Sport, an invaluable ally to animate your internal communication

Sport is a source of pleasure, sharing and success. Its social and societal dimension facilitates integration and inspires confidence. It promotes well-being and increases productivity.

So there's no doubt about its place within the company, and its potential for creating links between employees is extraordinary. Find out how to exploit it in this article! 🚀

 Sport as a medium is the only one that maintains such a strong emotional and affective relationship with its audience

Jean Claude Darmon

#1 – Corporate sport: a vector for the internal communication

According to a study by the Eurobarometer Sport and physical activity, 13% of employees exercise on a regular basis. This figure may seem relatively low, especially when compared with an OpinionWay survey which found that 80% of employees would be prepared to take part in physical activity if their company offered it.
 
The need, or at least the desire, to play sports exists among our employees. They want to practice, but they also want to exchange and share ideas around this positive, unifying activity.
 
What an opportunity for your internal communications! As a human activity, sport is no exception to the need for communication.

#2 – Sport in the workplace: what are the benefits?

Mens sana in corpore sano

Juvénal

The French translation will with no doubt be familiar to you: "A healthy mind in a healthy body". Encouraging sporting activity in your company has many benefits. It helps to: 

• create links between employees who would never otherwise cross paths
• developing a corporate culture and a sense of belonging, in particular through joint efforts
• building team spirit
• train employees in a fun way
• boosting team productivity by challenging them and improving their well-being at work

All these advantages are within reach, provided you take certain actions!

#3 – Competitions to accompany major sporting events

Do you want to involve your employees in the life of the company? There's nothing better than a contest. Greatly appreciated by all, they build loyalty among participants and their teams. By combining sport with the idea of victory and reward, you can boost your internal communications with an attractive and effective method. 
 
What sporting events can you organize a competition for?

• The Euro or the Football World Cup
• The Tour de France cycling race
• The Olympic Games
• Top 14 rugby
• The NBA basketball championship
• The best thing to do is to find out which sports your employees are most passionate about and which are most likely to bring people together! Why not do it via a survey on your Steeple news feed?
   

Another idea: if you support/sponsor teams, now's the time to put tickets up for grabs to go and see your favorite teams.

#4 – Sports challenges to encourage people to surpass themselves

Sport is an activity where you make progress and go beyond your limits. You gradually build up your confidence and become bolder and take more initiative. It's also an effective way of taking care of yourself, your body and your mind, for personal and professional well-being.
 
By offering your employees sporting challenges, you encourage them to take up the sport and increase the chances that they will continue to do so in the future. 
 
Running out of ideas? Pick one from this list! It's important to draw on major sporting competitions and regional competitions:

• a football, tennis or ping pong tournament with a prize at stake
• a solo or team combat course: you can film and edit a report based on TV shows such as Ninja Warrior
• a group or couple dance competition with a set theme: the judges are chosen by lot and together they determine the criteria for awarding marks
• a race against the clock on foot, bike or swim: everyone can try to beat the company record on different courses

If Steeple is your communication tool, you can also use the Euro module, which includes a predictions section and the big inter-company competition. Other activities include various games, watching matches together and quizzes. 

#5 – Sports events to unite teams

Do you still have doubts about using sport as an internal communication tool? Well, it works very well and there are many applications:

• at company seminars or teambuilding events: you can organize sports challenges, activities and games, etc.
• at sporting events: Euro, World Cup, Tour de France, Olympic Games, etc.
• at internal company events to celebrate the start of the summer season, the New Year, etc.

Sporting events help to unite people around shared values and build cohesion. They are also a festive opportunity to get together.
 
Are you convinced and want to get started? To prepare the best possible communication around your sporting events, you first need to create an editorial calendar. It's the key to successful organization! 
 
This tool will enable you to build up a precise schedule of the most eagerly awaited sporting events of the year. By putting it in place several months in advance, you can develop an effective and coherent internal communications strategy.
 
This will give you enough time to come up with original and motivating ideas. The same goes for creating content to share around these events!
 
Need some inspiration for organizing events? Download our 2024 calendar guide. You'll find 100 key dates to liven up your internal corporate communications.

#6 – Steeple and sport: a winning duo!

Steeple makes it a point of honor to set the pace in the workplace! Our collaborative tool modernizes internal communication between companies and their employees.
 
To achieve these objectives, we have set up initiatives based around the unifying activity of sport. 

Suggestions for "special sport" publications

Take advantage of major sporting events to feed your internal communications publications. Many of our customers are already doing this. For example, E. Leclerc has got into the habit of creating events around the Tour de France. Listen to Sandrine Fournier's interview on this subject! 
 
Steeple develops special modules for certain major sporting competitions:

• Rugby World Cup
• Football World Cup (men and women)

If you're short of time or inspiration, our suggestions for publications can help you find ideas to liven up communication and life at work.

Prediction modules

Specially designed to make the most of sport as part of internal communication, the Pronostics module allows all employees to take part, whatever their level of physical activity. 

League 1 predictions module

This is the flagship module for Steeple customers, enabling them to predict League 1 matches. Every day, depending on the results, participants earn points and see their position change in the company's general ranking or that of their department. In all, more than 300 communities use it! 

A little bonus: we're offering you ideas for daily publications for this module. Overall, 792 publication suggestions have been used! 

The Euro predictions module

On 14 June, the Euro 2024 kicks off in Germany. To mark the occasion, Steeple is offering you its special Euro football module. What's more, our in-house teams live to the rhythm of the sporting competitions. 

There is a whole communication strategy around this sporting event, such as :

• the predictions
• team activities (quizzes, games, etc.)
• match viewing
• the creation of panini cards with the portraits of all employees

How does it work in practice?

1. Install the module
2. Inform your teams through a publication
3. Liven up the module on a daily basis with a points summary or match summaries
4. Reward the best predictors

Never forget this when you're thinking about internal corporate communication: affinities are formed around shared passions, emotions and common interests. Sport is all of these things. So it would be a shame to miss out!

Looking for more ideas on how to liven up your internal communications with events? Then follow the guide: