Blue Sky Bank employees, a YuMuuv wellness program case study

Blue Sky Bank Case Study: From Spreadsheets to a Year-Round Wellness Program

Blue Sky Bank has grown from three to sixteen locations in just over a decade. Alongside that growth came a commitment to employee experience and the Be Well Program, a structured wellness initiative to support physical and mental health, build connection and promote work-life balance. When tracking challenges in SharePoint and Excel started to hold engagement back, the bank moved the program to YuMuuv.

Table of Contents

At a Glance

  • Company: Blue Sky Bank, grown from 3 to 16 locations in just over a decade
  • Program: Be Well, led by Emily Curtis, Executive Director of Experience
  • Before YuMuuv: manual challenges in SharePoint and Excel, averaging 30% engagement
  • Formats: a monthly theme calendar, with a synced step challenge twice a year
  • Rewards: step thresholds, annual points, bonus PTO and branded swag

The Challenge

Emily Curtis recognized that the bank’s manual setup, with challenge tracking in SharePoint and Excel, was limiting engagement. Manual challenges averaged around 30% participation, and the process would not scale as the bank kept growing. She needed a platform that was scalable and interactive.

A Digital Leap Forward

YuMuuv brought structure and visibility to Blue Sky’s wellness calendar. Step tracking moved from spreadsheets to automatic syncing from wearables and phones, which led to:

  • Higher participation: engagement climbed significantly above the 30% average of the manual challenges.
  • Real-time competition: the step challenge, run twice a year, became a bank-wide favorite thanks to live leaderboards and easy device integration.

Other challenges covered hydration, nutrition, sleep and even kindness, all focused on whole-person wellbeing.

The Be Well Challenge Calendar

Blue Sky Bank runs a different theme almost every month:

  • January: Choose Your Challenge
  • February: Stretching / Yoga
  • March: Bring Your Lunch
  • April: Acts of Kindness
  • May: Steps
  • June: Workplace Safety
  • July: Water / Hydration
  • August: Sleep / Rest
  • September: Nutrition
  • October: Steps
  • November: Volunteering

Rewards and Local Impact

The bank pairs in-app challenges with community involvement and a clear reward structure:

  • Step challenge rewards: 300,000+ steps earn a $50 Amazon card, 225,000+ steps a $25 card, and the top three steppers overall get a $100 card each.
  • Local 5K races: staff earn points for taking part, and completion earns 4 hours of bonus PTO while boosting the bank’s local presence.
  • Annual points: other challenges add to an annual points total, with top performers earning Blue Sky swag or tiered Amazon gift cards.

Emily’s team exports monthly reports and keeps a public leaderboard on the bank’s intranet, which keeps the program transparent and exciting.

Feedback and Next Steps

While YuMuuv streamlined most of the work, Blue Sky still exports data to track cumulative points per associate and keeps extra resources on its intranet. The team’s suggestions for the platform:

  • Track external events, like 5Ks, directly in the app.
  • Add an in-app hub for resources and health tips for each challenge.
  • Encourage more use of the challenge chat, which some employees are still hesitant to try.

Blue Sky Bank plans to keep refining its challenge calendar to make wellness part of its culture all year round.

In Their Words

Emily Curtis on working with YuMuuv: “Support is super responsive, and we love the custom graphics turnaround time. The app has made our most successful challenge—steps—even better.”

Key Takeaways for HR Teams

  • Get off spreadsheets. Automatic syncing from phones and wearables removed the admin work and lifted participation; here is how wearable integration fits into a program.
  • Plan a theme for every month. A calendar keeps the program visible all year. Our wellness challenge calendar has ready-made ideas.
  • Use thresholds, not just top prizes. Rewarding everyone who reaches 225,000 or 300,000 steps motivates far more people than prizes for the top three alone. Compare options in our wellness challenge rewards guide.
  • Go beyond fitness. Kindness, volunteering and bring-your-lunch months reach people a step count does not. See our non-fitness wellness challenges.

For more stories, see our case studies. Still running challenges in spreadsheets? Book a YuMuuv demo and we will show you how to move your calendar into the app.