How Toast uses Bonusly to increase collaboration and connection remotely

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Best-in-class recognition for a best-in-class company culture

Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Toasters* reported that they missed the impromptu in-office chats that help build cross-team empathy, self-esteem, and engagement.

"As we transitioned to a distributed workforce during 2020, we knew that we needed a way to create opportunities for virtual high fives for Toasters," says Kate Ciechomski, Toast's Program Manager, Recognition & New Hire Success.

With the help of one of Bonusly's Customer Success Managers, Kate and her team worked together to establish their goals for Bonusly:

✅ Help new hires feel welcome

✅ Promote company values

✅ Recognize employees for their accomplishments

Toast rolled out Bonusly to its entire employee population in October 2020. In the months since launch, Toast employees have recognized each other more than 27,000 times, putting their company values front and center:

"Bonusly helped us increase cross-departmental recognition, which has had a major impact on collaboration through the company," says Kate. "By introducing Bonusly to our new hires during Family Meal, our new hire orientation program, it helps us to foster a community of recognition right from the beginning."

*Yes, Toast employees call themselves "Toasters." 😆  They also call their kids "Croutons" and their pets "Biscuits." 😍

Toast employees add GIFs to nearly half of all recognition posts!

Using Bonusly analytics to understand engagement and burnout

Eighty-six percent of Toasters receive recognition in Bonusly at least once a month. This high participation has enabled Toast's Employee Engagement & Experience team to draw really powerful learnings about engagement and burnout from their Bonusly Analytics data.

"In early 2021, we noticed a correlation between high recognition and low engagement," says Kate. "Our hypothesis is that these team members were receiving an abundance of recognition for doing a ton of great work, but they were burnt out or otherwise disengaged because they were overwhelmed and taking on an extremely high workload."

Kate and her team will continue to observe these trends to make sure work is fairly distributed and to mitigate burnout.