Logiciel moderne de reconnaissance des employés

Identifying the right employee recognition software is a different journey for every organization. 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 program, but it should also integrate smoothly into the mix of solutions and tools your people already use.

To maximize 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, customization, 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 program, see How to Create Effective Employee Recognition Programs.

Which employee recognition software best fits my organization 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:

• Cela correspond-il à notre culture d'entreprise actuelle ?
• Will it help us achieve our future workplace culture goals?
• Does it include tools for measurement and reporting?
• Cela fonctionnera-t-il aussi bien à l'échelle mondiale qu'au niveau de l'équipe ?
• Peut-il s'adapter pour répondre à des besoins futurs qui restent encore à définir ?
• 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 organization 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 program is accessible for all employees, both in-office and deskless staff. Do leaders have the tools they need to recognize and reward individuals, incentivize team goals and behaviors, 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.

INDISPENSABLE

• Facilité d'utilisation
• Manager-to-employee recognition
• Reconnaissance entre pairs
• Recognition social wall
• Years-of-service recognition
• Global awards fulfillment
• Mobile recognition app
• Cloud-based solution with Single Sign-On (SSO)
• Protocoles de sécurité et de confidentialité les plus stricts

AVANCÉ

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

À la pointe de la technologie

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

Fonctionnalités indispensables pour tout reconnaissance des employés en entreprise

Dans n'importe quelle catégorie de logiciels, certaines fonctionnalités constituent le minimum requis : il s'agit des fonctionnalités de base que toute solution se doit d'offrir. Ces fonctionnalités essentielles sont désormais considérées comme incontournables, en particulier pour les solutions de reconnaissance destinées aux entreprises. Vous devriez écarter de votre liste de sélection tout éditeur de logiciels qui ne serait pas en mesure de vous garantir toutes ces fonctionnalités, notamment :

Facilité d'utilisation

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 organization 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.

Reconnaissance entre pairs

Organizations 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 program 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 program, helping employees feel greater pride in their achievements and spreading motivation to innovate and do great work throughout your organization.

Years-of-service recognition

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

When anniversary recognition experiences are meaningful and personalized, the odds employees will feel a strong desire to stay a year from now increase by 10x and their sense of connection to the organization 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 catalog of special gifts.

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

Global awards fulfillment

Most employee recognition programs are connected to an awards catalog 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 program 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 recognize one another.”
‍—Managing Director of Compensation, Recognition, & Mobility, Delta Airlines

Solution basée sur le cloud avec authentification unique (SSO)

Employers want a flexible, cloud-based solution that can be implemented globally throughout an organization. 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 program.

Protocoles de sécurité et de confidentialité les plus stricts

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 organization. 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 organizations 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 recognize 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 behaviors, 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 program allows for the flexibility that an organization of our size and global presence requires. It ensures that our program 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 Program 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 program 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 program 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 program impact and ROI to executive teams and other leaders across the organization.

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 customization and adaptability, and entirely new ways to leverage recognition, both within and outside of your organization.

These culture-shaping features include:

Curated marketplaces support recognition goals

With Culture Cloud, you can design customized 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 recognize frontline workers for excellent service through a personalized 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 program.”
—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 organizations 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 customize 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 programs, 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 organization.

Recognition Moments, a personalized 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

Choisissez le reconnaissance des employés qui correspond à votre entreprise et à vos objectifs

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 organizations build thriving workplace cultures.