Celebrating Hard Work With Healthy Competition
Our culture is defined by our core values. Among them: Be Yourself.
One opportunity for employees to be themselves and have a little fun during the workday is our annual employee-driven event, CoverMyOlympics.
During the week-long team-building event, hosted each fall, employees participate in friendly, somewhat-quirky competition that fosters connections and promotes inclusivity.
“The mission of CoverMyOlympics has always been about unplugging, having a little fun and meeting new people,” said Michael Bukach, senior manager of employee engagement. “The internal social connection allows everyone to shine. It is an equal playing field.”
To better understand CoverMyOlympics, we look back to 2013 when it all began. Creative conversation and some brainstorming at the lunch table about the company’s next fun event sparked an organized competition, which soon became known as CoverMyOlympics.
The goal: to get employees out of their traditional workflow to engage with people who they may not normally interact with throughout their workdays.
Players compete in a lively match of office chair fútbol.
Originally, CoverMyOlympics included events like a spelling bee and a race around the office building. As the company has grown, the games have evolved. The number of participants has grown over time as well.
This year, about 400 CoverMyMeds employees competed in events including dodgeball, rock-paper-scissors, a staring contest and office chair fútbol – a version of soccer where players must stay seated in a rolling office chair and scoot around instead of running. Another event, The Amazing Race, is designed to connect colleagues from both of our Columbus office locations. Teams compete in a relay race to see who can make the journey between the two downtown Columbus office locations the fastest.
Embracing our Be Yourself core value, one team in this year’s Amazing Race put their own spin on the event. Some team members laced up roller skates while others hopped on scooters to make the journey, stopping at Columbus landmarks along the way. After a pit stop to refuel with coffee, they visited the location of our new campus in Franklinton. Two hours and 13 minutes later, the team crossed the finish line and celebrated with a champagne toast – fitting with their team name: Champagne Miranova.
Team “Champagne Miranova” celebrates with a toast after finishing the Amazing Race.
CoverMyMeds employees who work remotely are also included in CoverMyOlympics through virtual games. Remote competitions, added in 2018, include an intense five-minute typing contest that measures both speed and accuracy, and Arkanoid, an original arcade-style Nintendo game.
CoverMyOlympics is also inclusive of our colleagues in our Highland Hills office. There, our team enjoys competitions ranging from Pop-A-Shot to archery (don’t worry, we use a suctioncup bow and arrow for safety). Another game that is unique to our Highland Hills office is “Bearing,” an event where the goal is to see who can keep their composure the longest under strenuously-funny scenarios.
“I was really impressed at the level of strategy that people went to in order to break the other team’s bearing,” said Dave Shah, a software developer who helps organize CoverMyOlympics in our Highland Hills office. “The group that won sang to throw off the other team. They got really into it and it was like they were performing on stage.”
Check out photos from this year’s CoverMyOlympics on Facebook and Instagram. To learn more about our culture, visit [our website] (https://www.covermymeds.com/main/careers/best-place-to-work/).
