6-minute read
Wellness challenges are familiar territory for most well-being programs. Step challenges, nutrition campaigns, seasonal programs — many wellness, HR, and benefits leaders have implemented some version of them year after year.
And yet, 2025 reinforced an important truth: running a wellness challenge is easy; designing one that truly engages people is not.
Across nearly 700 challenges, we observed consistent patterns in participation rates, completion rates, and participant feedback. Some of these patterns reinforce what we already knew. Others challenged assumptions that still show up in some program designs.
What follows are 10 insights drawn directly from implementation experience, not theory. They are offered to help wellness leaders rethink how challenges are scoped, framed, and experienced — with the goal of increasing engagement for more people, not just a motivated few.
1. “Winning” Motivates a Few — and Disappoints the Many
Competition can be energizing. But when “winning” becomes the primary narrative, most participants quietly opt out. Friendly competition, when structured well, can motivate employees and foster engagement by encouraging participation and collective effort toward wellness goals.
Programs that emphasize rankings or top performers often show healthy early sign-ups, followed by uneven engagement as participants realize they are unlikely to finish near the top. Participant feedback suggests that many people feel discouraged, not energized.
Why it matters: If most participants feel unsuccessful by design, engagement erodes.
How to apply: Frame challenges around participation, consistency, and shared progress — not just outcomes. Leaderboards can exist, but they should never define success.
2. Shared Goals in Workplace Wellness Programs Work Best When They’re Ambitious — and Achievable
Big goals can unite people. Unrealistic ones quietly disengage them.
Challenges that set clear, collective goals — and communicate steady progress toward them — tend to sustain participation longer than those that feel either trivial or unattainable.
Why it matters: Participants want to contribute to something meaningful, and they want to believe their effort counts.
How to apply: Choose goals that stretch the group without overwhelming it. Make progress visible so participants can see momentum building.
3. Simplicity Consistently Outperforms Clutter
The most engaging challenges are rarely the most complex.
Programs with one primary behavior, one clear metric, and straightforward tracking consistently show higher completion rates and fewer support questions. Complexity — even when well-intended — creates friction.
Why it matters: Confusion is one of the fastest ways to lose participants.
How to apply: If you can’t explain how the challenge works in one sentence, it’s probably too complicated.
4. Communication Is a Participation Strategy, Not a Support Function
Engagement does not rise or fall solely on program design. It rises or falls on visibility.
Challenges with frequent, varied communication — before launch and throughout the program — maintain stronger momentum. Silence is often interpreted as lack of importance.
Why it matters: People don’t disengage because they don’t care; they disengage because life gets busy.
How to apply: Plan communications as intentionally as you plan the challenge itself. Consistent reminders reinforce relevance and normalize participation.
5. Connection Drives Employee Engagement More Reliably Than Competition
One of the clearest signals: connection outperforms competition.
Programs that enable optional social interaction — friends, teams, shared milestones — see steadier engagement and more positive feedback. Participants frequently reference encouragement, accountability, and “doing it together” as motivators.
Why it matters: Humans are social. Wellness behavior rarely happens in isolation.
How to apply: Build connection into the experience without forcing it. Optional social layers invite participation without creating pressure.
6. Leadership Participation Signals Permission
When leaders participate — visibly and authentically — engagement follows.
This does not require high performance or constant promotion. Simply showing up, sharing progress, or acknowledging the experience signals that participation is valued.
Why it matters: People take cues from leadership behavior more than leadership messaging.
How to apply: When leaders participate alongside employees, it sends a powerful signal that participation is valued.
7. Seeing Your Contribution Matters More Than Beating Others
Participants consistently respond to being able to see how their effort contributes to something larger.
Organization-wide progress indicators foster pride and purpose, even among participants who do not engage socially or competitively.
Why it matters: Contribution creates meaning. Meaning sustains effort.
How to apply: Make individual contributions visible within a collective story. Progress bars and shared milestones reinforce impact.
8. Personal Wins Are Powerful — Even When They’re Private
Many participants value quiet consistency more than public recognition.
Feedback often highlights pride in personal routines, streaks, or habits formed — even when those wins are not visible to others.
Why it matters: Intrinsic motivation is powerful. Many people engage for personal reasons.
How to apply: Normalize personal milestones and consistency. Success should be defined broadly enough to include different motivations.
9. Timing Matters
Challenges tied to a moment in time — seasons, transitions, shared events — feel more engaging than untethered programs.
Seasonal or event tie-ins help participants place their effort in a larger moment and reduce the feeling of “another thing to do.”
Why it matters: Timing creates meaning. Meaning drives participation.
How to apply: Align challenges with natural cycles and shared moments. Let the theme do some of the motivational work.
10. Stories Extend Engagement Beyond the Metrics
Participants consistently reference stories — not statistics — when describing what keeps them going.
Seeing peers participate, hearing small wins, and recognizing shared experiences reinforce belonging and persistence.
Why it matters: Stories humanize data.
How to apply: Collect and share participant experiences throughout the program, not just at the end.
A Final Thought for Wellness Leaders
The most effective wellness challenges are not the most competitive, complex, or incentive-driven. They are the ones that help people feel included, capable, and connected.
As you plan future challenges, it may be worth rethinking not how to motivate people to win — but how to design experiences where more people feel they belong, contribute, and succeed in their own way.
Engagement doesn’t happen by accident. It’s designed.
Dean Witherspoon
Chief collaborator, nudger, tinkerer — leading the team behind the most inventive well-being experiences.
