How to Organize an Internal Hackathon: Drive Innovation And Increase Engagement In Tech Teams

In recent years, multiple avenues have opened up for successful tech hiring and hackathons are one of everyone’s favorites. Apart from helping various tech corporations gain skilled employees, hackathons have also helped generate great ideas that furthered the growth of businesses.

Typically hackathons are external, meaning they are held for individuals who are not part of the company but are seeking to be. On the other hand, internal hackathons are held for individuals who are a part of the company. The duration of these hackathons can be anywhere from a few hours to a few days and are held for several reasons, such as generating innovative ideas and products while improving employee engagement.

What are Internal hackathons?

In simple words, internal hackathons are tech-related events held by companies to drive internal engagement, break the clutter, promote skill development, and help boost innovation within the company.

After a hackathon ends, the winner is decided by a board of jury and is offered a variety of rewards for the same. It could either be an offer to bring their product or software to life or it could be a monetary reward.

Also, read: How Hackathons Can Help You Attract, Engage, Hire, And Train Top Talent

What is the Purpose of an Internal Hackathon?

Internal hackathons serve as a creative platform within an organization to bring together employees from different departments to collaborate, innovate, and solve real business problems. The primary purpose is to stimulate fresh ideas, encourage cross-functional teamwork, and identify hidden talent among employees.

These events foster a culture of innovation and open communication, allowing participants to experiment with new concepts and technologies without the constraints of their regular job roles. Additionally, internal hackathons help companies explore potential solutions to existing problems or uncover new business opportunities that may not have been considered otherwise. By the end of the hackathon, not only does the organization gain novel ideas, but it also boosts employee morale and creates a sense of ownership and pride in contributing to the company’s progress.

How Do You Organize an Internal Hackathon?

Organizing a successful internal hackathon involves careful planning and clear communication. Here’s a step-by-step guide to ensure a smooth and impactful event:

1. Define the Objectives: Start by setting clear goals for the hackathon. Are you looking to solve a specific problem, enhance a product feature, or simply encourage creativity? Defining the purpose will guide all other aspects of planning.
2. Form a Planning Committee: Assemble a small team to handle the logistics, from securing a venue to arranging the necessary tools and technologies. This team will also be responsible for promoting the event internally and managing participants.
3. Set Rules and Themes: Establish the rules, format, and themes for the hackathon. Decide if the event will be open-ended or focused on specific challenges. Make sure the guidelines are clear to encourage meaningful contributions.
4. Select Participants: Open the hackathon to employees across various departments. Diversity in teams can lead to more innovative solutions. To foster collaboration, consider forming teams of employees with different skill sets.
5. Provide Resources: Ensure participants have access to the necessary tools, software, and data to work on their projects. A dedicated workspace, reliable Wi-Fi, and refreshments can go a long way in keeping participants energized and focused.
6. Schedule the Event: Plan a timeline for the hackathon, whether it’s a one-day sprint or spread out over a week. Include time for brainstorming, development, presentation, and judging.
7. Arrange for Judges and Prizes: Invite a panel of judges consisting of executives, department heads, or industry experts to evaluate the projects. Offering prizes or incentives can boost engagement and add an element of friendly competition.
8. Plan Post-Hackathon Activities: After the event, provide teams with feedback, announce winners, and discuss the next steps for implementing viable ideas. This follow-up process helps maintain momentum and shows the company’s commitment to employee-driven innovation.

Types of Internal Hackathons with Examples

Internal hackathons can take on various forms, depending on the goals of the company. Here are a few common types, along with examples:

1. Product Innovation Hackathons:
   Focused on creating new features, improving existing products, or even developing completely new products. For example, a software company might hold a hackathon for its developers to design new app functionalities, with the aim of adding value to the user experience.
2. Process Improvement Hackathons:
   These hackathons aim to streamline internal processes, such as automating repetitive tasks or improving workflow efficiency. An example is a financial institution conducting a hackathon to develop a tool that simplifies data entry and reporting, reducing manual errors.
3. Cultural or Social Good Hackathons:
   These events focus on building a sense of community within the company or working on projects that have a social impact. For instance, a company might host a hackathon where employees develop solutions to make the workplace more inclusive, or tools to support local charitable initiatives.
4. Technical Skill-Building Hackathons:
   Designed to help employees enhance their technical skills in a fun and collaborative way. An example would be an IT company organizing a hackathon to learn and experiment with new technologies like blockchain or artificial intelligence.
5. Cross-Departmental Hackathons:
   Encourages collaboration between different departments, such as marketing, sales, development, and HR, to tackle company-wide challenges. For example, a retailer might hold a hackathon involving both its technical and business teams to find ways to improve customer experience across digital platforms.

By choosing the right type of internal hackathon, companies can align the event’s objectives with their broader strategic goals while providing a rewarding experience for employees.

Benefits of conducting an internal hackathons:

There are great benefits to hosting internal hackathons, let’s take a look at a few of them:

Encourage and drive innovation

Internal hackathons will bring out the best in your employees, there is no doubt about that. With great rewards at stake, you can be sure that every participant will bring out their best game. More often than not, people tend to whip out extremely unique solutions to abstract problems while in a competitive environment.

Hackathon is a cost-effective way of getting every team in the organization involved in hopes of discussing and generating ideas that align with the organization’s goals. Apart from giving innovative minds a much-required boost, it also helps drive engagement.

Improved learning experience

If you are looking to target specific skills then internal hackathons may just be what you need. It gives the employees and other individuals of the company a chance to try out new tools and new frameworks and also allows them to think of a unique solution for abstract problems. It provides the employees with a safe space for them to showcase skills without being under any pressure.

Whatever solution seems to work the best can be incorporated later by the organization’s employees. This way it helps the organization streamline quite a few of its processes as well.

Continued exposure to learning is extremely important for individuals as they do not end up stagnating their skills and capabilities. This further helps the help organization decrease its turnover rates as well.

Inclusion and diversity

Internal hackathons help drive inclusion and diversity. People from different backgrounds and different teams come together to bring about solutions that can further help the organization move forward.

Try to involve the entire organization rather than just technical teams, this helps in giving the entire organization’s employees a broader perspective and helps them work together and bring about viable solutions that can further help them and the organization.

Additionally, people feel free together voices any concerns they may have as there is no higher kill role present in an internal hackathon

Encourages internal networking

In a time where quite a few organizations work remotely, it is essential to get the teams to interact with each other. This can be done by bringing them together for events such as these.

Additionally, internal hacked ones are not your everyday formal office interactions. Internal hackathons can help build productivity and help the organization move toward its objectives. Internal hackathons result in increased employee engagement and happiness and there are several pieces of research that state that happier employees always result in low turnover rates for organizations.

Also, read: Virtual Hackathons: All You Need To Know

Healthy competition

Comes as no surprise that internal hackathons help drive competition within organizations and with multiple rewards being at stake encourage the employee to work harder and smarter to come up with abstract solutions for any given problem.

Healthy competition always gives birth to creating innovation, this comes as no surprise. The same goes for internal hackathons, almost every internal hackathon has a great reward for the employees and the organization waiting at the end.

Identify employee skills

This is one of the best reasons to hold an internal hackathon at your organization. It gives organizations a chance to review their employees and their skills.

More often than not, individuals possess skills that can help the organization move forward. As a manager or a higher-up in the organization, you should be able to identify such talent across the organization. Once identified, you can help them hone the skills to help them grow and your employee will use those skills for the benefit of the organization.

Doing this also helps increase employee retention rates, in other words, your employees’ loyalty toward the company will do nothing but increase.

Final thoughts

Internal hackathons are a great way of furthering the success of your organization as well as your employees. From being creative with solutions to promoting internal networking, internal hackathons can help a lot.

It can help organizations retain their employees, improve employee satisfaction rates, help them be more creative, create a safe environment for the growth of employees, and much more.

So why don’t you give it a try? And why don’t you choose HackerEarth’s hackathon platform?

It’s got amazing functionality and features! From hackathon promotion to evaluation/analysis support, we’ve got everything covered for you.

Internal Hackathons FAQs

What is an internal hackathon?

An internal hackathon is an event where employees within a company collaborate intensively on software projects. It’s a creative and productive way to foster innovation, team building, and problem-solving skills among tech teams.

How do internal hackathons drive innovation?

Internal hackathons encourage participants to think outside the box and explore new ideas and technologies. This environment of unrestricted creativity leads to the development of innovative solutions to existing problems or the creation of entirely new products.

What are the benefits of hosting an internal hackathon?

Benefits include improved employee engagement, enhanced collaboration across different departments, rapid problem-solving, skill development, and the potential to uncover hidden talents within your organization.

How long does a typical internal hackathon last?

The duration can vary, but most internal hackathons last between 24 to 48 hours. This time frame allows participants to dive deep into projects without disrupting regular work schedules significantly.

Who can participate in an internal hackathon?

While primarily designed for tech teams, employees from all departments can participate. Involving a diverse group can lead to more creative solutions and better team cohesion.

Do participants need to have coding skills to join?

Not necessarily. Participants can contribute in various ways, such as idea generation, project management, design, and testing. It’s about collaboration and leveraging each team member’s strengths.

How are projects chosen for the hackathon?

Projects can be proposed by participants or pre-selected by organizers. In some cases, a theme is provided, and teams develop projects aligned with that theme.

Sonaksh Singh Author 12 Blogs