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Work contests are a great way to drive engagement in any company, but they're also susceptible to mismanagement. A good contest can boost engagement; prodoscore found that more than 50% of U.S. Employees believe competition in the workplace motivates them to work harder. However, a poorly run contest can do just the opposite.
Amazon recently received backlash after holding an easter 2022 workplace contest where employees put in hours of backbreaking work for the chance of winning $2 prizes. While the initiative may have started off as well-meaning, it fell apart because the effort required didn't match the reward gained. To help you avoid these same mistakes and ensure rewards actually resonate with your team members, we've laid out three employee engagement contest ideas below.
Work contests are structured competitions that motivate employees, encourage specific behaviors, and boost engagement across teams. They can be as short as a one-day challenge or extend into multi-week programs.
By turning routine tasks into friendly competition, workplace contests create excitement, recognition, and collaboration. When designed with the right balance of challenge and accessibility, they drive participation, highlight top performance, and offer a cost-effective way to strengthen morale and productivity.
Workplace contests are powerful engagement tools because they tap into recognition, achievement, and social connection. When designed thoughtfully, they energize teams, build relationships, and create shared experiences that strengthen workplace culture.
By providing a structured way to recognize contributions, contests ensure appreciation happens consistently rather than by chance. The competitive element—when managed in a healthy way—drives participation and motivation, encouraging employees to push beyond their comfort zones while still supporting positive team dynamics.
Work contests help tackle critical workplace challenges like disengagement, turnover, and low productivity—issues that cost organizations billions each year. As a cost-effective strategy, contests create anticipation, break up monotony, and give employees meaningful goals to work toward, helping prevent burnout and sustain long-term engagement.
They also democratize recognition by going beyond traditional top-down appreciation. Contests highlight achievements across teams, encourage peer-to-peer acknowledgment, and ensure contributions don’t go unnoticed. This consistent, inclusive recognition strengthens workplace culture and reinforces employee motivation.
It's tempting to center all employee engagement contest ideas on a profit driver like productivity. The problem with that approach is that you're working backwards and rewarding the results of engagement without actively doing anything to encourage it.
Gallup reports that only 32% of workers are actively engaged in the workplace. That means when you tie a contest to productivity, you immediately leave out the 68% of your workforce that is not engaged. It's much easier and more cost-effective to create smaller contests that will actively engage employees in their everyday tasks. There are a few different types of contests to consider outside of traditional productivity and sales-focused ones. Here are three contest ideas that focus on employee well-being, upskilling, and workplace culture.
On-site competitions leverage physical proximity to build camaraderie and create memorable shared experiences. These contests work particularly well for organizations with substantial in-office populations or those looking to encourage office attendance in hybrid models.
Organize cooking competitions where teams prepare dishes from specific cuisines, use mystery ingredients, or showcase family recipes. These events celebrate culinary creativity while providing delicious breaks from work routines.
Consider themed challenges like "international day" where teams represent different countries, or "comfort food cook-off" featuring family favorites. Provide basic ingredients and let creativity shine. Winners can receive restaurant gift cards to continue their culinary adventures or prepaid cards for gourmet ingredient shopping.
Launch multi-week fitness initiatives tracking various activities: steps walked, miles run, yoga sessions completed, or workout classes attended. Team-based challenges encourage accountability and support.
Challenge employees to personalize their workspaces creatively, either freestyle or around specific themes like "minimalist zen," "travel inspiration," or "pop culture paradise." This contest celebrates personality and makes workspaces more enjoyable.
Winners might receive gift cards for home office or desk accessories from retailers like the container store, CB2, or staples, allowing them to further enhance their personalized spaces.
Align decoration contests with holidays or seasons—halloween, winter holidays, spring themes, or summer vibes. These recurring contests create traditions and give teams something to look forward to throughout the year.
Step challenges are popular workplace health and wellness initiatives. Companies may encourage workers to use apps that track their daily steps and reward the individuals or groups who record the highest number of steps, making it a fun activity that also spurs friendly competition.
Wellness is an incredibly important component of employee engagement. Risk factors like low physical activity and obesity contributed to an annual $36.4 billion loss from employees missing work days, according to the CDC. Stress and burnout are also major problems, with the combined costs of absenteeism, poor productivity, and turnover costing American companies $300 billion per year.
Step challenges and other wellness initiatives can improve employee health, encourage team building, and boost engagement in the long run.
Workplace trivia is often used to share a company’s story or values, but it doesn’t always spark curiosity about employees’ day-to-day roles. Focusing questions on employees’ industry, skills, or problem-solving abilities can engage them more deeply and encourage learning about their own work.
Trivia allows employees to showcase existing knowledge while discovering new insights, addressing the fact that only 24% of employees feel curious in their jobs daily, even though 72% of managers value this trait.
Design scavenger hunts that help employees discover different areas of your facility, learn about various departments, or find hidden historical company artifacts. Include riddles, photo challenges, and tasks that require cross-departmental collaboration.
Challenge teams to bring nature indoors through plant displays, terrariums, or living walls. This contest beautifies workspaces while promoting sustainability and wellness benefits associated with biophilic design.
Host costume contests for Halloween, themed work anniversaries, or "dress as your favorite decade" days. These low-stakes, high-fun contests boost morale and create shareable moments.
Transform charitable giving into friendly competition by challenging departments or teams to collect the most food donations for local organizations. Include voting for creative display designs or most impactful items collected.
Virtual competitions ensure remote and hybrid employees feel equally included in workplace culture. These contests leverage digital tools to create connection across distances.
Challenge employees to share photos around weekly or monthly themes: "your home office setup," "favorite coffee mug," "pet photobomb," or "view from your window." Create galleries and let teams vote on favorites. These glimpses into personal lives build connection and understanding.
Invite employees to create brief videos showcasing skills, hobbies, talents, or funny moments. TikTok-style content works well—keep it under 60 seconds and provide creative prompts.
Test how well employees know each other with trivia about colleagues' interests, backgrounds, fun facts, or childhood dreams. This activity strengthens relationships and helps distributed teams connect personally.
Create engaging quizzes about company history, products, values, or industry trends. Make learning fun through game show formats, timed challenges, or progressive difficulty levels.
Post weekly logic puzzles, riddles, or lateral thinking challenges. These quick mental breaks stimulate problem-solving skills and create ongoing engagement.
Challenge technical teams to solve problems, build prototypes, or create innovative solutions within compressed timeframes. Hackathons drive innovation while fostering intense collaboration.
Host live virtual trivia events using platforms like kahoot or quizizz. Mix work-related questions with pop culture, current events, and fun facts to keep sessions engaging and accessible.
Photo caption contests offer a fun way for employees to connect, share creativity, and spark conversations beyond day-to-day tasks, helping strengthen workplace culture—an important factor, as 47% of active job seekers cite poor culture as a reason for leaving.
These contests are easy to set up and inclusive: choose an image, invite caption submissions, and let the team vote on favorites. With no barriers to entry, all employees can participate, fostering cross-team communication, lighthearted engagement, and motivation when paired with meaningful rewards.
Tailor contests to your specific industry or business model to drive behaviors that directly support organizational goals while maintaining engagement focus.
Create tiered sales competitions with multiple winners rather than single champions. Celebrate not just top performers but also most improved, best team collaboration, or most creative approach.
Recognize outstanding customer interactions through peer nominations, customer feedback scores, or quality assurance ratings. Celebrate patience, creativity, and problem-solving excellence.
Challenge marketing, design, or creative teams to develop campaigns, redesign internal materials, or create content around specific briefs. Showcase submissions and let broader teams vote.
Transform sales metrics into a poker game where achieving different targets earns playing cards. Best hands win prizes. This gamification makes routine tracking more engaging and adds strategic planning elements.
Challenge employees to nominate colleagues who exemplify company values, then share stories about these demonstrations. This reinforces culture while recognizing behaviors that might not show up in traditional performance metrics.
Familiar contest formats gain new life with creative modifications that increase engagement and participation.
Run bracket-style competitions during major sporting events or create custom brackets around workplace predictions—project outcomes, industry trends, or lighthearted office scenarios.
Design bingo cards featuring workplace scenarios, project milestones, or cultural moments. First to complete rows, columns, or full cards wins. Update boards regularly to maintain interest.
Assign a theme like sustainability, gratitude, innovation, or work-life balance and invite employees to create something—writing, drawing, crafts, videos, music, or any medium. Showcase submissions company-wide.
Recreate popular game show formats like jeopardy, family feud, or wheel of fortune with workplace-specific content. Live events generate excitement and create memorable team experiences.
Run raffles where various actions earn entries: completing training, submitting ideas, attending events, or recognizing colleagues. Multiple entry opportunities ensure broad participation.
Selecting the right prizes transforms contests from hollow exercises into genuine motivators. Rewards should match the effort required, appeal to diverse preferences, and feel meaningful to recipients.
Physical and monetary rewards provide concrete value that employees can use immediately or save for specific purposes.
Digital gift cards offering recipient choice represent ideal contest prizes. Rather than guessing preferences, flexible platforms let winners select from hundreds of brands across categories—dining, retail, entertainment, travel, and more.
Reward link streamlines contest prize distribution by allowing bulk sending with customization. Winners receive one link providing access to extensive brand options, eliminating the guesswork while maintaining personal relevance.
Symbolic recognition items serve as lasting reminders of achievement. While less valuable monetarily, well-designed trophies or plaques carry emotional significance and provide visible reminders of success.
Pair symbolic prizes with gift cards to combine emotional value with practical benefit.
Team lunch rewards celebrate collective achievement while providing quality time together. Individual lunch gift cards offer convenient, enjoyable breaks from routine.
Restaurant gift cards work particularly well here, offering choice in cuisine and timing while maintaining the celebratory nature of the reward.
Group experiences—sporting events, entertainment shows, team activities—create shared memories while recognizing achievement. These rewards strengthen relationships beyond the contest itself.
Experiential gift cards for activities like great american days or virgin experience give teams options matching their collective interests.
Experiential or career-based rewards
Rewards that invest in employees' futures or provide meaningful experiences often generate deeper appreciation than purely monetary prizes.
Additional paid time off rewards work-life balance and demonstrate that the organization values rest and recovery. This prize acknowledges that time is precious and limited.
Consider pairing PTO with travel-related gift cards to help employees make the most of their extra time away.
Financial rewards recognize contributions tangibly and provide maximum flexibility in how employees use their winnings. Cash bonuses or temporary wage increases show serious organizational investment.
Prepaid cards function similarly to cash bonuses while providing easier distribution and tracking for contest purposes.
Experiential learning rewards provide professional development while offering unique perspectives on organizational leadership. These experiences can be career-defining moments.
Enhance these opportunities with gift cards for professional development resources, business attire, or networking event attendance.
Investing in employees' growth demonstrates long-term commitment while building organizational capabilities. Conference passes, certification courses, or workshop credits benefit both individual and company.
Gift cards for professional organizations, online learning platforms, or business book retailers extend development opportunities beyond single events.
Public acknowledgment and social recognition satisfy fundamental human needs for appreciation and belonging, often providing motivation beyond monetary value.
Featuring contest winners in company communications spreads recognition broadly while showcasing achievements. These shoutouts create lasting records of accomplishment.
Pair newsletter features with gift cards to combine social recognition with tangible rewards.
Public recognition on company social channels amplifies appreciation while demonstrating organizational pride in employee achievements. This visibility can enhance professional reputations.
Combine social recognition with gift cards that winners can enjoy while celebrating their public acknowledgment.
Gathering to celebrate achievements builds community while recognizing success. These celebrations create positive associations with competition and recognition.
Provide gift cards that cover celebration expenses—restaurant vouchers for team dinners or entertainment options for group activities.
Thoughtful planning ensures contests achieve desired outcomes without unintended negative consequences. Strategic approach transforms contests from isolated events into integrated engagement tools.
Effective contests should align with broader business objectives while staying engaging and accessible. Themes and prizes can reinforce strategic priorities such as innovation, customer focus, collaboration, or wellness, while also strengthening culture, supporting skill development, and building cross-functional relationships. These benefits contribute to organizational success even if they don’t directly impact revenue.
To keep contests effective, review the calendar quarterly to maintain variety and engagement. Balancing fun, skill-building, and performance-focused initiatives ensures contests remain relevant and continue to support evolving organizational needs.
Employees differ in what motivates them, especially across generations, cultures, and roles. To design effective contests, survey employees about preferred formats and rewards—anonymous feedback provides honest insight into what truly drives participation.
Accessibility is equally important. Contests should be inclusive of different schedules, locations, roles, and physical abilities to ensure fairness and maximize engagement across the workforce.
Contest design determines whether initiatives energize teams or fall flat. Several key elements distinguish successful contests from disappointing ones.
Clear rules and transparent eligibility criteria encourage participation and build trust, while realistic timelines ensure contests fit employee bandwidth. Multi-week challenges can sustain interest, while single-day events create quick wins.
Ongoing communication is equally important. Regular reminders, leaderboard updates, and progress sharing keep contests top-of-mind and maintain momentum from start to finish.
Design contests that allow diverse strengths to shine, recognizing that not everyone excels in the same areas. Rotate contest types to give different participants opportunities to succeed and contribute value in ways that suit their abilities.
Favor team-based structures that leverage collective talents, fostering collaboration while reducing pressure on individual performers. Address concerns promptly and adjust rules when unintended inequities arise, demonstrating a commitment to fairness over rigid adherence to initial plans.
Be aware of regulations surrounding workplace competitions, including eligibility, prize values, and tax implications, and consult legal counsel for high-value prize programs.
Maintain ethical standards by avoiding contests that create unhealthy pressure or undermine collaboration, ensuring competition motivates without compromising organizational values. Protect privacy by handling personal information carefully and respecting participants’ preferences regarding public recognition.
Successful contest execution requires careful planning, clear communication, and consistent follow-through.
Before designing contests, define clear objectives to guide desired behaviors and measure success. Allocate sufficient budgets for prizes, technology, administration, and communication, as underfunded contests can undermine engagement. Assign champions or coordinators to ensure smooth execution and clear ownership of responsibilities.
Announce contests through multiple channels to maximize awareness, using compelling descriptions and prize previews to generate excitement. Provide clear instructions and faqs to make participation easy, and maintain regular updates throughout the contest to share progress, highlight participants, and build momentum toward the conclusion.
Track participation and engagement to spot issues early, addressing low turnout or confusion promptly. Resolve technical problems and clarify rules transparently, and maintain fairness in judging through clear rubrics, multiple evaluators, or voting mechanisms.
Balance concrete prizes with recognition and experiences. While gift cards provide immediate value, social acknowledgment and growth opportunities offer lasting impact.
Consider prize tiers recognizing multiple achievement levels rather than single winners. This approach celebrates more employees while maintaining competitive motivation.
Regular feedback helps understand what employees truly value. Preferences shift over time, so periodic reassessment ensures rewards remain compelling.
Flexible rewards like digital gift card platforms accommodate diverse preferences without requiring perfect prediction. Choice transforms generic prizes into personal rewards.
Assessment determines whether contests deliver intended value and identifies improvement opportunities for future iterations.
Track participation and completion rates to gauge engagement and identify friction points, while assessing the contest’s impact on target behaviors or metrics, such as wellness improvements or innovation outcomes. Complement quantitative data with employee feedback on the experience and prizes to capture qualitative insights that numbers alone cannot provide.
Conduct post-contest surveys on clarity, fairness, enjoyment, and reward value, using anonymity to encourage honest feedback. Review logistical challenges to identify what worked well and what caused confusion or administrative burden, and apply these insights to refine future contests, turning them into increasingly effective engagement tools.
Understanding common mistakes helps prevent predictable problems that undermine contest effectiveness.
Simplify rules, streamline submissions, and minimize time requirements to reduce friction and boost engagement. Over-communicate contest details through multiple channels to ensure awareness, and design contests to feel fair and winnable for diverse participants, not just top performers.
Monitor contest dynamics for signs of problematic competitiveness—sabotage, exclusion, excessive stress, or corner-cutting. Healthy competition energizes; unhealthy competition damages culture and relationships.
Emphasize collaborative elements even within competitive structures. Celebrate collective achievements alongside individual accomplishments.
Model appropriate competitive spirit through leadership behavior. When leaders demonstrate balanced perspective on contests, employees follow suit.
Ensure long-term success by thoughtfully planning contest frequency, variety, and integration into organizational culture. Rotate themes and formats to keep contests fresh, and balance fun with function—some contests can focus on pure enjoyment and connection, not just business objectives.
Integrate contests into annual calendars to build anticipation and tradition, celebrate all participants to reinforce the value of involvement, and showcase winners’ achievements in communications to highlight employee accomplishments and maintain momentum.
Recognition is an important part of employee engagement. When companies make employee recognition a priority, employees are 73% less likely to feel burnout and 56% less likely to seek new employment, according to Gallup/Workhuman. However, this same study also notes that employees can tell when rewards aren’t genuine.
So, how does an enterprise offer genuine rewards for participation in these contests? Flexibility is key. Gift cards are a common go-to, but there’s a lot of room for error here. One common approach is to buy gift cards in bulk and then distribute them as needed. However, this strategy binds the employee to a single brand—and it may not be a brand they enjoy.
A flexible solution like Reward Link® can eliminate this problem. It allows reward recipients to easily choose from more than 100 popular brands. Meanwhile, businesses have the option of providing both digital and physical cards—offering the best of both worlds to every contest winner.
Even the best employee engagement contest ideas won’t spur competition if there’s not an equitable reward attached to them. By providing employees with a flexible digital gift card option, you can hold fun contests and give hardworking employees the recognition they deserve.
Ready to power your workplace contests with rewards people actually want?
Email sales@tangocard.com to learn more about how Reward Link can be used for your employee engagement contests or sign up for a free demo to see our product in action.
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