15+ Best Rewards Systems for Employees (2024)

I liked how it dramatically improved morale in a short time by giving tangible rewards to staff that felt stronger than just a thank you. Also, the way it connected the staff to each other and fostered collaboration and teamwork was great. I think it improved our retention too, and diminished some of the conflicts we used to see by creating a better sense of community.

We used it for 2 years. When many employees had to go remote due to covid, we were concerned about a lack of engagement and a lack of connection amongst team members. Introducing this tool improved both. It allows team members to interact and reward each other for excellent work, or for going the extra mile. It helped motivate staff to take on tasks and volunteer as they could see it was noticed and the benefits were more tangible than just a thanks. Also, it eliminated the need for staff to approach management or HR to request things like a small thank you gift and having to deal with the budgets involved. So, it has made keeping everyone connected to each other, to the company, and enthusiastic about their work much easier.

Not everyone was a fan and some staff members felt it had the potential to be a bit like a popularity contest and that the competitions it sometimes inspired were not helpful. Some managers were concerned it was too much like social media and could be a distraction. The analytics and reports could have been more in depth.

I think nectar is better than some similar tools in that its interface is really fun for staff and easy to use. I have used two such programs, and preferred nectar mainly because I saw a lot of engagement from the staff and it required very little instruction to get people up to speed on its use.

Does it make sense for the company to invest in these kinds of rewards, as it is an added cost. Also, it is important to have participation, and ideally that should be voluntary, so people should assess if this tool seems to match the culture of the company and would be well received by staff. Also, there is the possibility for some competition, which can be healthy and positive, but people should consider that and be aware and ready to discuss if staff are concerned.

The company seems to have improved its education and sharing of ideas with its users over time.

Remote companies who are concerned about employee connection, engagement and recognition will benefit. I think a young workforce in particular enjoy this kind of tool, and are used to the social media-like aspects.

It improved employee morale and performance by offering ways for them to connect better with coworkers and supervisors and allowed ongoing, regular, and routine recognition rather than just major things like salary increases and promotions.

Leadership has gained a better sense of how our management is performing and increased the effectiveness of our supervisors at every level.

It's given us valuable data about how our staff are performing, employee turnover, and management performance in reports.

We were concerned about employee engagement given the fact that a large number of employees were remote, and we have multiple worksites. Both factors created a sense of disconnect among the staff from both the company and their co-workers. It seemed to be harming employee morale and, consequently, employee productivity.

We were also very concerned about increased interpersonal conflict, declining employee retention and feedback that generally indicated dissatisfaction. We were also looking for a way to provide ongoing recognition and to attain ongoing feedback, because annual reviews and occasional surveys were not enough, and were not incorporated into the day-to-day culture.

We've used motivosity for about a year and a half. In that time, we've seen improvements in all these areas.

We were not thrilled with the customer support regarding questions about billing and technical errors.

The system seemed to have some technical issues and was sometimes really slow or even would crash.

Though it met our needs, there do appear to be products on the market that have more features for around the same cost.

Having used a few similar products, I think Motivosity does a better than average job creating personalized connections between coworkers and social media-like content for staff members and was very good at fostering a sense of empowerment by management to the employees.

It allows for employees to recognize each other, not just management recognizing employees as is typically the case. Also, the user interface is very straightforward, intuitive, easy to navigate, and easy to use.

A tool like this will very likely increase employee engagement and increase performance and retention, but people should consider the costs involved both in the product and in monetized rewards and recognition to staff.

Once you institute such rewards, taking them away may be poorly received by staff. Also, it requires leadership to support and endorse the efforts to use this product and without that, it may not be effectively deployed, especially if you do not have full participation.

From my understanding, they have refined the features to focus better on reporting and on management development.

Remote workers will especially benefit. It helps to replace some of the personal bonding and connection that usually happens through in-person interactions.

Organizations, where there is infrequent staff interaction, will also find a lot of benefits in both the sense of personal connection and regular recognition that can be lost when workers are not physically near each other often.

Cooleaf is very employee friendly. It can be difficult for larger teams to keep track of accomplishments, birthdays etc but this platform eliminates that concern. It has been instrumental in improving engagement for remote team members post-pandemic.

I have used Cooleaf to manage employees for clients since 2021. The service allows HR to track employee engagement and handle employee reporting. Cooleaf allows me to send surveys, improve peer recognition, and offer rewards for staff. It integrates with other software that we use easily. Cooleaf has a fun interface that enables the HR team to keep track of important changes on the go.

There are sometimes issues with the mobile app sending push notifications. Cooleaf’s voucher program can be tedious to track if the employee does not use their points. The voucher system could use an update with more exciting redeemable options.

Cooleaf is a fun platform. The service is affordable and user friendly. Other platforms like Guusto have slightly better features and redeemable options.

How many employees need Cooleaf access? Do you have a remote staff and will any rewards be applicable in their location?

I have used Cooleaf since 2021 and since that time, they have improved their customer service response and engagement surveys.

Cooleaf is good for small-medium sized organizations that focus on employee engagement. It is a customizable service that can get expensive if you have budgetary constraints.

• I like the software pricing of the tool, it is cheap to use for business purposes and hence does not affect the ROI of the company.
• I like the chat feature which you can use to broadcast your messages amongst the team at no extra cost.
• Event notifications make sure that our users never miss our internal meetings and events

Connecteam is faster and easier to use, which has helped us solve the problem of team management, team collaborations, and group work, it is helping us to share documents, and work plans with the team remotely, and, also we use it as decision-making tool where we use the chat feature of the software to chat with our team remotely to make important decision makings to our tool. I have used the solution for three years and eight months as an administrator of the software

The software has a lot of video tutorials that play automatically hence creating inconvenience, one should only play the video when needed and with his or her consent.It does not have a calendar integration which makes it hard for one to integrate a calendar within the software to track personal events and business events to prevent event conflicts, the text editor in the tool is too slow when you are creating event descriptions, it is impossible to add the ALT text on images that you add in the tool.

They have kept the pricing relatively lower to help even smaller businesses use the solution, and they have a responsive customer support team through the live chat

Good for HR, team leaders, and marketing teams

Simple, efficient, and user-friendly.

I've been using guusto for 2 years without any issues. It's an easy way to send gift cards without having to choose the merchant allowing the recipient to choose whichever one they want.

The fact that you can't choose the exact amount you want with every merchant.

The merchants that are available to redeem. It is important to have a lot of merchants to have variety

They did add a few more merchants and I believe they plan on adding more in the future.

Clients and employees - it's a simple and effective way to send recognition.

I really like the design of emails. I like that you can custom-make emails that are sent to employees. I like to provide employees with a fun tool.

They decided to use workstars as an additional resource for employee recognition for birthdays. They also wanted to recognize employees for anniversaries. They wanted to be able to give each other props on a regular basis.

Thought it was expensive for the platform. Wish it was more user-friendly. Wish we had one dedicated rep.

They are very similar to other platforms out there.

How often you plan to use it. How many employees you will have using it.

I haven’t noticed changes while we used it.

Hybrid organization that has employees all over the world.

Kudos is user-friendly with clean graphics. There are different sections for everything you want to do—milestones, recognition, rewards, spaces, and galleries for team or project pictures. Everyone in the company can see who is being recognized, which encourages more finding the good and positive things to celebrate each day.

Kudos allows everyone in the company to communicate positive affirmation of something someone did. You can send a note, an award, a badge, or award points—there are numerous ways to show recognition. This is peer-to-peer as well as for management, and everyone can see the activity that is happening. It allows for customization, so a company can include rewards specific to their culture. The system allows for team-specific albums to share memorable moments. You can build content for education or games for holidays or team-building exercises.

If you use the Kudos bot, it is difficult to get it out of the way; it won't minimize, and you have to log out and back in. Kudos is highly configurable, allowing you to create awards that fit with company culture, but too many options can interfere with the messaging—the categories need to be fairly broad. Some of the icons are difficult to figure out without clicking on them.

Kudos is fairly easy to use and understand. Some other tools I've used are very complex and make it difficult to see reporting information for your team. Kudos displays this for you all the time; just click on the right icon, and your team information is right there.

Why are you buying an employee recognition tool? What is the measurable goal you hope to achieve in buying this tool? How will you ensure management and employee engagement for ROI?

Kudos listens to customer feedback and watches for bottlenecks or functionality issues so they can adjust accordingly. They try to keep up with trends in employee recognition and be creative in rewards.

Large organizations, especially those with low morale or little faith in executive leadership. Companies that do not pay at or above industry standards would gain positive results from using Kudos.

Bonusly allows employees to feel recognized for their work in a remote work setting. It keeps engagement up, allows for team interaction, and has boosted our company culture. It is wonderful to see the cross-departmental interaction on Bonusly and how each department can now see the amazing work going on across the company. I also like that you can redeem your Bonuses for gift cards!

Our company went fully remote last year resulting in a decline in company culture and engagement with coworkers. People no longer felt as recognized for their work. In October 2022, we researched different recognition platforms and chose to try out Bonusly. There was excitement right away as we announced the new benefit. Our staff took to it immediately and loved the ability to recognize others across the company for the work they are doing. Bonusly makes it fun and easy to recognize coworkers and increase engagement.

I really have no complaints about Bonusly. It does exactly what we want and more! With the integration to Slack, it would be nice to be able to send a Bonus in a DM and actually have it show in that DM. Right now, you can send a Bonus in a DM but it only shows in the Bonusly channel.

I have not used a similar tool but did research other options before choosing Bonusly. Bonusly was competitive in pricing, easy to use, and has many options to redeem your points for. It integrates easily with Slack and allows you to interact with each Bonus by posting gifs and comments.

Before buying, you should think about how much access your employees have to their computers or phones throughout the day. I believe Bonusly is best for companies that work on computers all day so they can easily send a Bonus. You also need to consider your budget because there is a monthly cost and then you have to pay for the points as well. You decide how many points to give your staff each month.

Bonusly is good for companies that have easy access to a computer or phone. Its straightforward design is great for all ages and technical levels.

I love the ability to recognize and reward employees in multiple ways. We love digital gift cards, peer nominations, and culture rewards. We are able to reward employees based on their motivation style. We also enjoy the survey feature.

Our company recently expanded and we wanted a centralized platform to assist us with employee recognition and engagement. Preferably one that was automated.

At this time there isn’t anything we dislike.

Assembly is very affordable and scalable for small businesses. The platform is easy to navigate and we enjoy the integrated training. Other platforms we demoed required us to call an account manager for most inquiries or training. It is also very user-friendly and was easy to roll out to our staff.

They should first have an internal employee recognition and performance management process in mind. This will help them determine which system is best for them. The next thing they should look for is if the tool aligns with their business needs and goals. Lastly, the level of complexity requires to implement and use the system on a daily basis. It needs to be user-friendly to drive employee use.

Assembly has evolved with the the level of integrations it offers. They have also created RecognitionGPT to help create professional recognition responses and announcements.

I think assembly is great for all-size companies. The ideal user is someone in operations such as Supervisors and HR. The best part is the user doesn’t have to be tech-savvy.

I like that the team can log on to the SmartSpending app and manage everything through their phones, which is ideal since our jewelry workshop team doesn't have access to desktops or laptops during the day. The system doesn't require a company email address, which we don't have. It is intuitive and versatile, offering exciting options for the team. The team loves it!

Our founder wanted a self-service reward system for the employees, allowing the rewards to run smoothly without day-to-day involvement. We were looking for an alternative to PerkBox, which we used briefly but found unsuitable for a small company. We then considered Reward Gateway. We have been using it for several months and it has met our needs for a more effective rewards system.

The discounts can sometimes be difficult to claim and don’t always work. We have had situations where we had to claim a refund. The customer service, while responsive, doesn't always have a solution for every problem. Additionally, there are occasional technical issues like long loading times and bugs on the platform.

Reward Gateway allows peer-to-peer recognition, which positively impacts company culture. The analytics provide factual insights into platform usage, enabling us to customize rewards for the team more effectively. The platform offers wellbeing options, which support a healthy work-life balance.

Check how the system integrates with your current HR system to ensure a smooth transition. Make sure you can transfer the existing perks that employees value. Consider the scalability and robustness of the platform. While managing rewards for a small team is easy manually, an all-in-one platform can save headaches for growing companies. Finally, consider which analytics you may find valuable.

We have just started using Reward Gateway some months ago, so the changes and evolution are still to be determined. However, it looks promising.

Reward Gateway is ideal for scale-ups and companies that need to connect employees across different teams. It suits companies that prioritize a healthy culture and employee wellbeing, especially those with a younger workforce.

It's pretty user friendly. Their customer service does pretty well. And they usually assign you a rep to help.

We were previously with OC Tanner and were very disappointed with their service. This prompted us to look elsewhere. We really loved the amazon integration of the Awardco platform. This allowed us to provide whatever gift the employee wanted rather than a limited list for years of service awards.

Their report tools took me a bit to figure out. I wish we could decline recognitions that are inappropriate without the recognizer knowing. Otherwise I'm pretty happy with it.

Easier to use. Better customer service. More gift options.

Service is important. Giving something that your employees would actually like as a reward. Helpful representatives. Ease of implementation. I was happy with their ease of implementation.

I haven't seen dramatic changes in our few years with them but I also haven't felt there was a need.

Our organization has a wide variety of employee types and it has worked well for all.

I appreciate several features of Bucketlist. The activity feed allows me to easily track the recognition others receive. The platform’s user-friendliness is impressive, and the customizable marketplace caters to our specific requirements. I also enjoy exploring the leaderboard and celebrating people’s achievements. Bucketlist’s customizability enables the platform’s look to mirror our brand and image. The web-based interface resembles a typical internet or intranet page.

Among various platforms, none matched the level of customization that Bucketlist provides for our company's Culture, Values, and Reward structure. Additionally, their service, which includes building our system and a hands-on approach during the launch, was unparalleled compared to others. Comparable features at a more budget-friendly price.

I have used the tool for three years and found the system working efficiently. Being able to share positive stories about colleagues’ good deeds in a way that doesn’t embarrass them but is accessible to all members of the company—especially those who wouldn’t typically hear about individual daily acts of kindness—is invaluable. In my experience, this recognition, whether through points or not, fosters a sense of appreciation and well-being.

Bucketlist could enhance its platform by introducing a few key features. Firstly, allowing users to save their location preferences would eliminate the need to repeatedly filter redemption options by location.

Secondly, a comprehensive recognition history page would be valuable, displaying all recognitions received by an individual.

Lastly, when a customer service query is raised, providing a reference number or saving a copy of the query would facilitate efficient follow-up, especially if customer support response times were not as prompt.

Although my suggestion may seem less enthusiastic, I still want to discuss it. When I search for 'Bucketlist' on Google, I encounter numerous unrelated results, with very few relevant to the features that Bucketlist provides. In my opinion, improving the SEO would help Bucketlist stand out in Google search results, making it more accessible.

I appreciate the user-friendly experience. The entire process, from sending recognition to redeeming points, is straightforward to navigate. I also enjoy the playful details like GIFs and emojis, which add a touch of whimsy and meaning to the words and points awarded.

It is easy to customize and use for all businesses and personal use. It is cheap and has no effects of overwhelming. We all want to give recognition and encouragement to our fellow teammates, and this makes it so easy while putting them in a running feed so that everyone can share in the positivity and motivation.

The admin page has been customized in many colors and this has changed many things.

Software companies

It's really easy to use in terms of setup of surveys and adding and deleting employees. You get results instantly with many ways to view the data and drill down. Their support is really good as well - knowledgeable and responsive.

I used WorkTango in a previous role, and used it for about 4 years. We bought it because we were looking for a better way to conduct employee engagement surveys, and WorkTango helped us do that in a way that was completely customizable. We did annual surveys as well as regular pulse checks. With WorkTango we could see participation rates throughout the survey periods and got results instantly. The tool provides some analysis and different ways to cut data (department, tenure, etc.).

The exporting of results isn't perfect - it got better while we were using it but we still had to manually create certain views to share the results we wanted with our executive. The trending feature, which is great overall, doesn't work if you change the wording of a question in any way, so if you want to reword a term the trending doesn't work.

I had always used companies to run engagement surveys and it was a less intuitive process and the results took weeks if not months to get. WorkTango makes it easy and instant.

Think about how often you want to use it and how to make the most of it. If you do one survey a year it's likely not worth it. Make sure you're comfortable interpreting results as well. The system does some of that but you need to be able to analyze responses and determine why things might be surfacing. And don't buy this type of tool if you're not going to do anything with the results.

WorkTango was very responsive to our suggestions for features or improvements. During the 4 years we used it there were some upgrades or changes, as well as one significant upgrade that addressed a lot of things and made the tool better, especially in terms of how data is displayed and exported.

Great for HR teams and people with little to a lot of technical savviness.

• It saves me SO MUCH TIME!
• It's so simple to use and for other people to pick up
• Its use grows organically once people start using it
• The variety of the store gives our people huge autonomy and variety
• It makes rewarding easy and fun
• It helps drive a positive culture, a culture of recognition and appreciation
• I love just how much everyone else loves it
• The team that works there is so helpful and works with you to always deliver improvements
• It continues to deliver extra value, we're always finding new ways to get more out of it.
• It's made my life a million times easier. I could never go back.

We initially bought it to automate the plethora of manual processes that I was trying to execute manually myself beforehand. This includes managing the general reward and recognition schemes, all nomination processes, awarding, and the peer-to-peer R&R scheme we ran. All purchasing of vouchers, prizes, etc in a hybrid world which requires getting people's addresses, etc.

This range of activities took up almost all of my time and left very little to work on bigger strategic projects. It couldn't continue.

Mo automated all these processes, for example sending out the nominations sent in for our quarterly awards to each nominee. This took the best part of a day to manually send all of these emails for every nomination. Now it takes no more than 30 seconds, I click one button for each category and they all go out. This is a time saving that is replicated across multiple processes and has completely changed the scope of what my role can deliver because of the time it saves.

However, the real value has come since then. With my free time, I've been able to develop our use of Mo to be the centerpiece that everything is built around. We've learned much further on the peer-to-peer scheme and the overarching objectives of engagement are about bridging the gap and connecting people to feel part of a team where community is our culture and fun is in our DNA. Mo allows us to drive this culture shift, connecting people all over the country through positive interactions on the platform, strengthening working relationships and our sense of broader identity. We've been using it for 2 years now, and are averaging 1500 moments shared on the platform a month (each being a recognition, thank you, or award) with c1100 users. It's helped drive a 1.9 increase in our engagement score in Peakon in 1 year.

• I really can't call out things I dislike. The only feedback I get is:
• You can't edit a moment once you've sent it (but I understand why that's the case).

It wraps everything up into one easy-to-use and comprehensive platform. At the same time, it's not cluttered with useless extras. The service you get for the price is extremely good, the customer service is exceptional and the team is an absolute pleasure to work with.

It was the only platform I found that facilitated the peer-to-peer scheme I was running. I was able to completely replicate the model in Mo but have the entire thing automated. Nothing else allowed that level of autonomy for the user but control for the admin too. The store is extremely comprehensive too which makes a massive difference. Others were good but the Mo one is bang on with variety and caters to a wide range of preferences. Once or twice at the start, I had people ask if other stores could be added but I've never had it since.

The Boost functionality and how it helps support our agile ways of working has been a real leap forward and their manager assistant is a really helpful tool for our leadership population. It seems as time goes on, the more and more we can align how we work and what we do to utilize the platform to support us.

Think about what you really need, and what problem are you directly trying to solve. That's the first question. The second is what's possible. My view shifted so much once we got Mo to all these other possibilities that I hadn't considered before. Ask the what-if questions, challenge what you are doing, and think what would be the dream scenario. Also, think of it from a bigger cultural piece. What attitudes, behaviors, and cultures are you wanting to drive within your business and what's going to best support you in doing that. Also, does it automate for you? The more it automates, the more time you have to dig deeper into the bigger issues/questions.

Since we started using it 2 years ago. It introduced the Boost function and the manager's assistance. These two upgrades more specifically target the leadership population as we/they'd identified that they were the harder population to get engaged with the platform. These upgrades build in routine and simple triggers which are easy for leaders to respond to. The assistant also gives all the key information you need in one easy place (budgets, team activity, etc) but also great in-house articles to get people thinking about management approaches with a more modern and progressive approach which I know has been really well received.

I would say a more modern organization or one that wants to modernize. It's probably not good for a traditional working environment so much. It works for big businesses and small businesses too. Its functionality allows you to manage the view in a way that means you can scale as large as you like and not lose the personal touch it offers.

The convenience for HR and the employees is a benefit. The engagement and ease of engagement improves employee satisfaction. The ROI on using Terryberry for our company will continue to grow.

We bought Terryberry to align our employee recognition program across locations and regions. We have used it since 2016. The benefits of using the platform is that people across locations and regions can recognize each other easily and effectively. You can showcase how locations work together. Terryberry provides a platform to display how aligning to the company values can get you rewarded. It has worked really well for our organizational structure and size.

Some dislike the options of rewards. I feel only a portion of the company uses it - the employees who work independently at a desk. I would like to see more features related to AI.

We like the one stop solution that Terryberry provides.

The number of employees they have. The number of employees who are computer-based and technology savvy. The budget for employee recognition and how the system takes from that cost.

It has improved the website design and features.

Remote teams mainly.

• What I like is that it is very user-friendly. Most employees find it very easy to navigate and use.
• The customer support has been second to none; no inquiry is too difficult, and they are always happy to help - Paul has been such a massive help to us.
• Having one system that we can utilize for many different rewards, recognition, feedback, and wellness, as well as a consistent approach for the whole organization, made my job easier!

The organization I worked for had no recognition program or tools to monitor employee satisfaction. Some managers had their own processes for their teams, while others did nothing. This inconsistency became a noticeable issue, with employees leaving and citing this as a factor. I was brought in to review HR operations and found this was one of many areas needing improvement. We chose Vantage Circle for its ease of use, integration with our internal systems, and compatibility with our overseas virtual assistants. Vantage Circle has been in place for over three years and remains a critical part of the organization.

• We had to customize our rewards programs to suit Vantage Circle, which was challenging but ultimately beneficial.
• The gift card options are limited, requiring customization to match staff preferences.
• It can be costly, especially with the more expensive plan, but the benefits outweigh the costs in terms of staff retention and employer reputation.

Vantage Circle stood out for its seamless integration with our internal systems and overseas virtual assistants. Its user-friendly interface and ability to package wellness, rewards, recognition, feedback, and onboarding into one system were crucial. We preferred having all functions in one system rather than using multiple tools for different purposes.

Consider the need for a user-friendly system that staff can easily use and integrate with existing systems. Determine what specific functions you need to ensure consistency across the organization. Vantage Circle is ideal if you aim to stand out as an employer of choice.

Vantage Circle has been responsive to recommendations for improvement, such as adding more gift options. They keep up with technology changes and provide a user-friendly app with accessible podcasts and webinars.

Vantage Circle is ideal for organizations serious about employee retention and becoming an employer of choice.