtual fitness challenges (e.g., most steps walked in a week, yoga streaks) and celebrate achievements via a live leaderboard.

3. Create a Kitchen Stadium: Cooking for Collaboration

The kitchen is often where the best conversations happen—why not bring that into the workplace?

A Team Cooking Challenge can be both creative and collaborative:

• Give teams a surprise basket of ingredients and limited time.
  
  

• Ask them to co-create a dish, assign roles, and present it to a judging panel.
  
  

• Offer prizes not just for taste, but for presentation, teamwork, and innovation.
  
  

This simple event creates organic collaboration and lets quiet voices shine in non-work contexts.

4. Leverage Purpose-Driven Collaboration: Volunteering Together

HR professionals increasingly understand that shared purpose is a powerful unifier. Use World Athletics Day to coordinate company-wide volunteering events that blend movement with social impact:

• Clean-up drives at local parks
  
  

• Tree planting events
  
  

• Charity walks or fun runs for a cause
  
  

These experiences allow employees to contribute to society while strengthening their sense of belonging at work. In hybrid settings, consider virtual charity challenges—like step count donations or digital fundraisers.

5. Host a Team-Building Workshop With a Physical Twist

Team-building workshops are common, but they often focus only on communication or trust falls. Instead, blend physical activity with problem-solving. For instance:

• Escape-room-style physical games
  
  

• Movement-based roleplay simulations
  
  

• “Build your own challenge” stations
  
  

These sessions sharpen collaboration, leadership, and problem-solving skills in motion, which is closer to how real-time decisions are made under pressure.

6. Bring Back the Office Olympics – With a Modern Upgrade

Themed around classic workplace elements, Office Olympics are a hit if they’re kept light-hearted. Ideas include:

• Ergonomic chair races
  
  

• Keyboard typing relays
  
  

• Paper toss accuracy contests
  
  

• Blindfold obstacle walks led by team directions
  
  

Gamifying everyday office items brings laughter, lowers stress, and encourages participation from even the least athletic employees.

Bonus: Create digital scoreboards or leaderboards and share photos on your internal channels or HR newsletters to celebrate team wins.

7. Run a Strategic Scavenger Hunt for Problem-Solving Fun

Scavenger hunts can go beyond fun—they can be powerful tools for strategic thinking. Design a workplace or virtual hunt that includes:

• Riddles that require knowledge of company values or recent wins
  
  

• Challenges that demand teamwork across departments
  
  

• Location or context-based puzzles that require collaboration
  
  

Scavenger hunts reinforce cultural touchpoints, break silos, and foster intellectual bonding.

8. Celebrate Talent with Skill-Sharing Circles

Let your employees be the heroes. Host “skill-sharing circles” where employees volunteer to teach their hobbies or niche skills to peers. Sessions could include:

• Photography 101
  
  

• Basics of a foreign language
  
  

• Origami or painting
  
  

• Personal finance tips
  
  

• Strength training or yoga
  
  

This creates multi-directional learning and promotes a sense of psychological safety, where employees feel valued not just for their job roles but for their full selves.

9. Embed Mental Wellness into Your Culture

Recognising the physical is incomplete without supporting the mental. Use World Athletics Day to launch Mindfulness and Stress Relief workshops:

• Invite experts to lead meditation or breathwork sessions
  
  

• Run group therapy circles or peer-support sessions
  
  

• Offer stretching or desk yoga classes
  
  

When wellness is weaved into your core activities—not as a one-off—it promotes sustained resilience and interpersonal understanding.

Functional Follow-up: Track employee engagement post-event and create wellness champions within teams.

10. Try Cross-Department Role Swaps (Even for Half a Day)

Understanding someone else’s workday can be transformative. Allow employees to “walk a mile” in another team’s shoes through structured role swaps or shadowing:

• A marketer spends the day with customer support
  
  

• A developer sits in on sales calls
  
  

• HR partners shadow operations team leaders
  
  

This initiative builds empathy, improves communication, and reduces friction in cross-functional collaboration. Pair it with reflection sessions to capture key learnings and improvement areas.

Bonus Idea

All these activities are more than one-day wonders. HR should implement post-event impact tracking. Gather feedback, measure pulse survey results, and identify where collaboration or morale improved. Celebrate not just the events, but the outcomes:

• Did absenteeism reduce the week after?
  
  

• Was there an uptick in peer recognition?
  
  

• Did employees request similar team-building more frequently?
  
  

Use these insights to refine your culture-building strategy for the rest of the year.

Whether you organise a large-scale event or implement one new initiative, the impact lies in how consistently you connect wellness, movement, and purpose with everyday work. In an era where engagement and well-being are business imperatives—not perks—HR’s role in championing such initiatives is more critical than ever.

So step outside, stretch a little, and reimagine how your teams can move forward—together.