Bringing employees together through a sports game

Preparations

We found out that Microsoft was running a cycling competition, and we wanted to organize a challenge like that at our company too. Above all, we wanted to see how the organization would react to this kind of competition.

We are a very sporty company: we used to rent a hall to play football, we have sports cards, and in the past we had a very strong ski team.

For many of our employees, cycling is a passion and a way to spend their free time, so we knew we had experienced cyclists on the team.

Recently, a lot of young people who are into many different sports have also joined our team, so we were looking for something that people of different ages would enjoy. Usually our initiatives come from the employees themselves; we had never organized such a big campaign before.

The biggest surprise for us were the participants themselves. We often heard stories about rides at 11:50 p.m. just to overtake a rival. And the best proof that the game worked was that even after the competition ended, people kept choosing the bike as their way to get around - Paulina Szyszka, challenge coordinator

How the challenge went

From the very first announcement, employees were very engaged. We used all the promotional materials from Activy. The posters were personalized (in our company colors) and hung in every corner of the office.

Participants talked in internal groups, but most of the interaction happened at 9:00 a.m. by the showers, where employees compared their morning results and checked the rankings in the app.

Starting the day like this definitely improved the mood and the atmosphere in the office.

The most hooked were people who had not taken part in earlier sports initiatives. Many of them had never cycled to work before.

Employees were surprised themselves at how much they got into the competition and into cycling. That is why after the first month of the competition, apart from prizes for the winners, we prepared a cycling kit for every player: a water bottle, a buff and a towel.

At the end of the challenge, all participants received personalized cycling jerseys.

I was so into the game that I even got on my bike on my wedding day, so I would not lose my streak and the bonus points. It shows how much the app helps build the motivation to ride every day - Klaudia, challenge participant

Results

The competition worked: employees started to change their commuting habits, choosing bikes instead of cars, and those who lived far away combined public transport with city bikes. To our surprise, the competition was won by an employee who had never cycled to work before.

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