Why You'll Never Engage All Your Employees with the Same Initiative ?

On May 1, 2025, Marc receives an email from headquarters.

Subject: Launch of the 2025 Global Olympics
For the next six weeks, all 42 production sites across the company will take part in the very first Global Olympics. Employees will compete through a series of fitness, teamwork and community challenges. The winning site will take home the Global Olympics Trophy, and every employee on the winning team will receive an Apple Watch or a Garmin smartwatch.

Marc smiles.

At 42, he manages the company's Montreal manufacturing plant, where nearly 150 employees work. A former hockey player, he has an intensely competitive mindset. For him, it's never about participating.

It's about winning.

He can already picture the leaderboards, the weekly challenges, the friendly rivalry between teams and the coffee-break conversations comparing scores.
"Finally, an initiative that will bring everyone together!"

He thinks about the six weeks ahead. Of course, production remains the priority, but his days will also revolve around leaderboards, weekly challenges and finding new ways to push his plant to the top of the global rankings. He'll communicate, encourage, motivate...

He's all in.
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Just a few offices away, Victoria opens the exact same email.

She rolls her eyes and lets out a quiet sigh.
"Another competition... as if our days weren't already busy enough."

The site's HR Manager, Victoria is also the mother of two young children and volunteers with a charity that helps underprivileged children go on vacation.

Competition? Not really her thing. She doesn't dislike sports. She walks regularly and enjoys yoga, but chasing points and climbing rankings?

Not interested.

A few days earlier, she had asked her manager whether the company could financially support the charity that means so much to her.

The answer was the same as every other year.
"We can't fund individual initiatives. However, if you come up with a company-wide project that gets employees involved, we'd be happy to donate $5,000 to your organization."

Curious, she clicks on the email link anyway. She's about to close the page almost immediately when one button catches her eye. Create a Challenge. She clicks. Within minutes, she realizes she can create her own initiative. An idea begins to take shape.

If employees collectively walk 20 million steps in one month, the company will donate $5,000 to help send underprivileged children on vacation.

Victoria sits up in her chair. For the first time, she's genuinely excited. Even better... She wants to lead the initiative herself.
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On the other side of the building, Marilyn is discovering the Olympics for the first time.

She has just joined the accounting department. She's 20 years old. It's her first job. She barely knows anyone at the plant.

Sports challenges? Why not... But that's not really what excites her. She'd rather do yoga than compete. More than anything, she'd simply like to get to know her colleagues.

As she browses the app, it's not the Olympics that catches her attention. Instead, it's a section called "Upcoming Events."

"Oh... there's a Happy Hour next Thursday."

"I'm definitely going."

A little further down, another challenge grabs her attention. 5 minutes of planking every day for five days. Summer is just around the corner... Why not? She signs up.

The next day, a notification pops up on her phone : Victoria has invited you to join the Community Challenge. Marilyn reads the description. "Walk to help underprivileged children go on vacation." That immediately resonates with her.

Two seconds later, she clicks Join. Without even realizing it, she has just taken part in her very first employee engagement initiative.

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Here's the most interesting part of the story.

All three employees work for the same company. Yet they're driven by completely different motivations. Marc wants to win.Victoria wants to make a difference. Marilyn simply wants to build relationships.

And that's exactly where so many organizations still get it wrong.

They keep searching for the initiative that will engage everyone: the fitness challenge, the annual competition, the team-building day or the fundraising campaign. When in reality, they should be building an engagement ecosystem capable of appealing to different motivations.

Every employee is different. Each person has unique interests, aspirations, constraints and sources of motivation.

Research confirms it.

Employees are becoming increasingly disengaged from their organizations. According to Gallup, only 23% of employees worldwide consider themselves truly engaged at work. In other words, nearly eight out of ten employees aren't fully engaged.

Of course, meaningful work, fair compensation and good working conditions remain essential. But they're no longer enough. Employees are also looking for a positive workplace culture, authentic relationships with colleagues, opportunities to learn, chances to contribute to causes they care about and experiences that give greater meaning to their everyday work.

That philosophy is exactly what inspired the creation of TeamStreaks.

Instead of launching isolated engagement initiatives, TeamStreaks orchestrates a complete employee engagement journey. Powered by artificial intelligence, the platform continuously learns what truly motivates employees, recommends initiatives aligned with organizational goals and personalizes experiences based on what resonates with each individual.

Because, ultimately, the goal isn't to get everyone to participate in the same challenge.

The goal is for every employee to find their own reason to participate.

That's the mission behind TeamStreaks.