The success of any business is largely down to the people you employ. But even if you manage to attract the best talent, you'll only get the best work from them if they're healthy, happy and motivated. And that's not always a given. We all know instinctively that physically healthy employees are more productive than unhealthy ones, not least because they're less likely to call in sick. But mental health is an increasing concern too. For example, according to this recent report, 87% of employees say they feel a sense of dread at least once a month, and nearly half (49%) say they feel a sense of dread at least once a week. So it's not surprising that most companies in 2023 have wellness programmes for their staff (this report by KFF estimates that 82% offer some form of help). Yet there's also a lot of research, such as this study by JAMA network, suggesting that these typically don't produce significant benefits, often due to lack of take-up.This is where YuLife can really make a difference. Read on as we explain why YuLife's use of game mechanics mean that wellness programmes don't just exist on paper, but are actively engaged with by employees.It all starts with the appWhen your company signs up with YuLife, your employees won't just get best-in-class benefits. They'll also get access to the YuLife employee app, which sets them daily mental health and physical fitness goals, and rewards them for completing tasks.Downloading the YuLife app is entirely voluntary, but the vast majority of a company's staff typically do so in practice. And not only that, but most tend to engage with it on at least a daily basis. Why? Because it's been carefully designed with the principles of cognitive psychology in mind. Most importantly, its game-like mechanics harness people's innermost drives, in a way that ultimately produces great outcomes for everyone.To understand how that works in practice, let's first consider what the competitive drive is all about.Why competition mattersYou might think you're not a competitive person, but fundamentally everyone is because evolution has programmed us that way. Millions of years ago, those humans who weren't competitive would miss out when food and other resources were scarce. This meant their rivals were more likely to survive, and pass on their genetic tendency for competitive behaviour. Consequently, these are the genes that direct our bodies today and literally determine how we think and feel on a minute-by-minute basis. Of course, this primal survival mechanism isn't hugely needed in our modern, industrialised society, where we rarely need to fight for survival in a literal sense. But these powerful instincts are always there under the surface, primed and ready to emerge when needed. That's why we sometimes find ourselves getting rabidly competitive in inappropriate situations. It might be a silly pub quiz, a game of skittles at a school fete, or playing along with a game show on TV. Ultimately, the stakes aren't high, and there may be no stakes at all. But genes don't care about any of that. Which means that often you'll find your adrenaline starts pumping, your face starts to flush, your vision narrows, and you feel like nothing right now is more important than winning.Motivating staff towards wellnessSo what's all this got to do with improving employees' mental and physical health? Well, most of us have experience of setting ourselves goals such as visiting the gym twice a week, or meditating every morning before work. But most of us also fail to achieve them, because "life gets in the way". However, at YuLife we've found that when you reframe these activities as a game – a process known as 'gamification' – it's quite incredible how much more motivated you become.And the end result is that while some 'winners' get extra financial benefits and bragging rights, no one really loses, because everyone improves their mental and physical wellbeing overall: a true case of 'a rising tide raises all boats'. How it worksSo how does it all work? Well, when a business signs up with YuLife, every employee gets free access to the YuLife app. This easy-to-use interface is a great place to access all the employee benefits they're entitled to… but that's just the start. The real draw for YuLife members is that the app sets daily wellness challenges, such as a set amount of walking, cycling or meditation. If employees achieve these, they get real-world rewards in the form of YuCoin, which can be exchanged for vouchers to spend with big brands, or donated to charities or environmental projects.You start out aiming to complete one mental or physical health challenge a day. Then, as you progress, you have the option of doing more; for example, embarking on streaks and quests to keep you motivated and progressing forward. A streak is when you complete at least one challenge every day for five days; on the fifth day you get bonus YuCoin. A quest is an extra challenge you can take on to win further YuCoin. The more difficult the challenge, the more YuCoin you win. And, as you level up, the more quests are unlocked each day. If this is all starting to sound like playing a video game, then that's no bad thing. According to the latest data, the video game industry is now making more than three times as much as the music industry and almost four times as much as the movie industry. And that's because, well, people love games! So the use of game mechanics in an app like YuLife is quite frankly a no-brainer.So far, the game mechanics we've covered are mainly about competing with yourself. But crucially, there's also an element of competing with others, because employees can see how well they're doing against other colleagues via the shared leaderboard, and they can challenge each other to fun duels too. Importantly, all this is purely opt-in: no one's forced to get involved. But typically, employees love to do so, and it helps build a sense of shared community within the company as a welcome bonus.You don't have to take our word for it, either; just ask a company that's signed up with YuLife. For instance, when Cloud International did so, it saw 97% of its employees downloading the YuLife app. And director of operations Alix Hobbes was not surprised by its popularity: "After all, we're a sales business, full of highly competitive individuals who will compete over everything," she points. "The fact they could challenge each other via YuLife was a huge thing."To learn more about how companies have boosted their employees' engagement in health and wellness programs by signing up with YuLife, check out our full list of YuLife case studies.