Avalanche Laboratory High Engagement Secret

Cultivating an energetic, excited and positive attitude towards work and self-development in employees is a challenge for every company. Finding the right combination can help create a “winning team” ready to face adversities, provide solutions and conquer new goals.

We had a chat with Kärt Niinemägi, Head of Communication and CEO Office of Avalanche Laboratory to get an insight of the activities that help them lift the energy and active attitude of their employees and to learn how YuMuuv has been integrated into their “formula” to shape superheroes in their team.

Avalanchers to the Rescue!

Saving companies from the trouble of finding different vendors to solve various technological needs is the magic happening inside Avalanche Laboratory. Their tailored solutions provide services for both private and public sectors with end-to-end support specialized in Banking, Data Warehouse, ERP, UX/UI Design, IT Support, and Software Development. 

Their team is currently headquartered in the Baltic States and their conquers move in a snowball effect: fast, building upon itself and becoming larger and larger. They say that 2021 will bring on new challenges in the North as well as South, and probably in between - there are very exciting and groundbreaking projects ahead.  The international team of Avalanchers is currently working with companies such as Luminor, Citadele, InBank, Olympic, Coop, Maana, Estonian Energy, Elering, and numerous public sector entities. They won’t give up until they find the right solution for every need!

Embracing Hobbies: The Weirder the Better

How are the mission and values of your company connected to taking physical activity initiatives? 

We are not a typical IT company, meaning that we’ve always been pretty active and inquisitive - mentally and physically. We at Avalanche have been cultivating an energetic, active, positive attitude towards work and new challenges at all times. We promote self-development as well as reaching new goals. So it’s only natural that improving our physical activity and doing things more purposefully is on the to-do list. We very much embrace the hobbies our people have, the weirder the better. It’s a sign of a healthy mindset if a person has time, interest, and energy to have hobbies at all.

As part of our versatile bonus system, we offer our heroes smartwatches of their preference, to give them a friendly nudge towards having a closer look at their habits and joining the YuMuuv challenge. There have been several company teams and group training before (volleyball, football, badminton, etc), but it still only involved a small group of people. We needed something that would involve most of us.

Giving People the Freedom To Be Active at Their Own Pace

What were your goals to start using YuMuuv?

We knew that our people are active, but as most people do not like to participate in on-the-spot competitions or are very open about their hobbies, we thought YuMuuv would give people the necessary anonymity and freedom, in some sense. They can do their own thing at their own pace. At the same time, the adrenaline and competitive junkies can get their dose as well.

The other goal was for sure to involve our people in home offices and other countries and with that build a stronger touch between the colleagues. Also, when we started at the beginning of 2021, we knew the most difficult time of the year (no light or traveling, short in vitamins) was arriving, so we wanted our people moving and outside, grabbing all the necessary dopamine and serotonin to survive till spring.

Snowball Effect: Motivation Coming From Inside

What impact have you noticed in your team while using YuMuuv?

People have for sure tried and fallen in love with new activities, as the current COVID-19 situation is forcing people to be more creative when finding ways to train. What is so great about YuMuuv is that everybody can set their own goals.

People are losing weight and eating more, there are a lot more hungry creatures lurking in the office. There is also much more communication as people are trying to figure out what activities their closest competitors are doing to succeed. Luckily, there have been no serious injuries, but sore muscles and funny tense walks in the office are something quite common now.

There is encouragement and motivation by fellow participants to fulfill the 100% goal, especially once the end of the month is nearing. Avalanchers are getting monthly overviews of what has been going down, who did what, and with whom we’re competing in the company ranking. This overview also keeps the non-YuMuuvers involved and somewhat interested. We’re very glad that the number of participants has not decreased and we’re getting some new members every month.

Join the Challenge

We are thankful to Kärt Niinemägi for the insight! We believe that with YuMuuv, falling in love with physical activity is easy. Companies can help boost self- and team motivation with a mere push. Embracing hobbies, promoting sporty freedom, and letting the snowball effect raise healthy habits, are part of a great formula to create super-employees. 

If this story inspired you to try YuMuuv at your company, don’t hesitate to request a free demo.