How WSP Turned Global Well-Being Into Shared Action With YuMuuv

This case study is based on interviews with Lizanne Pharand, Global HR Project Coordinator, and Danielle Cairney, Head of Wellbeing UKI, who played key roles in bringing WSP’s global well-being vision to life. Their reflections offer a behind-the-scenes look at how the organization designed, launched, and scaled an inclusive, worldwide wellness challenge with YuMuuv.

How did you first start looking for a wellness challenge provider?

At WSP, well-being is more than an individual pursuit, it’s a shared mission that unites our Visioneers across the globe. Guided by our global well-being strategy, we wanted to bring our people together around an initiative that reflected our five commitments to well-being: empowering each other, creating safe and inclusive spaces, honouring moments that matter, embedding well-being in our culture, and encouraging shared success.

In early 2024, we began exploring ways to turn this philosophy into action through a global wellness challenge that could connect employees across regions, encourage healthy habits, and inspire friendly competition. Our goal was to make well-being tangible, inclusive, and fun — something that would not only motivate individuals but also strengthen our sense of community.

 The timing aligned perfectly with an annual global gathering of our People Leaders in April 2024. As the champions of our culture and the forefront of our people’s experience, we wanted them to experience a mini well-being challenge firsthand: one that could demonstrate how simple, engaging activities can have a meaningful impact on connection and morale.

With that vision in mind, we began searching for a wellness challenge provider that could deliver a seamless, globally accessible experience. We looked for a partner who understood the scale and diversity of our workforce and could offer flexibility, multilingual support, and creative options to engage participants across time zones and cultures.

This search led us to explore several suppliers, each with their own strengths, but we were especially focused on finding one whose values aligned with ours; a platform that could help us celebrate movement, teamwork, and shared success on a global scale.

What made YuMuuv stand out compared to other options?

When evaluating wellness challenge providers, our goal was to find more than just an app — we wanted a partner who shared our vision of inclusivity, engagement, and global connection. What made YuMuuv stand out immediately was their ability to deliver a seamless and user-friendly experience that could truly bring our people together across regions.

One of the key differentiators was accessibility. With a workforce spanning dozens of countries, we needed a platform that could operate in multiple languages and accommodate a variety of fitness levels and lifestyles. YuMuuv offered exactly that: an intuitive interface available in 20+ languages, making it easy for participants to join, track progress, and stay motivated no matter where they were in the world or what time zone they were in.

Equally important was flexibility. The platform’s ability to support a wide range of activities — from walking and running to cycling, yoga, and beyond — ensured that everyone could participate in a way that fit their personal preferences. The built-in activity-to-step converter was especially impactful, allowing all forms of movement to count toward our shared goal, reinforcing our belief that well-being should be inclusive and accessible to all. This includes including those with reduced mobility or those who live in extremely hot weather where we encourage indoor activities. This truly fit with the name of our challenge: Beyond Steps.

YuMuuv’s technical integration was another major advantage. Its compatibility with numerous fitness devices meant that participants could easily connect their existing tools and track their efforts automatically, reducing barriers to participation and ensuring a smooth experience for thousands of users.

Beyond the technology, YuMuuv’s team stood out for their exceptional support and partnership mindset. From the very beginning, their sales and customer success teams were responsive, collaborative, and genuinely invested in our success. They listened to our feedback, customized features to meet our unique needs, and remained available throughout the challenge with helpful guidance and quick solutions for the challenge organizers and our participants.

How has your experience with YuMuuv been so far?

Our experience with YuMuuv has been nothing short of exceptional. From the very first meeting, their team demonstrated a genuine commitment to understanding our goals (which were ambitious!), adapting to our needs, and ensuring that our challenge would be both meaningful and impactful. What stood out most was their partnership mindset, YuMuuv didn’t just provide a platform; they became a trusted collaborator every step of the way.

Throughout the planning phase, the YuMuuv team was consistently available and engaged. We met weekly to brainstorm ideas, fine-tune our processes for mini challenges and winner selection, explore platform capabilities, and discuss details to make the experience as inclusive and motivating as possible. Their openness to suggestions and willingness to customize features (when possible of course) allowed us to tailor the challenge perfectly to our global audience. We have over 70,000 employees and different functions and many offices so we needed a scalable challenge while also personalizing features reflective of our reality.

YuMuuv also impressed us with their agility and responsiveness. Whether it was adjusting timelines or participation numbers, incorporating feedback on process improvements, or troubleshooting in real time, they delivered quick turnarounds and clear communication that made coordination effortless even across time zones.

The quality of account management and customer support was another highlight. Our dedicated contact ensured that we always felt supported and informed, proactively checking in and sharing best practices to enhance engagement. Importantly, their support didn’t end when the challenge launched — YuMuuv remained actively involved throughout the event and even afterward, helping us measure success, celebrate results, and consider ways enhance next years challenge.

Their proactive and collaborative approach has made a lasting impression on our team. Working with YuMuuv has felt like a true partnership built on trust, flexibility, and shared enthusiasm for promoting well-being.

What has been the feedback from your team/participants?

The feedback from our participants has been overwhelmingly positive. Our challenge was designed to be inclusive and flexible. Over four weeks, participants logged their activities through the YuMuuv app, contributing to both individual and team progress toward a collective step goal. Each week featured a different theme tied to an aspect of holistic well-being — physical, social, nutritional, and mental — ensuring there was something for everyone. Through YuMuuv’s activity-to-step converter, all kinds of movement counted, from yoga and cycling to gardening and dancing, allowing employees of all fitness levels to take part.

A key element that elevated engagement was the photo submission feature within the chat. Participants were encouraged to share snapshots of their wellness journeys — from team walks and outdoor adventures to creative interpretations of each week’s theme. These photos became a highlight of the challenge, filling the chat with positivity, encouragement, and laughter. It transformed the experience from a competition into a community, where colleagues could celebrate one another’s efforts and gain inspiration from across the globe. We had over 2,000 images submitted throughout the month.

The results spoke for themselves. We had every region of the world taking part. Many employees shared that the challenge encouraged them to move more, spend time outdoors, and connect with colleagues they might never have met otherwise. Others appreciated how easy the platform was to use and how motivating it felt to track progress in real time.

From our post-challenge survey, the feedback was clear:

• Participants described the experience as fun, energizing, and inclusive.
• Many mentioned that the team element inspired friendly competition and accountability.
• Others appreciated how the challenge promoted global connection, bringing together colleagues across time zones and cultures.
• Several participants said they were inspired to continue their healthy habits beyond the challenge.

The most common comment we received? “Let’s do it again!”

Employees highlighted the joy of celebrating milestones together, the sense of camaraderie that came from seeing everyone’s progress, and the motivation that comes from shared purpose.

What kind of results or changes have you noticed since starting?

What started as a fun and inclusive initiative has grown into a valued global event that our people now look forward to each year.

Both challenges that we’ve hosted so far have sparked a sense of global fun and connection, uniting colleagues from every region in a shared goal of movement and mindfulness. Through YuMuuv’s platform, participants shared photos, stories, and encouragement, offering glimpses into the diverse ways our teams approach well-being (from hiking and cycling in Europe to team walks in Asia-Pacific, outdoor yoga in North America, and community volunteering in Latin America). These stories celebrated our cultural diversity while highlighting the universal power of connection and collective motivation.

The experience also helped us open the door to globally streamlined well-being activities. YuMuuv provided the foundation for consistent, inclusive engagement — enabling us to design challenges that truly reach and resonate with our entire workforce, regardless of geography or fitness level. This global accessibility has reinforced our broader commitment to championing well-being worldwide by embedding well-being into our culture, not just through one-off events, but through ongoing, shared experiences.

We’ve also seen tangible momentum build between our first and second challenges, with more regional collaboration, and greater creativity in how teams chose to engage. The energy around the challenges has been contagious — participants described them as fun, motivating, and uplifting, often sharing that they continued their healthy habits long after the events ended. What’s most rewarding is seeing how these challenges have evolved into an annually anticipated event.