October brought a little magic to the everyday.
This month, we gave recognition a reason to show up every single week, made cards faster to start and more fun to personalize, and handed admins more control over the moments that matter most. Plus a few seasonal surprises along the way.
Grab a warm drink. Here's everything we launched this October.
Streaks: make recognition a weekly habit
Great cultures aren't built in one big moment. They're built in the small, steady ones. Streaks turn that steady habit into something you can actually see.
Give recognition at least once a week and your streak grows, shown as a flower in a pot right on your give box. Keep it going and you'll unlock new flowers and pots over time. Click the icon to see your streak stats, or find your streak on your profile page.
Missed a week? Streak Revives are now on the Rewards page, ready to bring your streak back to life.
Ways to keep streaks growing
- Give the habit a home. A Friday "wins of the week" shout-out or a Monday thank-you to whoever covered weekend on-call makes recognition part of the rhythm, not an afterthought.
- Let Bizy do the noticing. Ask Bizy who to recognize today, and it surfaces teammates you might have missed.
- Managers, go first. When a team sees their manager's flower blooming, recognition starts to feel like part of the job.
- Look beyond your usual crowd. A weekly streak is the perfect nudge to thank the person in another department who made your week easier.
- Start a friendly challenge. Rally a team, a department, or the whole company to keep their streaks growing through the end of the year.
How streaks help admins
Streaks reward consistency, not volume. They turn recognition from a campaign into a habit, and they can help your organization in a few powerful ways.
- Want recognition all month long, not just at the start? Use streaks to build a weekly habit, so appreciation flows steadily instead of arriving in a few busy days.
- Want more people giving recognition, not just your biggest fans? Streaks give everyone a personal, visible goal, and the Streaks report lets you watch participation spread across the company.
- Want managers recognizing their teams more consistently? Streaks encourage managers to give at least one shout-out a week, and their teams get to watch that flower bloom.
- Want to keep momentum through busy seasons and holidays? Rally teams to keep their streaks growing through the end of the year, and Streak Revives on the Rewards page help people bounce back after a missed week.
- Want remote and hybrid teams to feel more connected? A weekly reason to recognize someone keeps people noticing each other's work, wherever they sit.
- Want to show leadership that recognition is part of your culture? The Streaks report shows streak counts and participation across the company, a clear signal of how consistently people are recognizing over time.
- Want recognition to feel more fun? Growing flowers and unlocking new pots adds a playful touch people can show off on their profile.
Streaks are on by default and can be turned off from Feature Access.
Learn More: Streaks
Cards get occasions, colors, and a birthday boost
Cards keep getting easier to start and more fun to make your own, with occasions that set the tone, a birthday boost for managers, and colors that fit the moment.
- Start with an occasion. Pick Celebrate, Birthday, Farewell, Get well, or Condolences, and the card fills in a starter image, headline, message, and theme color, all editable. Prefer a blank slate? Choose "Create your own."
- Birthdays, handled. Bizy can help you start a birthday card, and managers' monthly emails now include a "Create card" button with the person and occasion already filled in.
- Make it your color. Choose from six preset theme colors or pick any custom background color. Darker shades are automatically lightened so the text stays easy to read.
- Add an emoji as your card's cover image, and drag and drop photos or videos straight onto a card when you sign.
Moments worth a card
- Celebrate a promotion. Few moments feel bigger than being recognized for your growth. Start a Celebrate card and ask each signer to share one moment that showed they were ready.
- Lift up a teammate who's out sick or recovering. The Get well occasion sets a warm, light tone, so the team can send photos, GIFs, and notes that make the time away feel a little shorter.
- Show up when someone is grieving. The Condolences occasion gives the team a calm, simple starting point, so everyone can share support in one place instead of scattered messages.
- Turn the manager email into a habit. When a birthday shows up in the monthly email, click "Create card" right away so the team has days, not hours, to sign.
- Go all out, even on a tight budget. Cards don't use points, so a team running low on its monthly allowance can still give someone a full, heartfelt celebration.
Tips for cards that stand out
- Let the occasion write the first draft, then make it yours. Swap the default headline for an inside joke or a line only your team would get.
- Use color with intent. Your team's colors for a team card, a client's brand colors for a partner card, a soft shade for a Get well or Condolences card.
Learn More: Cards in Bonusly and Managing Cards.
Shape your rewards catalog
For global teams, admins can now shape what employees see in the catalog by country, reward type, and price, no support ticket needed. Restricted rewards are hidden everywhere employees browse and can't be redeemed.
- Respect local rules and norms. If gift cards aren't a fit for your team in one country, turn that reward type off there, and anything of that type added later stays off too.
- Keep the catalog meaningful. Set a minimum and maximum redemption price so employees see rewards that match how your program is designed.
- Tidy up by location. Hide a specific reward in the countries where it doesn't make sense, while keeping it for everyone else.
Learn More: Managing the Rewards Catalog.
Nominations: a sharper ballot and a heads-up for nominees
- Put the shortlist to a vote. After a committee narrows the field, limit voting to the nominees you pick, so voters focus on the finalists.
- Let nominees know they were noticed. Turn on Notify nominees, and everyone nominated gets an email and in-app note, without revealing who nominated them or what they wrote. Even people who don't win walk away knowing their work was seen.
Learn More: Nomination
More that shipped in October
- Custom reports with Bizy (beta). Saved from Bizy is now Custom reports. Ask Bizy for a report, refine it, restore earlier versions, share it with other admins, and get key takeaways on every run. See Reports from Bizy.
- Award budget reminders. Award givers get a heads-up three business days before a budget period ends if at least 30% of the points are still unused.
- Drafts for awards, incentives, and celebrations. Set them up while you have the details, then activate when they're ready.
- Expand groups when giving awards. See who's in a group and add or remove people before you give.
- Industry benchmarks in the participation report. Compare your participation with companies your size in your own industry.
- Total check-ins in the admin pulse results report. Learn more in Using the Pulse Results Report.
- A little fall fun. The Fall 2026 theme is live, Bizy's Costume Emporium is open, the Treats, No Tricks list now has quick previews, and there's a new free fall post wrap.
Want to see the rest of what we've been building? Reach out to your Bonusly rep today, and keep an eye on what's new as we ship it.
