Modern Employee Recognition Software

Identifying the right employee recognition software is a different journey for every organisation. It’s important to determine how well a potential software aligns with your culture strategies and technology stack. The winning solution should not only have all the key components of a sound recognition programme, but it should also integrate smoothly into the mix of solutions and tools your people already use.

To maximise the effectiveness and culture-building power of recognition, consider platforms that deliver more advanced features, including comprehensive data and reporting options, global reach, offline solutions, AI-informed tools, customisation, incentives, and more.

The sheer volume of employee recognition software providers can make it difficult for HR leaders to understand which potential partners might be the best fit. This article outlines the essential, advanced, and cutting-edge recognition features available on the market today.

Once you identify the specific goals you hope to achieve with recognition and understand the various capabilities available, you can match your desired outcomes with the right software solution.

To learn more about the many reasons to adopt a recognition programme, see How to Create Effective Employee Recognition Programmes.

Which employee recognition software best fits my organisation and culture?

The number of recognition solutions on the market can be overwhelming, and not every software platform will be a good fit for your needs. It’s important to ask the right questions during your evaluation of potential recognition software platforms. These questions include:

• Does it match our existing company culture?
• Will it help us achieve our future workplace culture goals?
• Does it include tools for measurement and reporting?
• Will it work both globally and at the team level?
• Can it adapt to meet future, yet-to-be-identified needs?
• Can it integrate well with our other HRIS technologies?
• Are rewards desirable, timely, and meaningful?

The most important factor when selecting a recognition provider is whether their solution will help your organisation accomplish your top goals when it comes to people strategy and culture.

Features to look for as you compare employee recognition vendors

As you consider employee recognition software vendors, there are several critical needs to keep in mind. You’ll want to ensure the solution you choose offers all of the features  you need to make a cultural impact across multiple offices and geographical regions.

Consider whether the programme is accessible for all employees, both in-office and deskless staff. Do leaders have the tools they need to recognise and reward individuals, incentivize team goals and behaviours, and celebrate career milestones? And does the platform provide data for leaders and administrators to monitor usage and steer outcomes?

The table below outlines the essential, advanced, and cutting-edge features of employee recognition software.

ESSENTIAL

• Ease of use
• Manager-to-employee recognition
• Peer-to-peer recognition
• Recognition social wall
• Years-of-service recognition
• Global awards fulfillment
• Mobile recognition app
• Cloud-based solution with Single Sign-On (SSO)
• Highest security and privacy protocols

ADVANCED

• Technology integrations
• Team and individual incentives
• AI-supported learning, communication, and data tools
• Budget management and tracking
• Robust data dashboards and predictive analytics

CUTTING-EDGE

• Curated marketplaces support recognition goals
• Recognition solutions for offline employees
• Symbolic recognition supports company culture
• Convenient IT self-service
• New ways to leverage recognition

Essential features for any enterprise employee recognition software

In any software category, some features are table stakes—the minimum entry requirements that every solution should offer. These essential features have come to be expected, especially for recognition solutions at the enterprise level. You should cut any software vendor from your consideration list if they can’t confidently deliver all of these features, including:

Ease of use

No matter how many robust features, capabilities, and layers of configurable, secure code support your recognition software, the user experience must be intuitive, human, simple, and fun to use. 

Giving and receiving recognition should be a joyful event that connects us to the work we do, the organisation we do it for, and the people we work with. That’s why recognition software should feel natural, friendly, and easy to use. When it does, employee participation, and all the good that comes with it, soars.

Manager-to-employee recognition

A culture of appreciation starts at the top. Leaders should practice and exemplify great recognition habits for their teams. Recognition software needs to enable and empower leaders to appreciate, retain, and support the performance of their teams by giving recognition and delivering monetary rewards through points. Whatever software you choose should provide tools and reports to help managers monitor the flow of recognition and support a culture of appreciation within their team.

Peer-to-peer recognition

Organisations with a thriving culture of appreciation empower their employees to share recognition with one another. Whether it’s a simple thank you, an eCard, points, or a nomination for a special award, peer-to-peer recognition fuels meaningful workplace connection.

“It’s so quick to give something as small as an eCard, but it means the world to employees. In the past it was a lengthy nomination process that you could only do once a quarter. Now we can send an eCard to any of our peers, any time of the day. It makes a difference to frontline colleagues in terms of their productivity.”
—Employee Recognition Champion, CIBC

Recognition social wall

Incorporating a social feed into your programme spreads the news about great work happening enterprise-wide. Publishing recognition activity on an internal social wall invites all employees to follow along and celebrate cross-departmental achievements. Social sharing is a key feature of an effective recognition programme, helping employees feel greater pride in their achievements and spreading motivation to innovate and do great work throughout your organisation.

Years-of-service recognition

Celebrating career anniversaries (also called years-of-service awards) can dramatically improve employee tenure, loyalty, and connection to your organisation. Look for a software solution that does more than deliver an award on the anniversary date.

When anniversary recognition experiences are meaningful and personalised, the odds employees will feel a strong desire to stay a year from now increase by 10x and their sense of connection to the organisation increases by 9x.
—O.C. Tanner Institute, Global Culture Report

O.C. Tanner’s Culture Cloud® recognition offers Yearbook™, a digital and print experience that automatically collects team comments, photos, and memories to create a thoughtful keepsake of the career anniversary, along with an opportunity to choose an award from a digital catalogue of special gifts.

A top-of-the-line anniversary celebration can also include company-branded numeral trophies, or other customised awards, honoring important milestone years of service.

Global awards fulfillment

Most employee recognition programmes are connected to an awards catalogue or shopping experience where participants can redeem points for a reward. Some companies only offer gift cards or third-party fulfillment. The best reward experiences include a robust selection of brand name merchandise, tech, experiences, gift cards, charitable giving, and more.

The most effective solutions also offer features including global fulfillment, custom filtering by teams or location, and other extras like a personal wish list or the opportunity to buy more points. Consider the warranty and customer service benefits of a partner who fulfills awards themselves rather than through third-party vendors, such as Amazon.

“The flexibility of choosing something for myself or someone I love, something I need in the kitchen or a gadget I can use or something I can wear, something that doesn’t have to be expensive but is of great quality, that’s supported by great customer service from O.C. Tanner—that’s something that is hugely appreciated by our associates,”
‍—AVP, Culture and Inclusion, Ensemble Health

Mobile recognition app

If you want your team to be fully engaged in employee recognition, a mobile app version of your programme is a necessity. Research shows that mobile recognition users give 98% more recognition than their desktop-only counterparts.

A well-designed recognition app experience will include all the basic functions of the platform, including giving and receiving recognition, commenting, shopping for awards, and celebrating years-of-service anniversaries. Be sure your vendor offers iOS- and Android-native apps. And for companies with mobile application management (MAM) policies, you’ll want to ensure the platform you choose offers a high security version of their recognition app, such as Culture Cloud for Intune.

“O.C. Tanner has helped with the strategy of how to do recognition, and also the tactics available. We have so much mobility with the Culture Cloud mobile app, plug-in into Outlook, and all the ways to make it easy for leaders and peers to recognise one another.”
‍—Managing Director of Compensation, Recognition, & Mobility, Delta Airlines

Cloud-based solution with Single Sign On (SSO)

Employers want a flexible, cloud-based solution that can be implemented globally throughout an organisation. Single Sign On (SSO) is critical for ease-of-use in accessing the platform. You don’t want to make employees sign on to use the tool multiple times a day, from different integrations or applications. Constant availability and access fuels participation, which is the key to a successful programme.

Highest security and privacy protocols

For enterprise-level solutions, verified security protocols are essential, not optional. A secure employee recognition platform must meet a high standard for data management.

For maximum information security, check that the provider you’re considering has ISO 27001 certification, an international standard verified by an independent, accredited auditor that a company has the appropriate policies, risk management, controls, and continuous improvement plans in place to insure data privacy and security across your organisation. Additionally, look for a recognition platform that keeps employee data safe by collecting only what’s needed, protects it with strong security, and follows global privacy standards (such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation) so you can feel confident your employees’ information is handled with care.

O.C. Tanner’s Culture Cloud platform is ISO 27001 certified and fully compliant with global privacy regulations.

Advanced features help organisations launch more robust recognition solutions

More versatile employee recognition solutions offer additional features that provide greater functionality, including technology integrations, tools for incentivizing performance and goals, AI-supported features, budget management, and robust data and analytics.

Critical advanced features to look for and compare include:

Technology integrations

It’s critical to ensure your recognition software can integrate with the tools employees and administrators use every day. When employees can access recognition within the flow of work through integrations in the tools they use daily, such as Microsoft Outlook and Teams, Slack, or Gmail, recognition happens more frequently and stays top of mind.

Administrators also benefit from integrations with common HRIS tools, such as Workday and SuccessFactors, which enable your recognition solution to share data and analytics with these critical HR tools, improving the performance of both your HRIS systems and your recognition solution.

“The Culture Cloud integration with Workday HCM allows us to deploy population updates easily and eliminate manual intervention. It also gives our HR team better insight into feedback—helping us recognise and retain top talent.”
—SVP of Human Resources, Alliance Healthcare Services

Team and individual incentives

Sophisticated recognition software can include options to incentivize team goals and individual behaviours, through earning recognition points. If you’re looking to launch initiatives around safety, skill building, performance, compliance, or other goals while fostering team connections and individual skill-building, this recognition tool can provide an easy, quick-to-implement solution that motivates employees to achieve important goals.

“The Culture Cloud initiative programme allows for the flexibility that an organisation of our size and global presence requires. It ensures that our programme offers the right recognition fit for any action in the company, regardless of how small (like submitting a nomination) or how big (recording a patent)!”
—Global Recognition Programme Leader, 3M

AI-supported learning, communication, and data tools

The power of AI is now being integrated into some recognition platforms to help users learn recognition best practices or offer suggested changes to improve recognition messages. In the Culture Cloud recognition platform, an AI “Recognition Coach” delivers in-the-moment micro coaching to help employees craft meaningful, inclusive recognition messages, which are optional to apply and editable by the user.

AI can be incorporated into recognition reporting tools, to deliver insights into usage and best practices. If your company wants to keep pace, ask how the platform you’re considering incorporates the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence.

Budget management and tracking

Is it easy to configure and manage budgets within the recognition solution you’re considering? It’s important to be able to set budgets by location, business type, or eligibility. You will also want the ability to set the timing of when budgets are refreshed, and how easily programme managers can respond to usage reporting.

Robust data dashboards and predictive analytics

Your solution should be tailored to your desired outcomes. Tracking and measuring those outcomes is key, and any recognition platform worth considering will include a robust set of self-service data dashboards.

Managers need visibility into daily programme activity, and with intuitive dashboards and predictive analytics, such as Culture Cloud’s Flight Risk tool, they can access valuable stats, see what’s happening with recognition among team members, and understand actions that can be taken based on recognition data.

Administrators also need data, such as tracking the ROI of your recognition platform over time (across a three-year contract, for example). With the right reporting features, HR leaders can demonstrate programme impact and ROI to executive teams and other leaders across the organisation.

Culture Cloud’s cutting-edge features promote a culture of appreciation

With Culture Cloud by O.C. Tanner, you get the world’s most complete recognition solution with industry-leading customisation and adaptability, and entirely new ways to leverage recognition, both within and outside of your organisation.

These culture-shaping features include:

Curated marketplaces support recognition goals

With Culture Cloud, you can design customised award shopping experiences that help employees thrive. These specialty stores can be used to support events like Employee Appreciation Day, holidays, birthdays, or company milestones, with a special selection of gifts. Create a company store filled with logo-branded swag, to motivate company loyalty and pride, or an LSA store, with a selection of health and wellness merchandise.

Recognition solutions for offline employees

Approximately 80% of the global workforce does not sit at a desk or have access to a computer during the workday. Delivering employee recognition to these workers is a challenge that only the most sophisticated recognition providers can address.

Culture Cloud employee recognition provides many ways to deliver meaningful appreciation to frontline workers:

• Say Thanks™ is an external recognition solution where patients, passengers, and customers can recognise frontline workers for excellent service through a personalised QR code that sends points directly to the employee.
• With Manager Store, team leads can access rewards, company-branded swag, and other recognition tools to honor employees during in-person team huddles.
• Reward hard-to-reach employees worldwide with O.C. Tanner’s Thanks VISA Cash Card, which is accepted in 160+ countries and is available as a physical or digital award.
• Send swag boxes with company branded gifts to celebrate onboarding, milestones, company-wide celebrations, and life events, such as welcoming a new baby.

“We worked hand-in-hand with O.C. Tanner to ensure all employees had access to Everyday Wins, which is often the single biggest barrier. Our office employees had computers, but for many of our employees we created kiosks so they could access the programme.”
—Global Recognition Leader, 3M

Symbolic recognition supports company culture

From president’s awards and employee-of-the-year honors, to career anniversary commemoration or the accomplishment of a company goal, symbolic recognition not only tells your company’s story, it elevates loyalty, provides a visible reminder of employee contributions and tenure, and increases recognition effectiveness.

O.C. Tanner has 100 years of experience helping organisations design and craft beautiful symbolic awards that reflect your company values, legacy, and accomplishments.

Natural resources company BHP worked with O.C. Tanner to craft a series of custom-made pins that are given to employees on career anniversaries. Each pin reflects the tools of their trade and the company’s history and identity.

“Everyone receives a hard hat pin on their first anniversary with BHP, providing a symbol of the connection and contribution they've made to our company during their first year.”
—Kirrily Lansdown, BHP, Head of Global Reward  

Handcrafted and custom branded, O.C. Tanner’s Careerscapes celebrate the story of an employee’s career with your company, as they collect unique icons representing personal achievements, company victories, and career milestones.

“The Careerscapes are such a hit, employees look forward to receiving them and adding to them. Being able to customise to our brand makes employees huge fans.”
—Head of Global Total Rewards and People Operations, Pokemon

Convenient IT self-service

‍The Culture Cloud platform includes a Developer Portal with everything your IT team needs to build and manage recognition integrations themselves, with APIs that allow systems to connect recognition data with more than 75 HRIS systems, payroll, and other programmes, along with case studies, documentation, sample code, and testing tools.

New ways to leverage recognition

Today’s solutions are expanding the boundaries of the traditional employee recognition experience. With the Culture Cloud platform, employees can share their recognition moments on LinkedIn, validating their professional reputation and skills, while highlighting your company values, company culture, and potentially attracting new talent.

Employees can also self-report their workplace wins on the Culture Cloud social wall and share recognition moments via email, spreading news about great work happening within their team to other departments or stakeholders and instilling a culture of appreciation throughout the organisation.

Recognition Moments, a personalised year-end recognition “wrap” that highlights recognition received and given by the user throughout the calendar year, is a feel-good, motivational experience available exclusively on the Culture Cloud mobile app.

“As we went through the process it became very evident that O.C. Tanner really had the tools, the systems, the people, and the expertise that we were looking for. They would really bring best-in-class recognition to American.”
—Senior Manager, Recognition and Engagement, American Airlines

Choose the employee recognition software that fits your organisation and your goals

After conducting a thorough evaluation of several employee recognition software options, your choice of a partner will come down to this question: “Which software will make the maximum impact on advancing the goals of our company culture?"

Learn more about the features and benefits of Culture Cloud from O.C. Tanner, an employee recognition software solution designed to help large organisations build thriving workplace cultures.