How Avalanche Laboratory Keeps Employee Engagement High With YuMuuv

Building an energetic, positive attitude toward work and self-development is a challenge for every company. Get the combination right and you have a team ready to face setbacks, find solutions and take on new goals.

We spoke with Kärt Niinemägi, Head of Communication and CEO Office at Avalanche Laboratory, about what keeps their people energized and how YuMuuv became part of their formula for a highly engaged team.

At a Glance

• Company: Avalanche Laboratory – IT solutions for the private and public sector (banking, data warehousing, ERP, UX/UI design, IT support and software development)
• Challenge: team sports only reached a small group, and people in home offices and other countries needed a stronger connection with colleagues
• Solution: monthly YuMuuv activity challenges, with smartwatches offered as part of the bonus system
• Results: people discovered new activities, talked more with each other, and participation held steady with new members joining every month

About Avalanche Laboratory

Avalanche Laboratory saves companies the trouble of juggling different technology vendors by providing tailored, end-to-end solutions. At the time of the interview, its international team, headquartered in the Baltic states, was working with clients such as Luminor, Citadele, Inbank, Olympic, Coop, Elering, Eesti Energia and numerous public sector organizations.

Embracing Hobbies: The Weirder the Better

How are the mission and values of your company connected to 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 when you started 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.

The 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.

– Kärt Niinemägi, Head of Communication and CEO Office at Avalanche Laboratory

Key Takeaways for HR Teams

• Reach beyond the sporty few. Company sports teams involve a small group; an activity challenge can involve almost everyone. See how to involve more employees in a company fitness challenge.
• Respect different personalities. Let people set their own goals and stay low-key, while the competitive ones still get their leaderboard. Here is how to design challenges for non-competitive employees.
• Keep the rhythm. Monthly challenges and overviews keep people talking and coming back.
• Plan for the dark season. Winter is exactly when people need a reason to get outside – see how to keep moving in winter.

Join the Challenge

We are thankful to Kärt Niinemägi for the insight! Embracing hobbies, giving people freedom and letting the snowball effect do its work is a great formula for an engaged team.

Read more customer stories, such as how Paulig Group unites its team at work, or book a free demo to see how YuMuuv could work for your company.