Why leaderboards kill wellness challenges (and what to do instead)
A leaderboard feels like the obvious way to make a wellness challenge exciting. Rank everyone by steps, put the numbers on a screen, and let the competition drive people to move. It looks like engagement. In most offices it quietly does the opposite, and by week two the majority of your team has checked out.
The leaderboard trap
Here is the pattern nearly every HR team has watched play out. You launch a step challenge with a big ranked leaderboard. The first few days look great. Then the same three or four names settle into the top spots and never leave. Everyone else looks at the board, does the math on how far behind they are, and concludes there is no point. Participation does not fade because people stopped caring about their health. It fades because the scoreboard told most of them they had already lost.
A single ranked leaderboard has a structural problem: it can only ever celebrate the people who were already the most active. The marathoner who logs 20,000 steps a day was going to do that with or without your program. The person you actually want to reach, the one who could go from 3,000 steps to 6,000, sees themselves stuck near the bottom and disengages. Your wellness budget ends up rewarding the behaviour that needed no encouragement and ignoring the behaviour you were trying to build.
Why a pure ranking backfires
It is worth being precise about what goes wrong, because not all competition is bad. The damage comes specifically from a single "who has the most steps" ranking where only the top few matter.
- It crowns the already-fit. The outcome is decided by baseline fitness, not by effort or improvement, so the program rewards the people who least needed a nudge.
- It writes off the majority in week one. Once someone realises they cannot reach the top, the leaderboard stops being a motivator and becomes a weekly reminder that they are behind.
- It invites gaming. When ranking is everything, a few people start strapping the phone to the dog or shaking it during meetings, which quietly poisons trust in the whole thing.
- It measures the wrong win. A wellness program succeeds when more people move a bit more. A ranking measures who moved the most, which is a different question and usually the wrong one.
What actually keeps people moving
The challenges that hold a team together for a full month share a simple design principle: everyone can win, and every step counts the same. That reframes the entire experience. Instead of competing against colleagues who were always going to out-walk them, people contribute to something the whole company is doing together.
A shared goal everyone contributes to
Set one collective target the whole company is reaching for, and let every person's steps add to the same total. The early-morning dog-walker counts exactly as much as the lunchtime runner. Nobody is at the bottom of anything, because there is no bottom. There is just a shared number climbing toward a goal, and each person can see their own contribution nudging it up.
A fun framing, not a spreadsheet
Abstract step totals are hard to care about. A distance metaphor is not. "Let's walk from Paris to Barcelona as a company" turns a number into a journey with a map, a route, and a finish line the whole team is heading toward together. It gives people a reason to log a walk on a Tuesday that has nothing to do with beating a colleague and everything to do with getting the team a little further down the road.
Reward the goal, not the podium
This is the part that changes behaviour most. Instead of prizes for first, second, and third, enter everyone who reaches the shared goal into a random draw for the reward. Now the incentive is aimed at exactly the behaviour you want: hit the goal, and you are in. Effort is rewarded, not ranking. The person going from 3,000 to 6,000 steps has the same shot at the prize as the person who already runs marathons, so the people you most wanted to reach finally have a reason to keep going all month.
How to design an inclusive challenge
If you are planning your next challenge, a few practical choices make the difference between a program that includes everyone and one that quietly excludes most of the team.
- Set a realistic shared goal. Pick a collective target the whole team can plausibly reach together, so the finish line feels achievable rather than aspirational.
- Celebrate collective progress. Show the shared total climbing and the distance covered, so people feel the group moving forward, not just their own rank.
- Reward completion, not the top. Use a random draw among everyone who reaches the goal, so hitting the target is the win and effort is what pays off.
- Keep small team goals optional and light. If some people enjoy a bit of friendly competition, small team milestones can add fun, as long as the main prize is never reserved for the fittest.
- Make it work for everyone. Offer the challenge in every language your workforce uses and on the phones people already carry, so participation never depends on owning a particular wearable.
These are capability-and-fact statements, not customer claims. Movemint is a new product, so we do not show customer logos or testimonials we have not earned.
How Movemint is built for this
Movemint is designed around the everyone-can-win model rather than a single ranked leaderboard. You set a shared company-wide goal, frame it as a distance the team walks together, and everyone who reaches the goal is entered into a random draw. Built-in gift-card fulfillment handles getting prizes to winners automatically, so you set the prizes once and never make a gift-card run yourself. The app is fully bilingual in English and French, employees track steps from the phones they already own, and Movemint collects only step count, distance, and calories. Employee data is stored in Canada, in Amazon Web Services' Canadian region (ca-central-1, in Montreal). Pricing is a flat $1.50 USD per employee per month, with the CAD equivalent shown for Canadian companies.
Run a challenge where everyone can win
We help you set your first challenge up for your team, built around a shared goal and an everyone-who-reaches-it draw so effort is rewarded, not ranking. Bilingual, $1.50 USD/employee/month with a CAD equivalent shown, billed monthly with no annual contract, and employee data stored in Canada.
Get StartedFrequently asked questions
Do leaderboards work for corporate wellness challenges?
A single ranked leaderboard tends to reward the already-fit few and demotivate the majority, who often disengage after the first week once they see they cannot catch up. Shared collective progress and small team goals can motivate, but a pure who-has-the-most-steps ranking usually hurts overall participation.
What drives employee wellness challenge engagement?
Sustained engagement comes from a shared goal every person contributes to, a fun framing such as walking a virtual distance together, and rewards tied to reaching the goal rather than finishing on top. When effort counts instead of ranking, the occasional walker stays in as long as the daily runner.
What is a better alternative to a step-count leaderboard?
Set a shared company-wide goal, such as covering the distance from one city to another as a team, and enter everyone who reaches the goal into a random draw for the prize. Every step from every person counts equally, so the early-morning dog-walker matters as much as the marathoner.
How does Movemint reward participants?
With Movemint, everyone who reaches the shared goal is entered into a random draw, and built-in gift-card fulfillment handles getting prizes to winners automatically. You set the prizes once and never buy or mail a gift card yourself.
Should the challenge still have any competition at all?
Light, optional competition can add fun for the people who enjoy it, such as small team goals or celebrating collective milestones. The key is that winning is not reserved for the fittest. Reward completion, not the podium, so nobody is written off in week one.
Before you talk to anyone
We would rather you work out whether a step challenge fits your workforce than sit through a pitch. These three pages do that job, and none of them need a sales call.
- Is Movemint right for you? The honest buyer's guide, including who Movemint is not for.
- Check if Movemint fits your team. Three questions about your workforce, then a straight answer.
- Step challenge cost and ROI calculator. What a challenge actually costs at your headcount.