15 Best Employee Recognition Platforms to Empower Your Team

The title of the article next to an illustration representing employee recognition.

Effective recognition strategies motivate 80% of employees to work harder and reduce turnover rates by 31%. But even with well-planned tactics, such as corporate philanthropy or employee rewards, your strategy may lack an essential element to success: employee recognition platforms.

The right tools can standardize, streamline, and enhance your employee recognition efforts. In this guide, we’ll go over everything you need to know about these platforms, including:

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a great way to start showing employees that you care, but you can make it a lot more meaningful with the right tools. Let’s explore what these solutions are and why they matter.

Learn more about how auto-submission can integrate with your employee recognition platforms.

Employee Recognition Platforms FAQ

What Are Employee Recognition Platforms?

Employee recognition platforms are tools that streamline and enhance employee engagement by enabling organizations to show appreciation for their teams. While this software is popular among companies for corporate appreciation efforts, it can be used by any organization that employs people, including nonprofits.

These solutions facilitate all types of recognition efforts, including:

  • Top-down recognition, or appreciation from company leaders to employees
  • Peer-to-peer recognition, which refers to appreciation efforts between colleagues
  • Employee-to-manager recognition, where direct reports recognize their managers

In addition to recognizing various team members, these platforms also empower recognition for any occasion, including professional achievements, personal milestones, and other successes.

Why Is Employee Recognition Software Important?

Making employees feel valued is essential for increased retention, productivity, and engagement. Because the right software makes your employee recognition efforts easier and more effective, these platforms have a direct impact on your company’s culture and productivity.

Research shows that recognition benefits your organization in the following ways:

Employee recognition statistics, which prove why recognition software is important.

  • Greater retention: Recognition impacts most employees’ loyalties to their employers. In fact, 76% of employees will look for another job opportunity if they don’t feel valued by their current employer.
  • Increased productivity: Equipped with the right tools, you’ll be able to standardize recognition. A well-designed recognition program can increase average employee performance by 11.1%.
  • Stronger engagement: 85% of companies see greater employee engagement when they spend just 1% more on recognition. This means your investment in employee recognition platforms has the power to strengthen your team’s overall engagement!

However, not just any software will do! You’ll need to choose the right platform that meets your company’s unique needs to best show your appreciation.

How Does My Company Choose Employee Recognition Platforms?

To choose the right solution for your recognition needs, follow these steps:

The steps to choosing employee recognition platforms, which are detailed in the text below.

  1. Look for essential features. While every company’s recognition efforts are different, there are a few top features you’ll need for a comprehensive approach to recognition. The best software options allow you to collect employee feedback, facilitate peer-to-peer recognition, gamify the recognition process, and reward employees with gifts.
  2. Gather a list of top providers. That’s where this guide comes in! Keep reading to learn more about the top-rated platforms and narrow your search by choosing your favorites.
  3. Test out your top options. Many providers offer free consultations or demos, so you can try out a platform before committing to it. Make use of these options to determine if a solution is easy to use and includes all the features you’re looking for.

After you’ve researched your options, choose the solution that best fits your company’s needs. Remember to look for platforms that integrate with other tools your organization already uses or is considering using. This way, you can invest in multiple platforms or continue growing your toolkit over time for the most robust recognition resources!

How Do Matching Gifts Align With Employee Recognition?

Employee recognition is all about making your team feel valued—not only as workers but as human beings. And if your company is already dedicated to corporate social responsibility, you have a head start in showing employees that you care!

Supporting employee giving shows that your organization cares about the causes that are important to them and supports their philanthropic endeavors. Plus, 55% of employees say they would take a pay cut to work for a socially responsible company, meaning that your business’s philanthropic efforts are likely more valuable than direct compensation to about half of your team.

Matching gifts is an easy way to do this. Allow employees to donate to charities of their choice, then match their donations to show your support. Make sure to promote your matching gift program so that employees know about it and submit a request when they donate.

Learn how auto-submission can integrate with your employee recognition platforms to engage employees.

Best Overall Employee Recognition Platform: eCardWidget

The top recommendation for employee recognition platforms, eCardWidget.

Effective recognition is engaging and meaningful, so you’ll need a platform that empowers you to infuse your strategies with creativity. That’s why eCardWidget is our top recommendation for recognition software! This innovative platform offers the flexibility to showcase your organization’s branding and values in custom eCards.

For a quick overview of how the platform works, check out the following video:

As the video explains, your organization can create branded employee recognition cards that emphasize company values or goals. Then, managers and peers alike can select and customize eCards with personalized notes before sending them off to show their appreciation for a team member.

Here are some features that make eCardWidget the overall best recognition software:

  • Feedback tools: Aside from the ability to create completely customized eCards with intuitive design tools, this platform also allows senders to add personal messages when sending a card. This means that on top of receiving a card designed to recognize a specific achievement, employees receive meaningful messages with additional feedback on their performance.
  • Peer-to-peer capabilities: Anyone at your organization can send eCards, especially with a pre-designed library of cards branded to your organization. This makes it a great tool not just for top-down recognition, but also for peer-to-peer appreciation.
  • Tracking and reporting: eCardWidget tracks data about your cards, giving you a comprehensive view of how the platform is used and who is being recognized for what. For instance, you might start a competition to see which employee or team can receive the most eCards. Or, you could monitor eCards’ engagement metrics as an indicator of your recognition program’s performance. Either way, eCardWidget’s tracking and reporting capabilities give you the data you need to guide powerful recognition.

Additionally, eCardWidget offers pricing options for organizations of any size, making it an accessible platform no matter your budget.

Learn more about our top recommended employee recognition platform, eCardWidget.

Best Employee Recognition Platforms for Feedback

Personalized recognition is a cornerstone of team encouragement. However, feedback is a two-way street—employees need to feel heard to increase their engagement. Let’s explore some recognition platforms that allow you to collect and provide specific feedback.

Logos of the best employee recognition platforms for providing specific feedback.

WorkTango

WorkTango standardizes appreciation and growth by collecting employee feedback and incentivizing positive behaviors. Its most notable features include:

  • Nomination tools: Voting features that allow employees to nominate their peers for awards
  • Employee surveys and insights: Real-time dashboards and analytics that enable company leaders to act on employee sentiment
  • Goal tracking: Conversation agendas and notes that link with employee goals to drive discussions about growth and accountability

For pricing details and solution specifics, schedule a demo with the WorkTango team.

Motivosity

Motivosity is a social-media-style interface that encourages team interactions and facilitates genuine feedback. This platform helps users foster a sense of community through the following features:

  • Consumable reports: Gather feedback from anonymous surveys to understand how employees feel about their jobs. Then, use this data to identify trends or patterns and develop a plan for improving engagement.
  • Awards and badges: Reward employees with customizable awards and badges that are specific to their accomplishments. Share these accolades publicly on the platform to incentivize competition across your team.
  • Customizable company stores: Create an online store for unique employee gifts, like branded company merchandise or gift cards for local establishments. Allow employees to redeem gifts with their rewards cards.

Motivosity offers customized quotes based on your team’s size and recognition needs. Contact them to find the right pricing model for your organization!

Leapsome

Leapsome is an HR tool that facilitates performance reviews, engagement surveys, one-on-one meetings, and more. Plus, this platform offers a robust list of integrations, allowing your organization to pair Leapsome’s features with your existing toolkit.

To boost your organization’s success, Leapsome offers the following customer support:

  • A dedicated Customer Success Manager who works directly with your company
  • Implementation support to help you get up and running
  • Training and videos to provide additional resources for support

Leapsome offers modular pricing based on your team’s recognition needs.

BlueBoard

Through unique and meaningful recognition, BlueBoard enables organizations to create memorable experiences for their teams. After recognizing employees, you can gather feedback through automated surveys to learn how your team feels about your recognition efforts.

Also, BlueBoard integrates with your existing communication channels to connect employees through shared experiences. This way, you’ll not only generate excitement about your recognition program but also hear what employees have to say about it.

BlueBoard provides custom quotes, so you’ll need to contact their team for a personalized pricing plan.

Best Platforms for Peer-to-Peer Recognition

You know that there are numerous types of employee recognition, including peer-to-peer appreciation. Enabling employees to recognize each other fosters a close-knit community and positive work culture, which can hugely impact your team’s engagement.

Let’s explore the best platforms for peer-to-peer recognition.

Logos of the best employee recognition platforms for peer-to-peer recognition.

HeyTaco

HeyTaco uses virtual “tacos” to empower peer-to-peer recognition. Employees send “tacos” to celebrate a peer’s hard work and accumulate “tacos” over time for a visual representation of their contributions to the company!

Along with these tasty tokens of appreciation, this platform offers the following features:

  • Leaderboards that encourage healthy competition
  • Reporting analytics to measure employee engagement in the program
  • Taco shop, where collected tacos can be traded in for tangible rewards like company swag

Try HeyTaco free for 30 days to decide if this is the right platform for your team.

Recognize

Shape employee recognition through company values with Recognize, a platform that awards employees through recognition badges. You can assign point values to different badges and track employees’ high scores.

Coworkers can nominate their fellow employees for badges when someone exhibits a company value. As badges (and their associated points) accumulate over time, team members can redeem rewards!

Additionally, managers can create specific tasks to provide clear guidelines for how to earn a badge. This way, employees have a clear understanding of how to accomplish goals that directly align with the company’s values. Try this platform with one of their yearly subscriptions, starting at $3,999 per year.

Workhuman

Workhuman fosters a humanized work environment by encouraging employees to celebrate both work achievements and personal milestones through its peer-to-peer recognition capabilities. This platform’s notable features include:

  • Social recognition: Foster a culture of community by empowering employees to recognize each other.
  • Personal connection: Connect with employees through frequent check-ins.
  • Life event milestones: Encourage employees to share pictures, videos, and quick updates on important life moments.

Along with fostering individualistic collaboration and appreciation, Workhuman also brings your team together to make global connections by facilitating CSR and volunteer initiatives. Contact their team to learn about pricing.

Mo

Mo is an employee recognition platform that boosts the overall company culture by highlighting and treasuring top team moments. Some of its key features include:

  • Public recognition: Allow employees to celebrate each others’ achievements and occasions by posting publicly on the platform.
  • Easy reinforcement: Mo offers Boosts, or reminders, to prompt peer-to-peer recognition.
  • Automation: Allow Mo to access data from your Human Resources Information System (HRIS) to access automated celebrations for birthdays, work anniversaries, and other occasions.

Mo’s three pricing plans offer a variety of features. Contact their team for a custom quote and to learn which features your organization needs.

Best Platforms For Gamification

To increase engagement with your employee recognition efforts, choose a platform that adds an element of gamification! Incorporating game-like features can motivate employees to perform at their best and offer a sense of achievement upon earning a prize or “winning.”

Here are the top recognition platforms that offer gamification features.

Logos of the top recommended employee recognition platforms that offer gamification.

EngageWith

EngageWith is an employee recognition platform that transforms team member accomplishments into enticing rewards, like redeemable points on websites such as Amazon or Nike. This tool also offers leaderboards to rank employees based on the recognition they’ve sent and received.

To boost engagement, the tool also enables team members to share their feedback through anonymous surveys. Start your 30-day free trial to decide whether this tool is the right solution for your staff.

Assembly

Assembly is a recognition tool that can be integrated with Slack or Microsoft Teams to keep employee appreciation cohesive with your other communications. This platform gamifies recognition through the following features:

  • Peer-to-peer nominations
  • Enticing awards
  • Competitive points system

With notable clients such as Coca-Cola and Amazon, Assembly is a popular and reliable choice for employee recognition. Reach out to their team for a custom pricing plan.

O. C. Tanner

Built for large-scale recognition programs, O. C. Tanner’s employee recognition software offers research-backed features to maximize workplace satisfaction. Fuel appreciation through gamified incentives such as:

  • Points
  • Rewards cards and store
  • Social feed
  • Swag boxes

In addition to these tools, O. C. Tanner offers access to culture consulting when you purchase their software. This helps you gain professional insight into the best parts of your workplace culture and how to advance it. Choose a package with the features you need and contact their team for a quote.

Fond

Fond is a points-based recognition solution that facilitates employee appreciation through public acknowledgment, enticing awards, and company discounts. This platform can even track your program’s performance, including:

  • Award redemption history
  • Popular perks
  • Program usage

Fond boasts transparent pricing, with no item markups, additional fees, point breakage, or hidden fees. Request a demo to determine if this solution is the right fit for your organization’s needs and budget.

Best Employee Recognition Platforms for Gifts

Gifts can be a meaningful way to share your appreciation for your team. Luckily, there are a variety of platforms that facilitate gift-giving, from charitable donations to tangible gift items.

Here are our favorite solutions in this category.

Logos of the top employee recognition platforms for gift-giving.

360MatchPro

The best gift you can give an employee is showing that you care about the same things they do. This is why matching gifts are a meaningful way to connect with and engage employees!

While 360MatchPro is a solution built for nonprofits, it integrates with many CSR platforms to help employees more easily submit match requests when donating to their favorite charities. By contributing to the causes they’re passionate about, you’ll give employees the best gift of all: your social responsibility and investment in their motivations.

85% of employees say that a business is more trustworthy when it engages employees in its charitable giving decisions, and 86% believe they should have a say in where a company’s charitable funds go. Determine whether your CSR platform integrates with 360MatchPro and start promoting matching gifts to your employees today!

Learn more about matching gifts, which can greatly impact employee recognition.

Snappy

Snappy is exactly what it sounds like—employee gifting in a snap! Instead of offering a pages-long award store with an overwhelming amount of award options, send a short list of gifts and let employees choose!

For occasions when you know exactly what to give employees, send the gift directly to them without waiting for them to choose. You can also customize the digital unwrapping experience by adding your logo and other brand elements before delivering gifts to employees’ inboxes.

Snappy offers a free plan for teams and small businesses, with additional paid options for larger companies. Reach out to their team to determine which plan you need and how to get started.

Guusto

Guusto is a rewards-based recognition solution that facilitates a variety of employee recognition programs, including:

  • Milestone or anniversary awards
  • Manager recognition bonuses
  • Peer-to-peer nominations
  • Learning and development incentives
  • Birthday and holiday gifts
  • Performance goal awards

This platform’s wide range of award options makes it a top tool for employee gift-giving. Guusto even offers printable rewards for tech-averse employees, so not all of your gifts have to be digital! Start for free with a single user account or upgrade to their paid plans to access more recognition features.

HALO

For a gifting system that incentivizes top performance, look no further than HALO! This scalable platform offers gifting and incentives tailored to your company’s unique culture. These gifts are designed to motivate your employees by rewarding:

  • Work-related achievements
  • Employee service milestones
  • Reached revenue goals

Additionally, HALO empowers companies to show their appreciation for employees from their very first day on the job with employee onboarding kits. Contact their team for detailed pricing information.

Final Thoughts on Employee Recognition Software

Employee recognition is undoubtedly important for your company’s culture, and the right tools can make it even more successful. Compile a list of your must-have features, then research top providers to find the best fit for your team.

In the meantime, here are a few resources to explore for more information on the various ways to engage your employees:

Get a demo of the top recommended employee recognition platform, eCardWidget.

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