Competitions That Score Themselves From Real Work
Contests launches time-boxed competitions scored automatically from verified workforce activity — shifts picked up, inspections completed, courses finished — or from external numbers like sales and steps. Run photo contests, March Madness brackets, 1v1 duels, and location-vs-location races with per-capita scoring, and pay winners in redeemable rewards points, badges, or bragging rights.
What Contests Helps You Do
Every contest type your workforce will ask for — scored on a verified activity ledger, governed by budgets and guardrails admins control.
Score From Verified Activity
Metric contests score automatically from real workforce activity — shifts, safety inspections, training completions, recognition — with no manual entry and standings refreshed every five minutes.
Race On Outside Numbers Too
Sales dollars, fundraising totals, steps walked — post external figures one at a time or import a CSV, with an optional unit label and the leaderboard re-snapshotting on every entry.
Judge Photos And Stories
Run photo and story contests decided by community votes or a judge panel — one vote per person, no self-votes, and flagged entries route to the central moderation queue.
Run Brackets And Pick'em Pools
Prediction is a first-class scoring mode — picks lock at event time, brackets auto-generate the next round as results land, and crowd consensus is revealed only after picks lock.
Duel A Coworker 1v1
Any member can challenge a coworker head-to-head on the actions they both do — a real two-person contest that starts the moment it's accepted, private to the two of them.
Compete As Teams, Fairly
Pit departments or locations against each other with per-capita scoring so a six-person team can beat a forty-person one — or set cooperative goals the whole team wins together.
Three Reasons Contests Don't Fizzle Here
Most workplace competitions die of manual scorekeeping, unfair matchups, or governance headaches. Each one is designed out.
The Leaderboard Moves By Itself
Scores come straight from the same verified activity ledger that powers Levels & Badges, so the leaderboard moves the moment someone grabs a shift or completes an inspection — no scorekeeper, no disputes.
- Standings every 5 minutes — with first-to-target crossings detected to the second.
- Momentum chart — your cumulative score plotted against the leader's, day by day, plus the entrant you're chasing.
- Leaderboards everywhere — home-dashboard widget, mobile view, and break-room digital signage slides.
- Rules lock at launch — the scoring contract can't change mid-race.
Fair By Construction
Four goal types spread the wins beyond the usual top performers, and conflict-of-interest guards keep the game honest.
- Most-improved scoring — each entrant races their own pre-contest baseline, so newcomers can win.
- Per-capita team scoring — small teams compete fairly with large ones.
- Strictly opt-in individuals — nobody appears on a public leaderboard without joining, and the Join button explains exactly why you can't enter.
- Conflict-of-interest guards — managers can't rank their own reports, and creators can't win from budgets they control.
Governed Like A Real Program
Admin-configurable creator tiers, delegated prize budgets, a works-council mode, and audited overrides mean HR and operations can say yes to contests without losing control of them.
- Creator tiers with approval — admins only, managers and up, or everyone; non-admin contests pass an approval queue, and employee contests are limited to bragging-rights prizes.
- Delegated prize budgets — managers spend only what an admin granted, reserved at approval, revocable and expirable anytime.
- Works-council mode — restrict a region or the whole business to team contests with cooperative goals, so no individual is ever ranked.
- Audited live overrides — append-only score corrections, disqualify or reinstate, end early, or cancel, each with a written reason.
Contests In Practice
A practical scope check: the contests teams launch first, and the guardrails that keep them compliant.
Core workflow
Pick one of 32 templates or build from scratch, set the metric and prize, launch — scoring, standings, notifications, and the closing ceremony run themselves.
Controls that matter
Creator tiers with approval queues, delegated prize budgets, works-council mode, voting integrity, and audited admin overrides on live contests.
Scope and specs
Useful specs: 4 scoring modes (metric, manual, submission, prediction); 4 goal types; prizes as points, badges, or bragging rights; standings every 5 minutes.
Fill open shifts with a pickup challenge
Most open shifts picked up in two weeks wins rewards points — scores come straight from the scheduling ledger, so the leaderboard moves the moment someone grabs a shift.
Race locations to a safety target
A first-to-50-inspections race between locations, scored per capita so small sites compete fairly, with the first crossing detected to the second.
Run a quarter-long corporate cup
A program fans out monthly district contests and crowns an overall champion from podium placements across the series, then archives when the quarter closes.
Connected To The Rest Of MangoApps
→ Levels & Badges
Contests score from the same verified activity ledger, and winner badges are minted straight onto the badge wall.
→ Company Store
Rank-based prize tables pay out as redeemable rewards-store points — real prizes, delegated budgets, full accounting.
→ Digital Signage
Live leaderboards become break-room signage slides — the standings on the wall update as the contest runs.
→ Recognition
Closing ceremonies, shareable win cards, and a personal trophy case make winning visible — and recognition activity can itself be a contest metric.
Pair Contests With Its Agent
The Contests agent answers "who's winning?" from live standings — and plays by the same eligibility rules as the web app.
Contests
Standings, ranks, joins, launches, and bracket picks — all in chat.
Customer Success
How Teams Use MangoApps To Drive Engagement
Frequently Asked Questions
Metric contests score automatically from the same verified activity ledger that powers Levels & Badges — shifts completed, inspections done, courses finished — with no manual score entry, and standings refresh every five minutes. Submission contests are decided by community votes or a judge panel, and prediction contests award points for correct picks once the organizer enters the real-world result.
Yes. Manual contests let an admin or the contest's creator post external figures while the contest is live, one participant at a time or by uploading a CSV, with an optional unit label. Only enrolled participants are accepted and every entry re-snapshots the leaderboard.
No. The template gallery ships 32 out-of-the-box contests across culture, engagement, operations, learning, safety, and seasonal events — seasonal ones like the March Madness Bracket get boosted in season — and one click prefills the create form. You can also save any contest you've run as a reusable template for your organization.
Yes — prediction is a first-class scoring mode. Picks lock at event time, brackets generate the next round automatically as results come in, later rounds carry more points, and the crowd's consensus is revealed only after picks lock. Prediction prizes are limited to badges and bragging rights — never points or cash — so office pools stay compliant.
Yes. Any member can challenge a coworker to a 1v1 duel — pick the actions that count and a duration, and if they accept, a real two-person contest starts immediately. Duels are private to the two participants, and they're disabled automatically in works-council mode.
That's an admin setting — admins only, managers and up, or everyone. Non-admin contests always pass through an admin approval queue first, managers can only target their own team or location, and employee-created contests are limited to bragging-rights prizes.
Managers can only fund prizes from a points budget an admin explicitly granted them. The prize table is reserved against the budget at approval, only what's actually paid is deducted, the rest is released, and admins can revoke a budget with a reason or set it to expire.
Four goal types spread the wins — most-improved scores each person against their own pre-contest baseline, cooperative goals make the whole team win together, first-to-target rewards speed over volume, and per-capita team scoring lets small teams beat big ones.
Individual contests are strictly opt-in — nobody appears on a public leaderboard without joining, and entrants can withdraw while the contest is running. Team contests enroll the whole team automatically since only the team is ranked, and a works-council mode can restrict specific locations or the whole business to team contests with cooperative goals. The policy is enforced at creation time on every path, including the AI agent.
Contests is a licensed marketplace app. Like every MangoApps app it ships disabled by default — admins opt in per tenant from the Apps Marketplace.
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