Top 15 Best Employee Recognition Software Of 2024

Finding the right employee recognition software has never been more challenging, now that the market is oversaturated with so many great employee recognition tools.

Without a shadow of a doubt, employee recognition has become one of the most relevant and essential managerial practices of today’s world, especially following the dawn and subsequent rise of remote work.

With all the impressive remote employee recognition software out there, how do you pick employee recognition software?

Every organization has its own needs when it comes to picking an employee recognition tool, making generalizations incredibly hard. There are however three core things to look for when it comes to picking your employee recognition software:

• Ease of use
• Customization
• Integration

An employee recognition tool whether it is a module within a performance management system or a separate tool of its own needs to fulfill the criteria above to be considered viable in today’s competitive performance management and employee recognition ecosystem.

Being easy to use allows employee rewards and recognition software to be rolled out companywide without any difficulty in adoption. Recognition software should be a part of an organization’s day-to-day operations to be truly effective. That can’t be accomplished without the software having an intuitive design. Pairing that intuitive design with strong communication software integrations results in the perfect employee recognition software.

While employee recognition software programs have their own unique built-in rewards and recognitions, nobody can anticipate all of your employee recognition needs. That is why the employee recognition software you pick has to be fully customizable. Team members and leaders should be able to exchange custom recognitions through their employee recognition software to reflect their own company values and culture.

All of that being said: What are the best employee recognition programs? Let’s answer that question with the list below!

Side Note: Employee recognition is best practiced in sync with an effective performance management system. Click right here for the Top 10 Best Performance Management Software of 2023.

Tool name	Best for	Price
Teamflect	Microsoft Teams users	$5 per user/month
Vantage Circle	Employee rewards & recognition	$2.50 per user/month
Mo Work	Hybrid teams	$12 per user/month
Motivosity	Peer-to-peer recognition	$2 per user/month
Awardco	Building a culture of recognition	$5000 per year
Guusto	Digital gift cards	$80 per month
Bonusly	Amazon integration	$2.70 per user/month
Assembly	Employee engagement solution	$2.80 per user/month
Cooleaf	Team-building	$5 per user/month
Kazoo	Milestones and anniversaries	$10.50 per user/month
Terryberry	Social recognition	$3.75 per user/month
Bucketlist Rewards	Automating employee awards	$3 per user/month
Nectar	Improving employee retention	$2.75 per user/month
O.C. Tanner	Large-scale companies	–
Evergreen	A sustainable solution	$3.99 per user/month

1. Teamflect

Before becoming the best all-in-one performance management software for Microsoft Teams, Teamflect was designed to be an employee recognition tool. It is safe to say that Teamflect has built on the very strong recognition base it had at its inception and turned it into one of the most effective employee recognition modules in the market today.

Teamflect’s greatest strength surely lies in its complete Microsoft Teams integration. Team members are able to exchange customized recognitions with each other without ever having to leave Microsoft Teams. Teamflect’s recognitions module pairs perfectly with the rest of its performance management capabilities, working hand in hand with other modules such as 360-degree feedback, performance reviews, tasks, and goals & okrs.

Key Features:

• The best performance management tool for Microsoft Teams
• Keeps the performance management process in a single app
• Highly efficient one-on-one meetings with built-in task assignments and note-taking tools
• User-friendly design
• Customizable and automated review cycles with built-in templates
• Extremely streamlined
• Templates can be customized to conduct exit interviews, stay interviews, 30-day reviews, etc.

2. Vantage Circle

Vantage Circle is a global employee recognition software that provides AI-powered SaaS-based solutions to help companies engage their employees in a meaningful way. It is one of the top global award-winning platforms that is trusted by 700+ corporations with 2+ million active corporate users across the globe.

The user-friendly platform allows companies to cover the recognition needs of a global workforce with flexible monetary and non-monetary rewards. Social recognition enables employees to acknowledge each other’s achievements and contributions, making everyone feel valued and appreciated. It also allows seamless integration with tools such as Teams and Slack that organizations use every day.

With a global Rewards Catalog, employees using the platform can exchange their reward points for gift cards from 1000+ brands and products from the Amazon Store, book an experience or buy merchandise from options available across 59+ countries. The platform also offers a range of benefits for Long Service Award employees, including Anniversary Points, a Digital Service Yearbook, and a dedicated Milestone Catalog.

Key features:

• Customizable White-Labeled Platform 
• Amazon Business for Rewards Access to 10+ Million Products
• Extensive Corporate Discounts & Perks Network
• Global e-Gift Cards, Merchandise & Experiences
• Listening Tool for Employee Opinion and Feedback

3. Mo Work

Mo Work is an online employee rewards platform centered around the values of inclusivity, productivity, recognition, and engagement. Their central aim is to encourage and implement recognition cultures throughout organizations and promote the celebration of success along with employee appreciation.

Unlike many other platforms in the market, Mo Work’s approach to employee engagement and recognition goes beyond sporadic events or one-time gestures. Instead, they have developed a software solution that is rooted in the establishment of routines and habits that encourage consistent and meaningful employee recognition. Mo Work enables people and culture leaders to create a sustainable and impactful recognition culture within their organizations.

One of the key strengths of Mo Work lies in its highly customizable product. Recognizing that every organization has its own unique culture and values, Mo Work empowers people leaders to celebrate success and recognize their employees in ways that align with their specific needs and preferences. Whether it’s through personalized messages, virtual badges, or even small tokens of appreciation, Mo Work provides a versatile platform that can be tailored to fit any organizational context.

Key features:

• Impressive range of customization
• Rewards, recognitions, nominations
• Peer-to-peer engagement
• Personalized gifts, opportunities, and experiences.

4. Motiviosity

Motivosity is a product that combines four products. With their platform, managers can connect with their employees, understand their performance drivers, and recognize them for their efforts. In addition to managers, employees can also use Motivosity. Everyone’s feedback is heard through peer-to-peer recognition.

Motivosity goes beyond traditional employee recognition platforms by introducing the ThanksMatters Card. This Visa card is accepted worldwide and accumulates real dollars whenever employees are recognized by their staff or management.

The standout features and integrations offered by Motivosity further contribute to its effectiveness as an employee engagement platform. The social media-like public activity feed creates a sense of transparency and allows for real-time sharing of achievements and celebrations. Public comments provide an avenue for open communication and encouragement among team members. The employee recognition systems’ customizable rewards, bonus “sweeteners,” spot bonuses, and financial reporting tools offer organizations the flexibility to tailor their recognition programs to their unique needs.

Motivosity also understands the significance of milestones in an employee’s journey. Their Milestone Tracker ensures that important events such as birthdays and anniversary dates are easily accessible by date, enabling team members to plan celebrations well in advance.

Key features:

• Great mobile usage especially through apps such as Teams/Slack.
• A single platform for rewards, recognitions, and employee engagement
• Built in reporting with insights around potential attrition, most recognized employees, managers that need coaching, etc.

5. Awardco

Awardco’s Amazon integration and rewards catalog are only a couple of the platform’s many features. Within one platform, you can track your social media feed, receive shout-outs for reaching milestones and level-ups—and earn points simply by using the app. They offer three of their own modules, among which is Earn, Celebrate and Manage. 

Celebrate is for recognizing employees when they reach a specific milestone or accomplish something notable in their career. Earn basically lets you set rewards for individuals and teams, tying them to the completion of specific tasks. Manage is where you can keep track of all your recognition activity. The budget, tax forms and expenses related to rewards and recognition are all considered in this section. 

Key features:

• Recognize an individual or multiple team members at once, tag different actions for recognition, and write a small text explaining why. Recognition can take the form of a token or an expression of thanks. 
• Awardco also gives employees the option of earning points by participating in internal initiatives, such as completing safety training. This module empowers employees to take responsibility for their own rewards. 
• With Awardco’s partnership with Amazon Business, you pay the same price for products as if you purchase them yourself. You also save money on shipping by dealing with Amazon. 

6. Guusto

Guusto is one of the employee rewards programs that makes it easy for companies to recognize and reward employees. You can motivate, inspire and connect with your employees by rewarding them for doing good work.  

The company’s recognition program includes a variety of awards and bonuses, including anniversary/milestone/years-of-service awards; spot bonuses for good work; peer to peer shout outs; wellness programs such as gym memberships or flu shots given at reduced rates. Goals are set monthly and employees receive recognition when they are achieved. Guusto delivers an easy-to-integrate, inclusive recognition program.  

For every gift sent within the platform, Guusto donates a day’s worth of clean water through the One Drop Foundation. This not only incentivizes employees to actively participate in the internal recognition program but also contributes to making a positive impact outside the organization.

Guusto offers a comprehensive range of features and integrations that cater to diverse recognition needs. From ready-to-use programs such as milestone and anniversary awards to real-time recognition and learning and development incentives, the platform covers a wide spectrum of recognition occasions. Administrators have the flexibility to reward recipients with digital Mastercards that can be used in over 160 countries, making it convenient and accessible for global teams. Guusto also supports custom rewards, charity donation gifts, and a vast selection of gift cards redeemable at more than 60,000 global merchants, both online and in-person.

7. Bonusly

Bonusly is the definition of less is more. The company offers a peer-to-peer employee recognition platform that increases employee engagement and retention by connecting employee shoutouts to company values and providing real-world rewards.

When we talk about Bonusly, we should emphasis on peer-to-peer recognition. Bonusly empowers employees to recognize and appreciate their colleagues’ contributions in real-time. This peer recognition approach not only promotes a sense of teamwork but also ensures that recognition is distributed more evenly across the organization.

The employee rewards platform operates on a points-based system, where employees receive virtual currency, called “Bonusly points,” as recognition for their work. These points can be redeemed for a wide range of rewards, including gift cards, donations to charity, or even customized experiences.

Bonusly provides leaders and administrators with valuable analytics and reporting functionalities. These insights offer visibility into the recognition activities within the organization, allowing leaders to identify top performers, track trends, and measure the impact of recognition efforts.

Another notable feature of Bonusly is its focus on fostering a culture of continuous feedback. The platform encourages employees to leave comments and messages alongside their recognition, providing an opportunity for meaningful communication and appreciation.

Key Features:

• Available in German, English, French, and Spanish
• Works worldwide
• Includes a feedback system too.

8. Assembly

Assembly‘s primary goal is to improve company culture and employee retention. It provides recognition, rewards and engagement software for use in peer-to-peer interactions. Assembly makes workplace communication easier and more productive for thousands of companies, large and small. Assembly is free for up to ten users. 

Assembly has an extensive catalog of rewards to choose from, and offers a diverse range of options, including gift cards, custom swag, culture rewards, and charity donations.

One-on-one meetings, surveys, games and icebreakers, employee nominations, and more are all available within the Assembly platform. These additional features not only foster communication and collaboration but also contribute to a positive and inclusive company culture.

Another notable feature of Assembly is its automated birthday and anniversary celebrations. You can leave the hassle out of remembering and organizing these important milestones by automating the process using employee recognition platforms.

Key features:

• The catalog of rewards includes gift cards, customized goods, company rewards—and donations. 
• Additional engagement features such as 1:1s, surveys and games to boost participation. 
• Birthday and anniversary reminders. 

9. Cooleaf

Using Cooleaf, you can choose from a number of gift options, including selecting products and creating your own online store. You also have the option to gift holidays or give cards or coupons. Cooleaf’s experts select the experiential activities that best suit each unique industry or team. Here are some examples of the programs for clarification: learning programs, company culture programs, and educative programs. 

One of the reasons we picked Cooleaf is their dedication to helping companies create a meaningful recognition strategy. Cooleaf’s engagement experts work closely with organizations to develop experiences that drive team recognition. Their holistic approach ensures that recognition becomes an integral part of the company culture, leading to enhanced employee engagement and satisfaction.

Cooleaf understands the importance of maintaining a positive and fun culture, whether teams are remote or in-person. Their customizable engagement calendar provides a framework for creating engaging activities and events that align with the organization’s values and objectives.

The platform offers automatic work anniversary rewards and personalized milestones to celebrate employees’ achievements. Digital cards and a gifting budget provide employees with the flexibility to choose how they redeem their points, whether for rewards or for sending gifts to their colleagues internally or externally.

• A full-scale platform that includes not only rewards and recognition, but other employee engagement tools as well. 
• App is integrated with Slack smoothly. You can gather challenges, posts and recognitions within dedicated channels in your team’s Slack. 
• A wide variety of rewards, including a store where you can buy merchandise and tickets for events, as well as donations to your favorite charities. 

10. Kazoo

Kazoo is the employee experience platform that combines recognition and rewards with performance management to create an amazing employee experience. Kazoo brings Recognition, Rewards, Incentives, Goals & OKRs into one place. These tools are used to motivate employees and help them grow — making everyone happier as a result. 

• Real-time, public recognition of employees’ accomplishments improves morale and work connections. 
• The Global Rewards catalog offers rewards for all kinds of employees. 
• Clear, measurable goals keep teams from drifting and idle. 
• Insights help managers make well-informed decisions based on clear, measurable data. 

11. Terryberry

What sets Terryberry apart is their patented “360 Recognition” focus, which covers all four aspects of all-in-one recognition: incentives, milestones, social recognition, and employee feedback. Their comprehensive approach ensures that teams have access to a wide range of recognition tools and strategies, enabling you to engage with your employees at every stage of the employee lifecycle.

One of the reasons we love Terryberry is their commitment to promoting retention by actively engaging employees throughout their journey with the organization. From their very first day, employees can join the company’s recognition program and contribute to cultivating a more positive and supportive company culture.

Terryberry offers standout features that cater to various aspects of employee recognition. Their manager-driven recognition feature promotes buy-in from every member of the team, encouraging a culture of appreciation and support. The platform also provides service awards and different award types to celebrate employee milestones and recognize achievements on various occasions. Also, the inclusion of wellness tools in their platform encourages holistic wellness in a corporate environment, demonstrating Terryberry’s commitment to employee well-being beyond the workplace.

12. Bucketlist Rewards

Bucketlist Rewards has an intuitive interface, which allows employers to allocate points to employees who go above and beyond or achieve notable success in the workplace. These points can then be redeemed for a diverse selection of over 2,576 rewards, ensuring that employees can choose rewards that resonate with them personally.

Bucketlist Rewards is great for motivating your employees through tangible benefits. The software provides rewards such as merchandise, discounts, vouchers, and more, that create a sense of excitement and appreciation among your workforce. Bucketlist Rewards also offers the flexibility to customize rewards programs to align with the unique company culture and values.

A standout feature of Bucketlist Rewards is its engaging leaderboard, where employees can compare their performance with their peers and strive to become top performers within the organization. This gamified element not only fosters healthy competition but also encourages employees to continuously improve and achieve their goals.

Bucketlist Rewards provides a range of standout features and integrations to facilitate the recognition process. These features include peer-to-peer and manager recognition, automatic milestone anniversary workflows, customizable rewards and badges, company-wide announcements, weekly newsletter templates, and retention tools.

13. Nectar

What drew us to Nectar is its comprehensive recognition and rewards platform, which offers a 360-degree approach to building a positive company culture. With Nectar, staff members at all levels, including peers, managers, and employees, can easily send meaningful recognition shoutouts that align with the organization’s core values. Emphasis on culture-building is rooted in the six key pillars of Connection, Recognition, Empathy, Alignment, Trust, and Elevation (CREATE), providing a solid foundation for organizations to nurture a thriving workplace environment.

Nectar boasts a range of standout features and integrations that contribute to its effectiveness as an employee recognition platform. For instance, the platform offers public shoutout tools, enabling employees to publicly acknowledge their colleagues’ accomplishments and contributions. The platform also automatically celebrates important milestones, such as birthdays and work anniversaries, ensuring that no significant event goes unnoticed.

One of the key benefits of Nectar is its incentive points system, which allows employees to accumulate points for their achievements and outstanding performance. These points can then be redeemed for a variety of rewards, including gift cards, entertainment discounts, custom rewards, or even items of their choice through Amazon.com.

14. O.C. Tanner

O.C. Tanner is one of the few names that stands out when it comes to employee rewards. With their comprehensive platform and decades of experience, O.C. Tanner has been a well-known name in the industry, helping organizations around the world create a culture of recognition and elevate employee engagement.

O.C. Tanner understands that recognizing and appreciating employees is not just a nice-to-have but a crucial element in building a thriving and motivated workforce. Their platform offers a wide range of features and tools designed to make recognition and appreciation seamless and impactful.

O.C. Tanner recognizes that each employee is unique and should be appreciated in a way that resonates with them. That’s why companies can create personalized recognition experiences tailored to individual preferences, ensuring that each employee feels seen and valued through their platform.

15. Evergreen

When it comes to employee recognition software, Evergreen stands out as an ideal choice for small businesses. This lightweight solution offers a seamless integration of your company’s recognition program with a meaningful environmental purpose. What sets Evergreen apart from other vendors is its unique feature of tree planting, allowing your team to recognize outstanding achievements while contributing to a greener planet.

At the core of Evergreen’s appeal is its commitment to environmental sustainability. Each time an employee receives recognition, trees are planted, making it a truly rewarding experience both for the individuals being recognized and the planet as a whole.

One aspect that makes Evergreen particularly appealing is its ability to align recognition with your company’s core values. With Evergreen, you can easily tag company values to understand who is championing and living them.

FAQ

What is employee recognition software?

With the rapid digitization of performance, concepts like remote performance management, remote employee engagement, and virtual employee recognition are gaining a lot more traction with each passing minute. This is where employee recognition software come in. Employee recognition software are digital tools that help team leaders, managers, and team members show their appreciation to the people they are working with.

Why use employee recognition software?

Even if the setting isn’t remote and you are practicing standard employee recognition as opposed to remote employee recognition, employee recognition software help their users exchange positive reinforcements, encouragements, and rewards with ease. This is especially valuable in bigger organizations where cross-department interaction is limited and team sizes are large.

How do I measure the success of my employee recognition software?

The success of employee recognition software can be measured over multiple different metrics. The most important out of all those metrics is user adoption. How often are the employees actually using the employee recognition software? If the employee recognition tool becomes an integral part of an organizations day to day operations, then that employee recognition tool can be seen as successful.