15 best employee recognition software
It’s no secret that employees are happy and productive when they work for employers who recognize their efforts. Employers can recognize employees simply by showing they both notice and appreciate someone’s contribution to the organization. Employee recognition can take many forms — from offering verbal praise to giving company perks or even monetary rewards.
Keeping track of employee achievements and contributions can be a time-consuming task, especially for larger organizations. This is where employee recognition software can help by making it easy for both managers and peers to recognize the hard work of others.
The benefits of employee recognition software for companies
Software makes time-consuming tasks easier, and managing the data involved in recognizing your employees for the work they do is no exception. It can also play an important role in improving employee morale and keeping both onsite and remote workers engaged.
Timely recognition
All employees want to be recognized, but some recognition can come “too little, too late” if an organization waits to show their team members appreciation en masse at the quarterly meeting. Often, instant and individual recognition has a greater impact.
Employee recognition software makes it easier to reward employees for their contributions in real time. A pat on the back shortly after the accomplishment would mean that an employee could get timely positive feedback instead of waiting until their annual review to hear how much their team leader appreciated their hard work.
Performance driven by data
One thing that often clouds performance reviews is recency bias. It’s the “What have you done for me lately?” of employee management, where managers judge an employee’s performance based on recent accomplishments instead of an overall analysis of the whole year. Employee recognition software allows employers to keep a record of team member highlights throughout the year. This can help managers more fairly judge an employee’s or a team’s performance.
Peer review
Employee recognition software makes it possible for employees to recognize their team members. This helps employers rate the performance of an employee, but it’s also a great way to improve the work culture and get a better idea of how well someone fits with their team. An employee who receives a lot of accolades from colleagues is clearly someone who works well with the team.
Features to look for when choosing an employee recognition software
When looking for employee recognition software, there are several factors to consider to make sure the platform you pick is right for your organization. Ultimately, you want a platform that can help build a positive company culture and strengthen the relationship between employees and management as well among team members.
Options
You’ll obviously want your recognition software to make it easy to recognize an employee’s hard work, but having as many options as possible for how to recognize someone can make showing appreciation and receiving praise more impactful for everyone.
Good recognition software should have a catalog of recognition options for employees. Multiple options for presentation and delivery (email, printable, static, animated, etc.) are also a plus.
Integration
Can the recognition software integrate with existing human resources tools and databases? Integration with other HR software is a feature that will allow you to get the most actionable data from your platform.
Culture fit
Just like you want your employees to fit the culture of the company, you want the recognition software you choose to fit the culture as well. If your employees thrive on competition, maybe a platform with some gamification options would motivate your employees. If your teams strive to hit certain metrics every month, a platform with metrics-based awards could be the most meaningful to them.
15 of the best employee recognition platforms
There are so many employee recognition software packages available that it would be impossible to list all of them in a single article. Below are 15 of the best ones we’ve found to fit the needs of a wide variety of organizations. These platforms have been proven to help recognize high-performing talent and help motivate employees to achieve.
1. Mo
Mo (short for “Moments”) helps you recognize your employees for the great work they do. It allows team members and leadership to post recognition moments by using either their website or their mobile app, and it gives managers the ability to easily reward their employees, thanks to its integrations with other platforms, such as Amazon, Uber, and Starbucks.
Mo is available in 26 countries and multiple languages, which makes it a great choice for small organizations to global corporations. Mo offers the capability for top-down or peer-to-peer recognition as well as features like budget control for managers and creative profile tools for employees.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Great for global companies | Potentially confusing interface |
| Very affordable |
Pricing for Mo is available upon request for a quote.
Mo has a rating of 4.6 stars out of five from G2.
2. Jotform
Jotform offers a way to recognize employees through the use of customizable online forms. Managers can either create an employee recognition form from scratch, or they can use one of Jotform’s employee recognition templates and customize it to their needs.
Jotform’s templates include voting forms, ballot forms, nomination forms, and tools for giving anonymous feedback. Jotform Tables can help you track, organize, and manage submitted nominations, votes, and feedback.
Jotform’s Starter plan is free and includes five forms, 100 monthly submissions, and 100 megabytes of space. Those amounts increase through Jotform’s Bronze, Silver, and Gold plans, ending with Jotform Enterprise, which offers unlimited forms, submissions, and storage.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Large catalog of templates | No rewards program |
| Highly customizable | |
| Online template editor |
Jotform receives 4.7 stars out of five on G2.
3. Motivosity
Motivosity gives employees and managers the ability to publicly recognize team members using a social media portal-like interface. Motivosity uses unique features that motivate employees to recognize their peers’ achievements by allocating “influence currency” (in-application currency) that they can spend by rewarding it to their colleagues within a designated period. Managers can also choose to use a ThanksMatters card, which is a Visa gift card that has money added to it each time an employee receives recognition from their peers or management. Employees can redeem this card at the retail outlet of their choice.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Personalized VISA gift cards | Minimum spend requirement |
| Easy interface | |
| Ability for employees to earn real money when recognized |
Motivosity receives 4.7 stars out of five on G2.
4. Bonusly
Like Motivosity, Bonusly has a social media-like interface and a point system used to reward employees when someone recognizes their achievement. Bonusly also has automated recognition features to remember things like employee birthdays and anniversaries, and it offers integrations with HR systems such as SAP, Paychex, and BambooHR.
Bonusly’s pricing structure ranges from $2 to $7 per seat per month. This price doesn’t include the cost of rewards.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Automated milestone features | Ability to attach GIFs to messages but a limited GIF library |
| Integration with both HR and payroll systems |
Bonusly receives 4.7 stars out of five on G2.
5. ThriveSparrow
ThriveSparrow combines employee recognition for individual or team achievements with the review process to ensure organizations recognize employees for their contributions throughout the year. The software lets managers give real-time feedback while compiling that feedback and measuring it against objectives and key results for the year.
ThriveSparrow’s pricing structure ranges from $2 to $5 per month per employee. ThriveSparrow also offers a free 14-day trial period.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Geared toward using data to frame employee reviews | Fewer integrations compared to other platforms |
| Affordable tool, starting at $2 per user per month | Not scalable for large companies |
ThriveSparrow receives 4.6 out of five stars on G2.
6. Lattice
What sets Lattice apart from other recognition software is its ability to connect praise with performance objectives. Lattice focuses more on how employee performance connects with personal and organizational goals.
Lattice integrates with HR systems, but it also integrates with chat (Slack, MS Teams) and email (MS Outlook, Gmail) systems to ensure you can deliver recognition publicly or privately through multiple channels.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Integrations with Microsoft Outlook and Teams as well as non-MS products | Unintuitive user experience |
| A useful tool for performance management | More expensive per user per month cost |
Lattice’s pricing is $11 per person per month with additional costs for add-ons. Lattice maintains a score of 4.7 stars out of five on G2.
7. Bucketlist Rewards
Bucketlist Rewards uses a gamification system to encourage employee engagement. Using a customizable point system, users can accumulate points through their achievements to redeem them for tangible rewards.
Notifications of a reward show the recipient what they did to earn recognition and how many points they’ve received. The rewards system shows employees how many points they need to collect rewards, and you can automate reward delivery. For example, when an employee gets 100 points, they automatically get an Amazon gift card.
Bucketlist’s pricing is available by contacting the company for a quote.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Automated reward delivery feature | Limited admin customizations |
| Customizable point system |
Bucketlist Rewards maintains a 4.8 out of five stars on G2.
8. Guusto
Guusto is a company that works with its clients to design a custom employee recognition solution for their organizations, rather than relying primarily on out-of-the-box features. They go so far as to be willing to test a small pilot program at a reduced cost before requiring a larger financial commitment.
Along with features like milestone awards, years-of-service recognition, real-time recognition, and peer-to-peer mentions, Guusto makes a donation to the One Drop Foundation for every gift users send within the platform. This lets users also make a social impact through their hard work.
Guusto’s pricing ranges from free for a single user account to $3.5 per month for each premium additional seat.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Free plan for a single user | Free plan without most advanced features |
| Social impact through charitable donations |
Guusto maintains 4.9 stars out of 5 on G2.
9. Nectar
Nectar combines a user-friendly interface with all the expected features of an employee recognition system, such as peer-to-peer and manager to worker recognition and a redeemable point system users can turn into rewards. Nectar also incorporates its Challenges feature to promote and reward employees for reaching wellness goals and a Milestones feature for work anniversaries and birthdays.
Nectar’s standard pricing plans range from $5 to $6 per user per month. Prospective customers can also get a quote for a more customized solution.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Incentives for wellness goals | Demo required for access to the software |
| Affordable $5 per user per month price point |
Nectar receives 4.7 stars out of five on G2.
10. Empuls
Empuls includes all the features you’d want in an employee recognition platform, such as on-the-spot recognition, badges, a point system, and a marketplace where employees can pick out earned rewards or redeem their points.
Empuls also incorporates financial rewards such as exclusive discounts to allow employers to reward employees with savings at their favorite retailers.
Empuls pricing is $49 for unlimited employees per month, billed annually.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Exclusive discounts as part of the reward system | Unintuitive user interface, fee for issued rewards |
Empuls has a 4.6 out of five stars on G2.
11. Awardco
Awardco has many features most recognition software offer, but it has a few that differentiate it from the competition. MemoryBooks recognize service anniversaries with compiled photos and milestones from an employee’s entire tenure at your organization.
Awardco can also incentivize things like sales goals, safety streaks, and wellness programs. A robust analytics feature allows you to report on all of them.
Awardco offers three pricing tiers: Core, Plus, and Pro. Contact the vendor for a quote.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Incentives for workplace safety and wellness | Quote requirement for pricing |
| MemoryBooks feature that personalizes work anniversaries |
Awardco gets 4.9 out of five stars on G2.
12. Assembly
Assembly offers a number of recognition features — like feedback surveys, employee nominations, and scheduled birthday and anniversary celebrations — plus AI is incorporated into its platform. With the Recognition GPT feature, managers can add details regarding an employee’s performance into the software, and its AI can generate a message of praise based on those details.
Assembly starts from $2 per member per month for the Recognition tier and tops out at $6 per member per month for Digital HQ. For custom deployments, pricing is also available by quote.
| Pros | Cons |
| AI message generation that’s based on input achievements | Potentially overwhelming with constant alerts |
| Affordable pricing at $2 per person per month |
Assembly has a 4.9 out of five on G2.
13. Kudos
Kudos focuses on a system that allows employees to recognize each other and managers to reward them with tangible awards and incentives, all via an easy-to-use interface.
Kudos uses a point system to award points employees can redeem for rewards. It also features a nomination system that allows users to recommend employees worthy of recognition. Like Assembly, Kudos uses an AI-powered feature, the Kudos Recognition Assistant, to make it easy for users to craft personalized messages.
Pricing is available from Kudos by requesting a quote.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Intuitive interface | No native support for adding GIFs to a post |
| AI for personalized messages | Tight expiration dates on Kudos rewards |
Kudos has a 4.8 rating out of five stars on G2.
14. Qarrot
Qarrot’s main feature is its simplicity. It focuses on three main areas: incentive campaigns, peer recognition, and program management. While the program management feature focuses on reducing the administrative overhead of onboarding, the incentive campaign and peer recognition aspects offer features for setting goals, gamifying rewards to foster positive competition, using badges to tie in with and promote company values, and publicly recognizing employee contributions.
Qarrot offers a free 30-day trial of the software and has a Pro tier at $4 per user per month and a custom option. They also offer discounts to nonprofit and educational organizations.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| An affordable price point of $4 per user per month | Lack of integrations (only Teams and Slack listed) |
Qarrot has 4.5 out of five stars on G2.
15. Cooleaf
Cooleaf offers many of the same features that other employee recognition platforms offer. However, Cooleaf takes a particular interest in keeping remote employees engaged by helping overcome the distance barrier between employees and employers.
Cooleaf uses shared calendars and remote team-building activities to keep remote employees feeling like they’re part of the team even if they’re not in the corporate office. Integration with Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Facebook Workplace allows managers to express appreciation in real time with remote employees. You can also set employees up within Cooleaf to collaborate with project teams and share interests.
Pricing for Cooleaf is available upon request for a quote.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Good analytics for employee engagement levels and initiative effectiveness | Limited integrations |
| Integration with Teams, Google Chat, Salesforce Foundation, and Slack | Lack of robust performance tracking |
Cooleaf maintains a rating of 4.9 out of five stars on G2.
The key to engaged and happy employees
Employee recognition lets you bring out the best in your employees. When employees receive recognition, they get the encouragement that motivates them to achieve company goals.
Having employee recognition software in place will allow you to boost morale, increase retention, and positively affect company culture while rewarding your employees’ hard work.
Photo by: freepik
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