Cenero Case Study: Engaging a Remote Workforce Across 21 States

Cenero is an audiovisual (AV) technology solutions provider serving clients across the United States. Its roughly 265 employees are spread across 21 states and mostly work remotely, which made it hard for traditional engagement initiatives to create lasting connections or a shared company culture. Cenero turned to YuMuuv to bring its dispersed team together around wellness.

At a Glance

• Company: Cenero, AV technology solutions provider
• Team: about 265 employees in 21 US states, mostly remote
• Formats: regular and quarterly step challenges, plus a collective charity step goal
• Rewards: gift cards for the top three in quarterly challenges
• Highlight: a Mental Health Awareness Month challenge that unlocked a $2,000 donation

The Challenge

With teams spread across the country, Cenero needed a new way to bridge the distance between employees. The goal was to build a culture of wellness, encourage active lifestyles and create meaningful connections through shared experiences. The platform had to be inclusive and easy to use, and it could not add to the HR team’s workload.

Why YuMuuv

Cenero chose YuMuuv for its user-friendly app, range of challenge types and straightforward onboarding and administration. Dana Coco, HR Coordinator at Cenero, singled out the intuitive interface, the easy setup and the compatibility with a wide range of fitness trackers and phones, which let employees join from anywhere without adding work for HR.

How Cenero Runs Its Program

Cenero started with step challenges because of their universal appeal and easy tracking: anyone with a phone or fitness tracker can take part, wherever they live. By the time of this case study, the company had been running YuMuuv for about 18 months, with quarterly challenges and extra initiatives during the winter months to keep participation up.

A standout was a company-wide challenge during Mental Health Awareness Month, in which employees worked together towards one million steps within a set timeframe. Reaching the goal unlocked a $2,000 donation from Cenero to a national mental health organization, combining employee wellness with corporate social responsibility.

Results

• Growing engagement: participation increased steadily over time, with high retention of early participants and new employees joining continuously. Automatic app notifications kept people aware of what was going on.
• Feeling better: employees reported benefits from being more active, including better mood and mental wellbeing.
• Community: leaderboards and regular step challenges created friendly competition and camaraderie among remote colleagues who rarely meet in person.
• Recognition: gift cards for the top three participants in each quarterly challenge kept motivation high.
• Less admin: Dana can set up new challenges from her phone, which makes running the program part of her normal routine.

What Employees and Admins Said

Feedback from users and administrators has been very positive. Employees like how smoothly their trackers sync, which makes taking part simple. On the admin side, YuMuuv streamlined creating, launching and managing challenges. Cenero also sees the program as part of a stronger culture, with employees increasingly saying they feel valued and supported.

What’s Next

Dana is keen to expand YuMuuv’s role at Cenero with team-based competitions, location-based challenges and wellness beyond steps, such as yoga and mindfulness. All of these are available today: team, country and custom-group leaderboards are built in, Yoga syncs automatically from supported devices and Mindfulness can be logged manually (see the full activity list).

Key Takeaways for HR Teams

• Start with steps. Step challenges are the easiest way to get a dispersed team moving together. Our guide to wellness challenges for remote workers covers the basics.
• Give it a purpose. A collective goal tied to a donation turns individual steps into something bigger; here is how to run a charity step challenge.
• Keep a rhythm. Quarterly challenges with small rewards keep engagement steady. Our wellness challenge rewards guide compares reward options.
• Make admin light. If setting up a challenge takes minutes, HR can keep the program going year-round.

For more remote-team stories, see how Humanitec and Pharvaris did it, or browse all our case studies. Leading a remote team? Book a YuMuuv demo and we will help you set up your first challenge.