Top Corporate Challenge Prize Ideas

When it comes to rewarding employees for their efforts, everyone loves cash. However, thoughtful prizes can also be a very effective motivator. A well crafted challenge prize shows employees that you know their interests and motivations. Employees feel more engaged when they know their company is paying attention to their needs. You can make your wellness challenges more engaging by providing an awesome challenge prize to look forward to (but be careful of these key wellness challenge mistakes)!

Here are a few wellness challenge prize ideas that will keep employees on track and make them feel appreciated:

1. Massages
2. Chiropractor Visits
3. Meal Plan Delivery
4. Edible Arrangements
5. Paid Time Off (PTO)
6. Lunch Dates
7. Fitness Classes
8. Charitable Donations
9. Gift Cards
10. Wearable Health Devices
11. Recognition-Based Prizes

Massages

The benefits of massages are insurmountable! Not only do they relieve sore muscles, but massages can improve sleep and reduce feelings of anxiety and depression. Employees that sleep more are more productive. It’s a win-win!

Chiropractor Visits

Chiropractic care is not just for people with back pain. It can treat both neck pain and headaches! Many medical professionals claim that chiropractic appointments are good not just as for symptom treatment, but for preventative care as well.

Meal Plan Delivery

Services like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh can help employees eat better. Employees are sure to love this because it takes the hassle out of nutritional cooking. A better diet will also help staff feel better both physically and mentally. You may also be able to set up challenge prizes to encourage healthier eating habits.

Edible Arrangements

Edible Arrangements are delicious! They’re also a healthy and thoughtful way to show employees you care.

Paid Time Off (PTO)

Paid time off is a great reward that reduces employee burnout, and boost creativity. Be careful with running too many challenges, as you may end off having to fight challenge fatigue.

Lunch Dates

Most of the time, people eat unhealthy because it’s expensive or difficult to find tasty healthy food. Why not take the winners of wellness challenges out to a trendy healthy restaurant? Or you could offer winning teams a healthy catered lunch instead.

Fitness Classes

Not all fitness classes are created equal. Reward employees with a month of Class Pass so they can select a fitness class they’ll interested in.

Charitable Donations

Find a cause that your employees truly care about and have the challenge prize be a donation to that cause. The more they do, the more you donate. This is not only super motivational, but it’s also a tax write-off for the company! For IncentFit clients, we can automate these donations for you!

Gift Cards

Gift card challenge prizes are reliable for a reason- they provide flexibility for the challenge winner to select an item they find most interesting. To make the gift card more relevant, we recommend picking a gift card that is focused on healthy products. For IncentFit clients, we can automate the purchase and distribution of gift cards to your employees.

Wearable Health Devices

Some of the best walking or fitness challenge prizes can be wearable fitness trackers, like a Fitbit, Apple Watch, Whoop or similar device. Awarding challenge winners with a device that can help continue the habit after the challenge has finished is meaningful.

Recognition-Based Prizes

Not all great challenge prizes have to cost money. Recognition-based rewards can be just as powerful as cash-based incentives, especially when they connect people and culture. These low-cost or no-cost options still make an impact, particularly when paired with a thoughtful message or public appreciation.

Here are a few meaningful recognition ideas:

• Shoutouts on Social Media or Slack: Publicly celebrate winners in internal channels or on company social media pages. This kind of visibility promotes camaraderie and adds an extra layer of motivation.
• Lunch with the CEO (or a Department Leader): Offering facetime with leadership is a great way to show appreciation and connect across teams. It also reinforces transparency and approachability from the top down.
• Trophy or Plaque Rotation: Create a fun traveling trophy that goes to each challenge winner. Not only does it spark healthy competition, but it also becomes a visible symbol of wellness success.
• Personalized Certificates: Create digital or printed certificates that acknowledge specific accomplishments, like “Most Steps in a Day” or “Top Water Tracker.” A simple gesture, but one that recognizes effort in a lasting way.

These types of prizes are especially great for monthly challenges, departmental competitions, or when trying to create a culture of positive reinforcement—all without requiring a big budget.

There are many ways of setting up a good wellness challenge. You can set up a walking challenge, step challenge, or even decide between running a group challenge or personal challenge. Either way, you would also benefit from reading about the secret to creating engaging fitness challenges.

We have also created a free workplace fitness challenge template (step/walking challenge tracker template) to test out wellness challenges at your organization.

Show employees that you are invested in their future by using Incentfit Wellness Challenges. Incentfit makes it easy to track your status in challenges in real time. It’s easy to implement, and requires almost no work to run fun, interesting, healthy group challenges all year long! Get in touch with us to learn more.