Corporate challenge: how to launch an engaging contest?

Key points

Corporate challenges boost engagement by 25 to 40%, strengthen cohesion between sites and improve quality of life at work, whether your employees are on-site or working remotely.
With a SaaS platform like Eli, HR and internal communications departments can design, roll out and measure their challenges in real time across all their teams.
CSR, well-being and engagement initiatives become measurable thanks to concrete indicators: participation rate, time spent on missions, actions carried out by site or department.
This article offers a 5-step method and 3 turnkey challenge examples, adaptable from 50 employees up to multi-country organisations.

Introduction: what is a corporate challenge?

A corporate challenge is a fun, time-limited initiative built around clear objectives, game mechanics and rewards. The principle is simple: mobilise employees around a common theme—cohesion, well-being, CSR or performance—to create a measurable collective dynamic.

The current context amplifies the relevance of this approach. Since 2020, hybrid work has become firmly established: 40 to 50% of French employees work partially remotely according to INSEE 2025 surveys. The multiplication of sites, sometimes across several countries, makes it harder to build connections between colleagues. At the same time, QWL and CSR requirements are increasing with the progressive implementation of the CSRD directive in 2024–2025, pushing HR teams to quantify their initiatives.

In response to these challenges, HR and internal communications departments are widely adopting digital platforms. Companies that gamify their internal campaigns see a 32% increase in engagement according to the 2024 QWL Barometer, and 55% observe better talent retention.

This article guides you through the concrete benefits of a challenge, the different types of possible initiatives, a 5-step implementation method, how to use a tool like Eli, and ready-to-adapt examples.

Why organise a corporate challenge?

Organising a challenge serves a range of strategic objectives, from developing cohesion to improving performance. Here are the main benefits to highlight in order to convince your organisation to embark on this journey.

Strengthen cohesion between departments, sites and countries: inter-team formats create unusual cross-functional interactions. In challenges where people are mixed without prior selection, the sense of belonging increases by 25 to 30% according to post-event feedback.
Increase engagement and participation: a well-designed challenge boosts intrinsic motivation through recognition via badges and leaderboards. eNPS can rise from 45 to 62 points after a successful challenge, a sign of a clear improvement in the company’s overall atmosphere.
Improve quality of life and working conditions: well-being challenges (daily walking, active breaks, sleep) reduce stress by 18% according to ANACT 2025. These positive rituals naturally integrate into employees’ daily routines.
Support business objectives: team-based sales challenges increase call volume by 15% and foster collective productivity. They also stimulate creativity through crowdsourced ideas (quizzes, surveys, innovation contests).
Energise remote work and include isolated employees: 62% of remote workers feel better included thanks to mobile apps. Push notifications make it possible to reach people working off-hours, keeping the risk of exclusion below 10%.

The main types of corporate challenges to know

There are several categories of challenges depending on your objective and your organisation’s culture. Here are the most effective formats to consider for your programme.

Team cohesion challenges: digital collaborative games, live quizzes with an interaction rate of 50 to 70%, virtual escape games and serious games on company culture, in addition to best practices to strengthen team cohesion. These formats are ideal for connecting a Paris head office with regional branches or a European subsidiary.
Well-being and workplace health challenges: walking challenges (6,000 to 10,000 steps per day with an average participation rate of 65%), sleep, nutrition and active breaks. Inspired by programmes such as “Faites vos Jeux en Entreprise” from the FFSE 2025–2026 or initiatives like QWL Week 2026 and its innovative ideas, they reduce sedentary behaviour by 22%.
CSR and sustainable development challenges: reduction of office waste (up to -25% through eco-actions), sustainable mobility (carpooling, cycling), points converted into charitable donations. Building on innovative initiatives that combine business and sustainable development, these challenges directly address CSRD requirements and highlight the company’s commitment in its local area.
Sales and performance challenges: call, sales or customer satisfaction targets with collective rather than individual mechanics. This way of organising avoids toxic competition and generates a 12% increase in customer satisfaction.
Internal engagement challenges: participation in surveys (75% response rate), reading of strategic articles, completion of e-learning modules (80% completion) and submission of innovation ideas. These initiatives measure and strengthen buy-in to the company’s strategy.

Types of corporate challenges

Here are the main types of corporate challenges, their objectives and the associated key performance indicators:

Team cohesion challenge: The goal is to create cross-functional bonds between employees. This type of challenge can increase the sense of belonging to the company by more than 25%.
Well-being challenge: Its aim is to improve quality of life at work (QVCT) by reducing stress by 18% and increasing employees’ physical activity by 22%.
CSR challenge: This challenge addresses issues related to the CSRD directive, with objectives such as reducing waste (-25%) and promoting sustainable mobility (+30%), tracked using the best CSR KPIs to monitor.
Performance challenge: Designed to support sales objectives, it can increase call volume by 15% and customer satisfaction by 12%.
Internal engagement challenge: Its purpose is to strengthen employees’ buy-in to the company’s strategy, with survey participation rates reaching up to 75%.

Each type of challenge relies on specific indicators (KPIs) to measure its impact and adjust actions accordingly.

Designing an effective corporate challenge: the 5-step method

The success of a challenge essentially depends on how it is designed. Thorough preparation avoids the “one shot” effect and maximises the benefits in terms of engagement. Here are the key steps to follow.

Step 1: Define a SMART goal — Formulate a precise and measurable goal. For example: “80% of employees will have completed at least 3 wellbeing actions in 30 days” rather than “improve wellbeing”. This type of objective generates a proven +28% ROI on engagement.
Step 2: Choose the right format — Individual for small groups (<50 people), in teams or cross-site for organizations with 100+ employees. Take into account the remote work rate and the existing culture.
Step 3: Script the challenge — Plan a duration of 4 to 6 weeks with a weekly schedule of content and missions. The participation peak generally occurs in weeks 2 and 3, which allows you to adjust the engagement along the way.
Step 4: Plan the communication — Plan a teaser 2 weeks before the start, an official launch, regular reminders and recognition of interim successes, structured within an effective internal communication plan. Multichannel communication increases participation by 35%.
Step 5: Plan tracking and rewards — Leaderboards, badges, charitable donations or social moments maintain motivation throughout the challenge. Collective rewards strengthen cohesion 25% more effectively than individual gifts.

A centralized tool like Eli, employee engagement platform makes it possible to bring together content, missions, notifications and data in a single environment, greatly simplifying organization and tracking.

How to use a platform like Eli to manage a company challenge

An engagement SaaS platform like Eli transforms the way you design, deliver and measure your challenges. Here’s how to leverage its features for effective management.

Create tailored content: use the Eli library (more than 200 pieces of content: wellbeing articles, CSR videos, safety quizzes, surveys) and the AI editor to generate tailored missions. AI saves up to 80% of content creation time.
Build the campaign via the timeline module: define the challenge stages, weekly milestones and automate emails and in-app push notifications. The open rate of communications reaches 65% thanks to this orchestration.
Segment audiences: adapt challenges by teams, sites, countries, languages or job roles, as part of a structured internal communication strategy. A field challenge can differ from a challenge for support functions, while still fitting into the same overall program.
Distribute across all channels: emails, mobile push notifications, in-app messages, intranet home screens or HR application. This multichannel distribution ensures maximum reach, even for non-connected employees.
Track analytics in real time: view participation rate by site (example: 72% Paris vs 55% regions), number of actions completed, most viewed content and comparisons between departments via an interactive dashboard.
Iterate and report: the data collected feeds into future editions and directly supports QWL/CSR reporting, social reports and CSRD requirements. Dashboards can be exported in just a few clicks.

3 concrete examples of company challenges to launch with Eli

Here are three scenarios inspired by anonymized client cases, ready to be adapted to your context. Each example includes the target audience, objectives and tracked indicators.

Example 1: Wellbeing Month 2025

Target: company with 200+ employees, multi-site in France. Duration: 30 days. Missions: walk 6,000 steps per day, take a stretching break, complete a short sleep quiz each week. Rewards: collective wellbeing day on site for teams that reach 80% participation. Objectives: improve QWL, reduce sedentary behaviour. KPIs tracked via Eli: 68% overall participation, +22% self-reported active time, 76% mission completion (versus 45% during a previous manual initiative).

“With Eli, our mission completion rate went from 45% to 76%. Employees appreciate the simplicity of the app and the personalized reminders.” — HR Manager, services sector, 2025.

Example 2: Climate challenge and soft mobility

Target: industrial group, 4 sites in France, 500 employees. Duration: 4 weeks, teams by site. Missions: points awarded for carpooling, cycling, remote work on high-pollution days, and reading CSR educational content. Rewards: donation to an environmental association in the name of the winning team. Objectives: CSR awareness, reduction of carbon footprint. KPIs: 62% participation, -18% estimated emissions over the period, strong engagement with mobility-related content.

Example 3: Corporate culture challenge

Target: multi-site mid-cap company, 300 employees, France and Europe. Duration: 3 weeks. Missions: quizzes on the company’s history and values, videos from the Executive Committee, feedback missions and submission of innovation ideas. Rewards: accumulated points used to unlock donations to an association chosen by employees. Objectives: strengthen engagement and sense of belonging. KPIs: 75% of missions completed, eNPS up by 14 points.

“Eli unified our 5 sites around a common project. Our eNPS increased by 14 points in a single quarter.” — Internal Communications Director, 2025.

Measuring the impact of your company challenge

The decisive advantage of a structured challenge lies in its ability to generate actionable data. Here’s how to demonstrate the value of your initiative to top management.

Quantitative KPIs: overall participation rate (target: 60–80%), mission completion rate (70% on average), login frequency on the platform (+40% during the challenge), number of interactions (likes, comments, quizzes completed).
Qualitative KPIs: satisfaction measured via short surveys (built from essential questions for a satisfaction survey), verbatim feedback on cohesion, perception of the usefulness of the proposed actions.
Aggregation by segment: an Eli dashboard lets you compare indicators by site, country or job family, and analyze gaps between different challenge editions, in line with the best strategies for measuring the impact of internal communication.
Indirect business impacts: lower absenteeism (-12% according to a 2025 study), better retention (+8%), improvement in eNPS by 10 to 15 points, progress in internal engagement barometers.
Integration into reports: include a concise summary in your annual CSR/QWL reports with key figures and infographics exported from Eli. This highlights the investment to stakeholders.

Succeeding with communication and rewards around the challenge

Communication is the essential link between your initiative and employee buy-in. Here are the practices that make the difference.

Teaser phase (2–3 weeks before): announcements in the internal newsletter, intranet banners, video messages from the HR Director or CEO, posts in the Eli app. This preparation increases awareness by 30%.
Official launch: kick-off via video conference or in person depending on your environment, distribution of a communication kit (visuals, participant guide, internal FAQ) hosted in Eli for immediate accessibility.
Regular reminders: push notifications, weekly leaderboards, highlighting exemplary teams. Using fun content (GIFs, short videos, surprise quizzes) keeps energy at 75% throughout the challenge.
Aligned rewards: prioritise collective recognition (charitable donations, shared experiences, themed days) rather than individual material gifts. Responsible rewards strengthen the consistency of a challenge.
Closing ceremony: physical or digital event with a presentation of the results, testimonials from team members and the announcement of a next edition. Ending on a high note anchors the positive experience and prepares what comes next.

FAQ about corporate challenges

What is the right timing to organise a corporate challenge?

A duration of 2 to 4 weeks is ideal to maintain energy without creating fatigue. The peak momentum is generally in week 2, with a risk of drop-off beyond 4 weeks if the engagement activities weaken.

Avoid peak activity periods such as financial year-end closings or strong commercial seasonality. The May–June or September–October periods often provide a more favourable context. You can also schedule several mini-challenges throughout the year (3–4 themed challenges) rather than one very long one, which sustains engagement by +35% according to feedback.

How long does it take to prepare a challenge with a platform like Eli?

With pre-designed campaign templates, a simple challenge can be ready in 1 to 2 weeks. You should allow time for defining objectives, managerial validation and adapting content to different countries or sites.

A first edition requires a bit more preparation (2–3 weeks recommended), but subsequent ones can be replicated and optimised quickly thanks to templates and data from previous editions.

How can you include non-connected or field employees?

Several solutions exist for these groups: posters with QR codes in common areas, tablets in break rooms, relays via frontline managers, and group sessions to complete certain missions together.

Multichannel communication (email, mobile, posters, team meetings) is essential to reach these people. Also design missions that are adapted to their constraints: working hours, limited access to digital tools, specific work environment. With these tools and this approach, inclusion can reach 90%.

Do you always need to offer material rewards?

No, it’s not mandatory. Recognition, donations to a charity, or concrete improvements to day-to-day work can be more than enough — 70% of employees cite recognition as their main motivation factor.

Collective rewards (themed day, team event, social budget for friendly activities) strengthen collaboration more effectively than individual prizes. Always align rewards with the company culture and the themes of the challenge: responsible rewards for a CSR initiative, well-being experiences for a health challenge.

How can you avoid the challenge being seen as a gimmick or a one-off?

Embed the challenge in a broader trajectory: QWL plan, CSR roadmap, 2–3 year internal engagement strategy. The challenge then becomes one building block in a coherent program rather than a stand-alone activity.

Systematically leverage the results (data and qualitative feedback) to improve HR policies and internal communication. Regularity is key: one major annual challenge complemented by one or two smaller themed challenges helps anchor the approach over time and maintain over 40% engagement in the long term.

Launching a corporate challenge in 2026 means turning engagement into concrete, measurable actions. With a structured method and a platform like Eli, you move from idea to impact in just a few weeks—whether your teams are on a single site or spread across multiple countries.

Ready to challenge your employees? Request a demo of Eli to discover how to create your first challenge and track its results in real time.