Build a Culture of Appreciation Using Recognition

The data is clear: employee recognition has a significant and substantial ROI. But that clarity comes with a caveat—you’ll only see that return on recognition if you do it right. And that’s harder than it sounds. 

Simply bumping up how often you toss a “good job!” into a conversation with employees isn’t enough to create an authentic culture of recognition. Those conversations are forgettable, while effective recognition is memorable and thoughtful. And without those essential components, you’ll find your return on your investment in a recognition program doesn’t measure up to your hopes. 

There are data-backed ways to maximize the ROI of employee recognition. In this guide, we’ll cover all the best practices you need to know for giving effective recognition and choosing the right recognition platform. When you know what makes recognition resonate with employees most deeply, your whole organization will be better equipped to offer meaningful and authentic recognition consistently. 

Best practices for giving recognition

How can you recognize employees in the most effective way possible? It’s both an art and a science to do recognition well, and it includes these essential components and best practices. 

Timely 

Effective recognition happens in the moment or shortly after; keeping it timely means employees don’t think their hard work was ignored or forgotten. It’s more meaningful to receive recognition when the feeling of accomplishment is still fresh. 

Timely recognition can look like giving specific in-the-moment feedback, like telling an employee, “great job on the presentation you just gave—your clear examples really drove home the message.” For larger projects, giving recognition via shoutouts on your internal social media, awards, or a private thanks should come as soon as possible after the project is completed.  

Frequent 

Recognition also needs to be frequent to make the greatest impact. Employees who do not feel adequately recognized are 2x likely to quit versus someone who is regularly recognized. On the flip side, employees who are consistently recognized are more innovative and creative, and more willing to go above and beyond the basic expectations of their role.

‍Gallup says weekly recognition, at a minimum, is best. That doesn’t necessarily mean big awards or huge shout-outs; small moments of recognition for a job well done should be happening consistently to reap all the rewards of a good recognition program. 

Specific 

Giving someone a smile and saying, “good work—keep it up!” is, technically, recognition, and it can feel positive. But the most memorable and motivating recognition comes with very specific and clear praise. 

“Great job on that project—I loved how you clearly communicated deadlines and held everyone accountable; it ensured we launched this critical initiative on time” is a whole lot more likely to encourage the receiver to repeat those behaviors again. 

Plus, being specific shows employees you’re not simply checking a box on a checklist to increase the sheer volume of recognition. Specific recognition feels more authentic because it shows you were paying attention, and recognition that feels authentic is powerful. 

Visible 

Recognition isn’t only about thanking someone for a job well done (although that’s important!). It’s also about showing your whole organization what great work looks like, and how it gets noticed and rewarded. 

Ensuring recognition is visible can mean sharing wins and shoutouts on your internal social media, or even external platforms when it’s relevant. It can mean acknowledging wins in town halls or all hands meetings, or in a small team meeting. Or it can mean sharing however your organization finds effective, and how your recognized employee prefers (not everyone loves public kudos). 

Do find a way to share recognition more broadly, more of the time, to gain more ROI. One act of recognition, when shared widely, can reap you the rewards of 10 or more similar but invisible acts. 

Inclusive 

Inclusivity is another essential part of an effective recognition program. If you’re mostly recognizing the same group of people or the same narrow set of accomplishments over and over again, it can actually be discouraging to employees who don’t fit into those groups. 

And many employees don’t feel that recognition is inclusive or equal at their organization. Gallup research has found that only 26% of employees strongly agree they receive similar amounts of recognition as their team members who perform similarly. 

When determining how to make your recognition program more inclusive, try looking beyond your typical metrics for recognition. Are large, flashy projects getting all the awards while critical behind-the-scenes work is overlooked? Try encouraging managers to highlight a broader range of wins and hard work. And regularly review your recognition program to ensure it’s not always the same people getting the same awards. 

Values-based  

Finally, your recognition program needs to be clearly based on your company’s values to gain the most ROI. That’s because you want to align the work that you recognize with what your organization values, not merely financial results or external praise. 

Too many companies overlook this important part of recognition. In fact, 52% of employees don’t feel their recognition program is aligned to their organization’s values. This can make your recognition program seem inauthentic—if you say your company values collaboration and teamwork but reward teams that are excessively competitive because they have higher profits, that’s a serious mismatch. 

When designing your recognition program, be sure that your company values are centered, not an afterthought. And regularly check in to see if what you espouse as your corporate values are truly being celebrated in your recognition program, or if you need to reevaluate. 

Want to see all six of these best practices in action? Here are real-world recognition examples for each one!

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Best practices for a recognition platform

The best practices above will help you develop the best recognition program to get you maximum ROI. But that’s only part of the puzzle. You also need to choose the right recognition platform to get that ROI as well. Here’s what you should look for when shopping for a recognition platform. 

Allows for personalization

Recognition is highly personal! Not everyone likes to be recognized in the same way. Some people get a huge thrill from being publicly acknowledged in a company-wide all-hands, while that’s another person’s nightmare because they’d prefer private praise in a one-on-one meeting. And lots of people fall in between those two sides of the spectrum, too. 

That’s why recognition technology that can understand and personalize recognition automatically depending on the recipient is so critical. It makes that recognition more meaningful to each employee, no matter how they prefer to receive it.  

Incorporates automation 

One of the reasons you might not be getting the maximum ROI from your recognition program is because thoughtful recognition takes time, and your managers and employees are busy. But the right recognition platform can take a lot of that work off your plate with automation. 

By automating recognition actions like celebrating anniversaries and birthdays, rewarding employees for referrals or completing trainings, and fulfilling gift cards and donations, your managers and team members can save valuable time. Plus, it means those important events won’t be forgotten even during your busy season.  

Is habit-forming for users

Even the greatest recognition platform won’t get you much ROI if your users abandon it soon after launch. That’s why choosing a platform that makes recognition a habit is essential. 

Recognition technology can ping employees when they need a prompt to give recognition so it’s timely. And over time, with these easy reminders, recognizing team members or colleagues becomes a habit. Integrating recognition into an employee’s daily workflow makes it seamless and simple, and that reduced friction means more consistent recognition. 

The takeaway

That is how you truly build a culture of recognition, and deliver the maximum ROI for your recognition program. Want to explore a recognition platform that enables effective recognition across your entire organization? Try Bonusly today!  

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For the 4th year in a row, Bonusly ranks among the fastest growing private companies in America.

Boulder, Colo. - August 15, 2023 - Bonusly, the leading recognition and rewards solution, today announced its inclusion on the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies annual list for the 4th consecutive year. The prestigious ranking takes a data-driven look at the most successful companies within independent, entrepreneurial businesses—the economy’s most dynamic segment. Bonusly’s placement on this list also improves its ranking from 2022. 

The ranking showcases that despite an ever-changing economy, Bonusly continues to be adopted by leading companies across technology, healthcare, hospitality, and other industries that aim to attract and retain top talent while creating connected, motivated, and high-performing teams.

“We’re proud to enable our customers to recognize, develop, and retain high-performing, highly-engaged employees,” said Raphael Crawford-Marks, founder and CEO. "Making this list for the 4th consecutive time signals that Bonusly’s recognition solution is absolutely essential in a great workplace. We believe that people and teams are the drivers of business success, and investing in recognition is one of the smartest actions any company can take,” concluded Crawford-Marks.

This announcement is on the heels of a substantial year for Bonusly. In early 2023, Bonusly announced its $19.5 million Series B raise, a brand and product redesign, and a coveted placement on Inc. Magazine’s annual Best Workplaces list for the second year. These announcements and accolades illustrate the need for recognition solutions and the business return companies experience when they invest in their employees. 

The Inc. 5000 class of 2023 represents companies that drive fast revenue growth while navigating inflationary pressure, rising capital costs, and hiring challenges. Among this year’s top 500 companies, the average median three-year revenue growth rate grew to 2,238%. This year’s Inc. 5000 companies have added 1,187,266 jobs to the economy over the past three years. For complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database, visit www.inc.com/inc5000.

‍Contact: Laura Saracho, Sr. Manager of Communications
laura.saracho@bonus.ly

‍About Bonusly

Bonusly is the fun and smart employee engagement solution that combines 360-degree recognition and rewards that employees love to keep them engaged and satisfied. Bonusly helps you celebrate everyday contributions and key milestones, automate time-consuming HR admin processes, run and incentivize participation in company initiatives, and offer digital rewards your employees will love. For more information visit Bonusly and to see our open jobs, check out our career page: https://bonusly.com/company/working-at-bonusly

‍More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000

‍Methodology

Companies on the 2023 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2019 to 2022. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2019. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2022. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2019 is $100,000; the minimum for 2022 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to four decimal places.

‍About Inc.

Inc. Business Media is the leading multimedia brand for entrepreneurs. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of our community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating our future. Inc.’s award-winning work reaches more than 50 million people across a variety of channels, including events, print, digital, video, podcasts, newsletters, and social media. Its proprietary Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to rank the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The recognition that comes with inclusion on this and other prestigious Inc. lists, such as Female Founders and Power Partners, gives the founders of top businesses the opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. 

For more information, visit www.inc.com. For more information on the Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala, slated for October 31-November 2 in San Antonio, visit http://conference.inc.com/.

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As you may have noticed, things look a little different around here. The Bonusly brand has been transformed with an updated logo, new colors and illustration styles, an enhanced user interface, and last but not least: a brand new website. 

The new site is the final building block to completing a truly integrated user experience. And while we hope you love the new look, it’s really what’s on the inside that counts. Each change was intentional, rooted in research, and aimed at providing a more accessible, enjoyable experience for all. 

Where we’ve been, and where we are now

Whether you’re a new customer or have been with us since the beginning—2013!—it’s worth noting Bonusly was the first recognition platform to enter the market. Said another way, we were talking about and enabling employee engagement best practices before it was cool. 😎

Don’t remember? Here’s a look at our original website: 

We pride ourselves in being one of the first—not because it’s a race, but because we’ve learned a lot along the way. 

The biggest lesson we’ve learned is that employee engagement doesn’t happen in a vacuum—it’s not only an HR function, and isn’t solved by quarterly surveys alone. Rather, employee engagement works when it’s embedded into a company culture and fueled by everyday habits.

Today, we’ve embodied this lesson into two guiding brand principles: being fun and smart. If Bonusly is fun, it’s easier to turn engagement tactics into a daily practice. And if Bonusly is smart, our community will trust that technology like ours is invaluable.

And that is the foundation of the visual language you see now; Bonusly’s new face, features, and functions all embody fun and smart elements to provide an engaging, enhanced experience for teams. 

Now, let's look at the new and bold Bonusly.

Highlighting what matters most

Our refreshed brand employs a user-focused design strategy that emphasizes what matters most—a company's culture, its employees, their accomplishments, and the genuine connections they foster. This strategic shift led to a redesign where the user’s content takes center stage, rather than the interface itself.

The "Highlighter" design tactic you’ll see throughout our new website serves as a constant reminder of our goal to prioritize user content and interactions, truly spotlighting what makes each company culture unique. 

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New logo

Our original logo was well recognized and easy to read, but had its limitations. The green color had contrast challenges and the wordmark felt a bit too corporate and generic, not fully aligning with our intended friendly and fun vibe.

The aim of our refreshed logo was to keep the brand recognition intact while addressing these issues. We subtly fine-tuned the icon to enhance its appeal while remaining familiar. We also shifted to a lowercase rendition for the company name to better express our casual and playful nature with a custom-designed font that added a unique curve to our logo.

Fresh colors

Bonusly’s aim is to highlight the best things in our customer’s culture. In order to do that we stepped back in the boldness of our color palette so our customers could see themselves in our tool.

While our affection for green hasn't changed, our color palette has grown to embrace a wider range of brighter colors. This range allows users to visualize data more clearly as we expand our analytics offerings. Our product's visual design has been refined with a lighter palette to ensure user content, like peer-to-peer recognition and important milestones, stand out against the backdrop. We've also pivoted to using blue for primary interactions, such as giving recognition and shopping rewards, to promote visibility, intuitiveness, and familiarity.

Lively illustrations

Our new illustration style is a unique mix of simplicity and dynamic storytelling. Using geometric shapes and our vibrant color palette, we've created compositions that offer a fresh perspective on the familiar. The layering of simple shapes forms something beautiful and new to the eye (like Bonusly!) while implying more action than what its static imagery shows. 

Although our designs don’t explicitly depict human figures, they subtly incorporate human-like features and metaphorical elements. This approach breathes life into our compositions, adding a touch of relatable whimsy. Every illustration tells a story, inviting viewers to engage and discover their own interpretations.

New product user interface and website

The refreshed user-based design strategy culminates where our community sees us most: our platform and our website. 

The original Bonusly platform, although functional, was a bit dated with technical limitations. So, alongside the visual rebrand, we revamped the underlying technology to enable quick and seamless integration of new features. Bonusly’s new interface has simplified users’ ability to recognize coworkers, navigate to popular pages, and amplify peers’ recognition. Plus, we’ve prioritized accessibility, meeting WCAG AA accessibility standards and ensuring a fulfilling experience for all of our users.

Alongside the new interface is a modern website that rounds out our slew of updates, delivering a cohesive, revamped Bonusly experience to our users and prospects. The new site makes it easy to find relevant resources, sign up for upcoming events, and learn more about new features and tools inside Bonusly. Visitors can easily start a free trial, too. 

Shining a light on your culture

As the working world has evolved, so have our beliefs, our product capabilities, and our brand. We are constantly listening to our employees, our customers, and our community, and taking action. 

An essential part of our rebranding is ensuring that Bonusly is grounded in our brand principles: that we’re fun to use and trusted by our users. We've worked hard to deliver an enhanced experience that does just that. 

Keep in mind, our brand is a constant work in progress—we're always working to make Bonusly more inclusive and accessible for all. And we don’t take this work lightly: We solve human problems that help evolve company culture and create meaningful connections. For now, we're committed to creating the product and workplaces we want to see through continuous improvement, reinvention, and innovation.

We deeply believe that investing in teams is the smartest business decision any organization can make—and I hope our fun and smart brand shines a light on your culture and what your employees bring to the platform.

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