Staff get in training for Scottish Challenge

Motivating and rewarding staff is essential to developing a healthy work balance and the 2008 Microsoft UK Challenge sees 130 teams from top UK businesses converging in Stirling, Scotland between the 11th and 15th June to test themselves against each other and develop skills important within the work environment.

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Certain key competencies are widely recognised as holding the key to boosting performance in business. Communication, planning, stress and time management, initiative and motivation are all used by Challenger World, organisers of the Microsoft UK Challenge, to test & develop top business teams in this, the flagship event of the Intelligent Sport World Series. Renowned for top results and energising staff, Intelligent Sport events focus in on these critical skills, placing executives and CEOís in an alien setting to develop and build new bonds and lines of communication.

ìBy putting teams through demanding physical, strategic and intellectual tasks, Intelligent Sport helps individuals and teams work on many levels which can be transferred directly into the workplaceî, comments Challenger World Managing Director Andrew Finan. ìWorking with big corporations for over a decade has helped our course directors create situations which test employees in ways they would never be tested in the office. Intelligent Sport stretches teams to look for different problem solving and coping techniques whilst also helping to build new bonds between staff.î

Microsoft has been the title sponsors of the UK Challenge for eight years and is now one of the largest entrants of teams into the event. This year a total of nine Microsoft teams will compete, including teams that are made up of Microsoft staff, partners and representatives from the NSPCC, Leonard Cheshire and AbilityNet. The value of creating new channels of communication is priceless which is why many of the Microsoft teams contain members of staff ranging from graduates to senior executives.

Dave Gartenberg, director of HR at Microsoft UK said: ìWeíre delighted to have nine teams compete in the Microsoft UK Challenge 2008. We support our teams every step of the way, particularly through our flexible working policies, as they train, compete and fundraise. In the last eight years, in which time weíve raised more than 3m for the NSPCCC, weíve also found that the participants benefit enormously, and bring new communication and collaboration skills back into the workplace, along with the adrenaline rush of competition.

Understanding that not all aspects required to create a united and motivated workforce can be tested either mentally or physically, the Microsoft UK Challenge also places a large emphasis on helping others and that is why fundraising is a core activity the teams in the event undertake. The NSPCC is the official event charity and last year the teams taking part raised over 500,000 for the charity.

Matt Guy, Fundraiser at the NSPCC states: ìEvery year, the Challenger teams invest the full range of their skills, talents and energies into the competition, raising crucial funds for the NSPCC through sponsorship. We are grateful to have as many as 117 committed and hard-working corporate teams on the side of vulnerable and cruelly treated children.î

2008 also sees the Microsoft UK Challenge teams benefit from the presence of England Rugby legend Rory Underwood MBE. Challenger World have teamed up with Rory Underwood M.B.E and his partners John Peters and Martyn Helliwell at UPHltd. UPHltd are a team of high performance coaches who come from different background but have excelled in each of their individual areas.

ìThe Microsoft UK Challenge is a fantastic team building event. Itís exciting and challenging, it encompasses the ethos of teamwork and builds team spirit over four daysî, comments Underwood. ìCompetitors will get the chance to share experiences they wouldnít get from their everyday working environment. They will learn more about each other in four days than they would from a year together in the office.î