"If we didn’t have Bonusly, how are employees supposed to know what good work actually looks like?"
Mike Battle is dedicated to shaping an exceptional employee experience at Teleport, the Infrastructure Identity Company that modernizes identity, access, and policy for infrastructure. With the title Onboarding and Engagement Manager, he focuses on creating a fantastic employee experience from day one. Having worked in HR for over 9 years, Mike understands that a thriving company culture is built with intention and starts the moment a future employee hits “apply.”
As an admin of Bonusly, Mike has seen firsthand how recognition fuels great work at Teleport. More than just a way to celebrate wins, Bonusly helps the team embody the company’s core behaviors, creating a ripple effect that strengthens company culture and team performance.
Reinforcing behaviors that matter most
Teleport operates with defined behaviors that guide how employees work, collaborate, and contribute to the company’s mission. These behaviors, which include “We are drivers, not passengers,” “We value each other’s time,” and “We write it down,” are principles that shape the daily interactions of Teleport’s team.
“Using Bonusly is a great way not only to give recognition but also to show how other employees are truly living out our behaviors,” Mike explains. “Providing real-time examples of how employees embody our behaviors gives everyone something to build on. If we didn’t have Bonusly, how are employees supposed to know what good work actually looks like?"
Mike explains that seeing concrete examples of great work not only makes it visible but also fuels higher team performance.
Rather than vague or generic recognition, Teleport uses Bonusly to make it specific, too. Recognition done right provides ample visibility into what’s happening across the organization and reinforces what good looks like.
“It’s easy to go into Bonusly and type ‘50 points to Laura for a job well done,’” Mike says. “But that doesn’t help you, right? Instead, we are intentional when recognizing someone to say, ‘I want to recognize you for your fabulous creative work designing a new onboarding deck or your facilitation skills in a recent department post-mortem.'"
Recognition and performance at Teleport
At Teleport, behaviors are also actively incorporated into performance evaluations. The company takes a structured approach to assessing performance by considering what employees accomplish (OKRs, goals, projects) and how they achieve it (demonstrating company habits and practices).
“The way we assess how employees demonstrate specific company behaviors is mainly through our performance review process,” Mike explains. “We have two specific behavior questions baked into every review: 1) How well have you exemplified Teleport behaviors? and 2) Which behaviors are your strengths, and which do you have opportunities to improve?”
To further support this, Mike is focused on helping managers make better use of Bonusly data. “One of my major goals this quarter is to give our managers and leaders a new in-depth crash course into Bonusly and how they can use the data to help them better analyze how employees are living out our behaviors. Those hashtags make it easy for people to scan our kudos Slack channel for real-time feedback.”
Setting the standard from day one
Mike leverages Bonusly in the employee welcome sessions he leads. He encourages new Teleporters to explore the platform and familiarize themselves with real-time examples of the extraordinary work happening across the company.
“One of the first things I tell new Teleporters is to scroll through Bonusly to see how people here are living out our behaviors,” he says.
Mike said that Bonusly's intuitive design makes it easy for new employees to adopt from the start.
“We've been using Bonusly for almost three years, and it’s been one of those tools that people just took to,” Mike shares. “It was mind-blowing for me—rolling out a tool with minimal pushback, confusion, or people asking, ‘How do we use this?’ or ‘What are these points for?’ People have naturally embraced it.”
The contagious power of recognition
One of the most striking effects of Bonusly at Teleport is how recognition spreads naturally throughout the team. Mike describes it as contagious, where a single moment of recognition sparks more positive interactions across the company.
“One of the best things that I love to see is when other people add on to someone’s recognition. You’re seeing one person's impact on you and others throughout the organization. I think that’s a very contagious thing.”
This concept speaks to the multiplier effect: when employees feel appreciated, their enthusiasm and motivation extend beyond themselves, influencing their coworkers and strengthening team motivation. At Teleport, this cycle of recognition and engagement has strengthened team cohesion and increased performance.
“I remind employees that these tools, including Bonusly, are designed to ensure everyone throughout the organization feels each other’s impact,” Mike explains. “As a result, teams are more motivated and excited about their jobs, the company, and our culture.”
The Bonusly effect at Teleport
For Mike, Bonusly is essential to company alignment, where everyone works toward the same goal.
“We are all rowing in the same direction, and having a defined vision is really exciting. Bonusly is an excellent way to showcase how we’re each contributing to that vision.”
By tying recognition to the behaviors that matter most, Teleport has created a work environment where high performance is not just something to aspire to—it’s expected, celebrated, and continuously reinforced. As Mike has seen, once recognition takes hold, it spreads in ways that improve every corner of the company.
