4 September 2025 • Guardey Academy
Security awareness training can only be effective if your employees are truly engaged. One of the best ways to manage this is to spark friendly competition among colleagues. Guardey plays into this sentiment with a leaderboard that shows who is the top performer of this quarter. By doing well in the challenges, each user can get to the top spot. This has proven to motivate users to show up weekly and try their best.
From experience, we have seen that organizations who make an effort to further stimulate the competitive element of Guardey get the best results. Below, we have collected tried and tested tactics to get your employees excited about Guardey.
1. Incentivize top performers with rewards 🏆
Everyone loves recognition, and a little incentive can go a long way in driving engagement. Offer rewards for employees who consistently top the leaderboard—think gift cards, an extra vacation day, or even a prime parking spot. Simple gestures of appreciation not only motivate individuals to take their training seriously but also highlight the importance of security awareness in a fun and rewarding way. The key is to make the rewards enticing without being extravagant, ensuring it’s all about the friendly competition.
Our customer EyeOn started off using Guardey with a cyber security week. During this week, employees could participate in challenges in and outside of Guardey. At the end of the week, the winning team received a small present and an actual trophy.
→ Read more about EyeOn’s cybersecurity week
2. Set up teams 👥
In Guardey, you can let teams or departments compete with each other. The winning team could earn a shared reward, like a catered lunch, team outing, or even bragging rights in the company chat. This approach fosters both camaraderie and instills individual accountability. Colleagues will remind each other to participate in the Guardey’s weekly challenge to ensure they get the highest possible score that week.
This approach is especially effective for large organizations, with a high number of employees and possibly multiple locations. As an admin, this gives you the possibility to easily view individual and department performance. You’ll learn which teams are most excited about Guardey (and which team may need a little push). Also, you’ll get insights into what the strengths and weaknesses are of each department.
3. Weekly shout-outs 📢
Sometimes, recognition is its own reward. Dedicate a moment in your weekly meetings or newsletters to celebrate employees who are excelling in their training. Highlight the top performers or those who’ve made significant progress. A simple “Congratulations to [Name] for dominating the leaderboard this week!” can go a long way in motivating others to step up their game. This way, you ensure that everybody has seen who is on top of the leaderboard.
At Inexto, employees have set up their own Microsoft Teams chat groups to keep up with the leaderboard. Colleagues use the chat to keep up with their score and to lightheartedly poke fun at each other.
4. Leaderboard visibility 📺
Out of sight, out of mind. If available, display your leaderboard prominently on office monitors, in common areas like the breakroom or the lunch room. The constant visibility keeps the Guardey competition top-of-mind and encourages employees to check their standing regularly. A little reminder of who’s leading (and who’s catching up) can reignite that competitive spark. For extra motivation, consider a rotating “Employee of the Month” feature tied directly to leaderboard performance. The leaderboard is as powerful as you make it.
5. Leader for a day 👑
Give the weekly top scorer their moment in the spotlight with a fun, low-cost perk. Let them pick the office playlist or decide on the next team outing will take place. These small but meaningful rewards celebrate their success while encouraging others to aim for the top spot.
The options to doing this are endless, as long as you keep it lighthearted and fun. The goal is for playing Guardey to become something that doesn’t feel like yet another task on the employee’s plate, but to change it into a welcome fun and lighthearted break during the workday.
6. Reset the leaderboard each quarter ♻️
Guardey uses a seasonal leaderboard, which means everybody gets a fresh start after the season ends. This improves the competitive element in two ways:
- The top players get a chance to win an actual championship, instead of fighting for a number one spot in a never ending competition
- Players on the lower end of the leaderboard (possibly because they started later) get a new shot every season
May the best colleague win
The best part of Guardey’s competition? It resets every quarter. This gives (new) employees the chance to try for that top spot on the leaderboard.
May the best colleague win!
