The Bonusly Blog

Bonusly maintained its #1 overall ranking in the Employee Recognition category and earned 'Leader' and 'Momentum Leader' badges for both Employee Recognition and Employee Engagement categories.

Summer came and went and the Fall G2 report is here. (Though for our summer fans out there, don’t fret. We still have 11 more days until the solstice! 😎) 

We’re proud to report that Bonusly has earned 69 awards as we head toward the end of the year. 🍂

The G2 Fall Report—what it is and why it matters 

Every quarter, G2, the leading business product review and ranking platform, releases a comprehensive report rating companies in the recognition and engagement industry. The report is based on reviews from verified users that showcase an unbiased view of the world’s best software companies. 

G2 uses a complex algorithm to evaluate platforms and tools, taking into account in-depth, authentic reviews and data collected from various online sources. In fact, G2 recently updated its algorithm to double-down on its efforts to rank software that business can truly trust.

‍→ Ready to see for yourself? Request a free and fast demo of Bonusly.

Bonusly #1 in employee recognition…again :) 

G2 has recognized Bonusly as the leader in the Employee Recognition category for the 7th consecutive season! This means the world to us. 

‍We’ve been working hard since 2013—yes, we were the first recognition and rewards solution to enter the market—to help companies amplify daily wins and foster authentic connections.

Why do we care so much? Because companies that prioritize effective recognition are more successful and their employees are more fulfilled. Meaningful employee recognition enables high-performance, drives collaboration, increases retention, while saving time for everyone across the organization. We call that a huge win.

But don’t take it from us. Hear from some of our amazing customers:

 “Employee recognition is something every company talks about; but doing it in a way that makes it easy and available to all employees can be really hard. Bonusly has allowed every employee at Headspace to feel empowered and energized to recognize their peers and allow others to share that recognition. During these times of remote work and the global pandemic, the Bonusly platform has shown to be an invaluable asset."
- Rick Jensen, Chief People and Places Officer, Headspace

"I wish I invented Bonusly. Seriously. This is the best way to give peer recognition and immediate positive reinforcement across an organization and within a team. It's so much more effective than yearly/quarterly 360 reviews.” - Tim Myer, VP of Engineering, Discuss.io

Bonusly continues to lead in employee engagement

We’re also honored to be named a leader in G2’s Employee Engagement category. Why does this matter? Companies with highly engaged teams outperform their competitors by 147%; meanwhile, low-engagement teams experience turnover rates that are 18% to 43% higher than highly engaged teams.

Effective recognition directly impacts employee engagement, and nearly 80% of our customers recently shared that using Bonusly improved employee engagement on their teams.

‍Said another way: investing in your employees is an investment in business success. 

"In the six months since adopting Bonusly, our eNPS score jumped from 72.2 to 82.1." - Daniel McAdams, President, Andiamo

Bonusly remains strong in implementation and usability

Best-in-class employee engagement solutions are intuitive and easy to use, and automate time-intensive processes—reducing admin overhead and saving significant hours each week. 

Bonusly is easy to use and accessible to all users. This matters. Our goal is to make recognition a habit on teams, and this can’t be possible if Bonusly is not an intuitive and inclusive solution for everyone. 

Our recent customer survey revealed that the average company using Bonusly is up and running within one month, and the average Bonusly admins spends less than 1.5 per month administering Bonusly! Best yet, users who switched to Bonusly from a manual recognition solution decreased time spent administering recognition and rewards by 36%.  

"I used to spend up to five hours a week managing points and rewards manually. Today, I spend next to no time on the process, apart from the time I spend recognizing others myself. Bonusly has lifted an enormous burden from my shoulders." - Daniel McAdams, president at Andiamo

A note of gratitude to our customers 

We are grateful for every Bonusly customer who’s taken the time to share their experience on G2. Writing a review takes time and effort and we appreciate each and every person who writes one. Check out our 2,400 + reviews! 

We’re continuously releasing new and exciting updates, and would love for you to discover how Bonusly can help your team. Request a free and fast demo of Bonusly with a Bonusly specialist today. 

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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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It’s a basic human need—we all long to feel seen, valued, and appreciated for our contributions, whether those are within our families, our communities, or our jobs. We work harder and feel happier at any task where we know we shine, from crafting nourishing and tasty meals for our loved ones or ensuring that our work is done to the highest standard. 

That’s why recognition in the workplace is so vital; your employees need to know that their hard work is seen and appreciated. But it’s not just because recognition feels good (although it does!). It’s because there’s a tangible, measurable return on investment when you invest in recognition. 

Many companies today are looking to tighten their costs in an uncertain economy. Recognition budgets might seem like a tempting area to cut in these times—shouldn’t employees be grateful to have a job and a reliable salary?—but that decision may actually cost you money. 

The ROI of recognition is high, and well-documented to boot. Investing in recognizing your employees frequently and thoughtfully can actually increase your bottom line. So let’s dive into the biggest benefits recognition has on your organization, and how to measure the ROI of recognition for your own business too. 

Recognition leads to greater employee engagement

‍Engaged employees are the secret weapon in a highly competitive marketplace. They feel connected to their colleagues, your company and its mission, and the work they do every day—and that feeling of connection means they do great work. 

In fact, companies with high levels of employee engagement are a whopping 23% more profitable than companies with low engagement. That makes employee engagement vital to your bottom line as well as your workplace culture. 

It makes sense. Engaged employees are happier in their jobs, so they bring lots of energy and enthusiasm and excitement into the workplace. They take pride in their work so they take care with their tasks, and are excited to think about how to help the company succeed. 

And one of the best ways to increase employee engagement is to recognize employees more for the important work they do. It’s hard to feel connected to a role or a workplace where it feels like no one notices your accomplishments and effort. But increasing the frequency of recognition and ensuring it comes from all directions—leaders, managers, and peers—can raise engagement rates and boost your profitability. Deloitte research has found that recognition is highly correlated with improving employee engagement, and that increased engagement translates to higher productivity too. 

--> Ready to see for yourself? Request a free and fast demo of Bonusly!

Recognition leads to increased employee retention 

Employee turnover costs US employers more than $1 trillion every year.  Think that figure sounds high? It’s not: replacing employees who leave is expensive. A SHRM study found that the replacement cost of an employee who leaves is about six to nine months of that employee’s salary. Additional research shows that this figure could be much larger—up to 213%.

And those data points don’t even include the time spent in the hiring process as a result of turnover either. Increasing employee retention is critical to your company’s bottom line, as every employee retained is a major savings. 

The answer to these high retention costs is a culture that regularly recognizes and rewards employees. Companies with recognition-rich cultures boast 31% lower voluntary turnover rates. And employees are up to ten times more likely to agree that they belong to their organization when they’re frequently recognized. 

Recognition is a critical part of the puzzle in lowering turnover rates, and that increased retention means more budget available for other priorities. 

--> Ready to see for yourself? Request a free and fast demo of Bonusly!

Recognition leads to higher productivity 

Engaged, happy workers are not just more likely to stick around—they’re also responsible for significantly higher profit levels. Profits increase by 21% as a result of engaged workers’ higher productivity. 

Recognition programs feed into these higher levels of productivity and engagement because recognition creates a positive feedback loop for employees. They see their hard work get noticed and appreciated, and notice that their colleagues are also rewarded for their effort and efficiency, and they feel motivated to keep performing. We’ve probably all felt at some time in a past job that there was really no point to working hard or doing great work because it would go unnoticed or uncredited or simply result in getting more work piled on. A thoughtful recognition program ensures this negative loop doesn’t happen. 

Plus, the investment needed to get those higher profits via a recognition program is quite low. Since the average recognition budget is just 1% of an employee's salary, the ROI here is pretty stunning. 

How to measure the ROI of recognition 

So we’ve discussed how amazing the ROI of recognition really is, but how can you calculate it for yourself? Take a holistic view of your organization to see how a great recognition program can increase your profits, productivity, and employee engagement. Here are a few places to start:

• Calculate your current cost of employee turnover and your turnover rate, and measure to see if it decreases a year after your new recognition program is in place. 
• Use your performance management data to track progress against employee and team goals, performance ratings, and the time employees spend on learning and development to track progress.
• Ask managers to gather qualitative data, such as how satisfied they are with their team, their feelings about the team’s performance, and how well the team collaborates and cooperates.
• Measure your revenue per employee before and after implementing your recognition program. Divide your business revenue by your number of employees to measure progress in dollars. 

Essentially, you should pick some areas you’d like to see improvement in and measure them before you create a rewards program so you have a baseline. Then, continue to measure once the rewards program is in place and tweak as you go so it’s maximally effective.  

--> Ready to see for yourself? Request a free and fast demo of Bonusly!

Making recognition easier with automation 

The time-consuming manual recognition programs of the past don’t need to drag down your recognition efforts anymore either. With automation like Bonusly’s recognition platform, recognition is fast and easy because you can give kudos or a shoutout to a colleague, direct report, or team in the tools you’re already using, like Slack. 

That time saved adds to the ROI of recognition programs, because hopefully, your managers and leaders are already recognizing employees even without a tool or program in place. 

With such strong evidence in favor of developing a smart recognition strategy—more profits, more productivity, and employees who love coming to work every day—can you really afford to not invest in recognition? The data is clear: recognition has an ROI that’s too strong to ignore.

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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In today’s economy, HR professionals are being tasked with doing more with less. But employee motivation and morale are more important than ever before. When HR budgets are tight, how can organizations still drive productivity and engagement with employee rewards?

With over 20 years of financial and operational experience, Bonusly CFO advisor Radhika Samant offers hard-won expertise in creating high-performance workplace cultures during challenging times. In our on-demand webinar, Maximizing Your Employee Rewards Budget, Radhika covers the best ways to keep budgets in check without sacrificing employee experience.

10 things you need to know about optimizing your rewards spend

Our webinar discusses how to:

1. Look at employee benefits strategically. Which benefits can organizations double down on to drive business outcomes like greater connection and increased engagement? What HR initiatives truly bring people together?

2. Effectively request funds for HR programs and tools. Hint: Start by getting clear on the specific problems your organization needs to solve around retention, motivation, and productivity.

3. Keep budgets in line by choosing rewards that matter. The right recognition can go a long way in making employees feel appreciated and engaged at work.

4. Boost transparency through consolidation. Choosing a single platform for your rewards and recognition efforts will allow you to see exactly where and how you’re spending.

5. Spend wisely. When you’ve broken down silos across your organization by consolidating rewards and recognition, you can choose to invest in the most effective efforts.

6. Convince skeptical team members to get on board. Presenting a rewards and recognition program through a slightly different lens can help convince leadership its value.

Watch our on-demand webinar to find out how you can maximize your HR budget for employee rewards

7. Drive performance. Find out how establishing a centralized rewards and recognition platform can boost employee performance in unexpected ways.

8. Share the responsibility for rewards and recognition. Instead of relying solely on organizational leadership to award rewards and recognition, the right solution empowers employees to thank and celebrate each other.

9. Avoid the wrong words in a pitch to leadership. Learn what not to say when you’re trying to gain executive buy-in for a rewards and recognition initiative.

10. Build strong partnerships with vendors. Get the inside scoop on collaborating effectively with the vendors you choose for your rewards and recognition projects.‍

Watch our on-demand webinar to find out how you can maximize your HR budget for employee rewards

Everyone has weeks where you check off everything on your to-do list with ease—and weeks where you’d really rather be anywhere but at work. 🌴🍹

It’s  normal for employees to face dips in motivation, but it becomes a problem when your colleagues are consistently disengaged. In fact, Gallup recently reported that employees who are not engaged cost the world $7.8 trillion in lost productivity.

Employees who are not engaged or who are actively disengaged cost the world $7.8 trillion in lost productivity, according to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report. That's equal to 11% of global GDP.

If that's not enough, the most recent report from Gallup found that a majority of the world's workers are currently disengaged, and half are looking to leave.

That's why we gathered some helpful tips from experts on how to motivate your employees to help increase employee engagement and experience productivity and retention gains.

These tips aren't specific to any industry, and most of them are either low or no cost. They can be applied in small establishments, franchises, startups, and Fortune 500 companies.

Looking to build stronger, more engaged, and motivated teams this year and beyond?
->  Download the Free Guide: 3 Steps to Building Engaged, Resilient Teams‍

Let's get started with one that has the potential to change everything: recognition.

1. Recognize great work

One of the most important factors that contribute to employee motivation is how often their hard work gets recognized. 70% of employees say that motivation and morale would improve massively with increased recognition from managers. After all, if an employee produces exceptional results but their hard work isn't recognized, why would they continue to be a high-performing employee?

Bonus points: there are other surprising benefits of employee recognition including improved working relationships, employee engagement, retention, and even empathy. 💚

It's not just important to recognize great work. How you recognize your team's contributions has a significant impact. Employee recognition shouldn’t just be an annual bonus at the end of the year—it should be meaningfully and frequently given.

Meghan M. Biro shared excellent advice on effective recognition. Here's one of our favorite tips:

Money is appropriate much of the time, but it’s not the only—or even the most effective—motivator. Treat employees as valued team members, not as numbers.

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2. Set small, measurable goals

We've all had projects that just drag on and on, and seem to never end. It can be demoralizing to be stuck in a rut, which is why seeing how you've made visible progress feels so good. It's also a clear indicator that our work is making a difference.

We met with Walter Chen, co-founder of iDoneThis, who shared some great insights into the importance of clear goal-setting and tracking progress. You can check out full the interview here.

Setting clear, achievable goals provides a real boost of motivation each time one is conquered—and it keeps teams on the right track. You can magnify these effects by taking the next step and celebrating those achievements.

3. Celebrate results

Part of what makes setting small and measurable goals so important is that it provides plenty of opportunities to celebrate your team’s hard work.

This doesn't mean you need to give a standing ovation to every employee who made it to work on time—but it is crucial to let everyone know exactly how (and how much) each of their contributions moves the organization forward.

Be specific in your applause. Don't just tell Marie "good job." Don't even stop at "great job on the new email campaign!" Applaud her success and when you do, tie her to the greater picture. For example: "Great job on that new email campaign—it’s going to really grow our community and nurture our customer pipeline."

4. Encourage teamwork

Teamwork is one of the greatest motivators out there. Knowing that your colleagues have your back and are your cheerleaders is an amazing feeling. When your motivation dips, your teammates are right there with you, rooting for you as you complete your next project. 🎊

In fact, 54% of employees say a strong sense of community (think: awesome coworkers, celebrating milestones, working toward a common mission) was a big reason they have stayed at an organization. Plus, organizations that communicate effectively are 4.5x more likely to retain the best employees.

One of the best ways to encourage teamwork is to start at the foundation with a working agreement. Working agreements are guidelines created by a team to set group expectations, provide ways to collaborate, and establish a positive team atmosphere.

5. Stay positive

Let’s be real—we’re a little suspicious of people who are happy all the time. 🤖

Negative emotions have their place, and some really good organizational changes can stem from having tough conversations. However, it's important to find ways to inject positive experiences into your team's interactions to create a net positive workplace.

Why? Because it’s actually a competitive advantage to have happy employees. Research shows that happy employees outperform their competition by 20% and generate 37% greater sales. 🤑

It turns out that happiness and positivity play a greater role in the success of your business than you'd ever imagine. If you're not fully convinced yet, take a moment to view this hilarious and fascinating presentation by psychologist Shawn Achor, explaining why:

A simple shift in bias toward positivity and happiness can have an immediate impact on your work experience and relationships, which are major factors in success, motivation, engagement, and productivity.

Go ahead and Tweet this! A simple shift in bias toward positivity and happiness can have an immediate impact on your work experience and relationships, which are major factors in success, motivation, engagement, and productivity.

Looking to build stronger, more engaged, and motivated teams this year and beyond?
->  Download the Free Guide: 3 Steps to Building Engaged, Resilient Teams

6. Stay fueled

It's hard to stay focused and driven when you're hangry. That's why it's so important for everyone to stay fed, hydrated, and in some cases, caffeinated. ☕️

Unfortunately, it's common for employees to become so busy that they can barely squeeze in time for lunch. That's not great for their health and even worse for their productivity. Not convinced? Read more on food's crucial role in employee well-being and engagement.

Keeping healthy snacks around the workplace—or providing a food stipend for remote employees— is an easy way to help your team maintain energy levels throughout the day. The cost of providing them will likely be offset by your team's increased productivity.

If you don't have the time or resources to manage this on your own, there are some great services that can help you keep your office stocked with healthy snacks. Our friends at Caroo will even drop a curated box of healthy snacks right at your company's or your employees' front door. When the Bonusly team was working in an office, we'd get a Fruit Guys delivery every week. It was a godsend at 3 p.m. or whenever we needed some fuel to power through the rest of the day!

Tip! If you want to motivate remote employees, Caroo offers custom care packages that you can curate with company swag, home office gifts, and healthy snacks to send a little love their way!

7. Take regular breaks

Banging your head against a problem for three hours is rarely productive. Stepping back and taking a moment to recalibrate isn't just helpful in staying motivated—it's also important to your health.

Go ahead and Tweet this! Stepping back and taking a moment to refresh and recalibrate isn't just helpful in staying motivated, it's also important to your health.

Sitting all day isn't good for you, and neither is working nonstop. Especially for remote workers, taking a short break every hour or two can have a positive effect on both your mind and body (work-from-home burnout is real!). Don't forget to get up from your desk and grab some fresh air!

Get up, stretch your legs, rest your eyes, and come back to work with a refreshed mind and body.

8. Stay healthy

This brings us to our next topic: staying healthy. As we learned in our interview with Button's Stephen Milbank, sharing is caring, but not if what you’re sharing is germs. 😷

When you’re ill, take a sick day! It's unlikely that you'll be getting any of your best work done when you can hardly hold your head up, and not taking the time to rest will only prolong your sickness and prevent your body from recovering.

Make sure the policies you're instituting aren't keeping people from taking the time they need to stay healthy. Think about the way you approach time off, medical benefits, and employee wellness. The stress and frustration from worrying about taking sick time can lead to disengagement and cost companies across the world billions of dollars each year.

A generous time-off policy or options for more flexible schedules or remote work might seem expensive at face value, but it can actually save your company quite a lot of money in lost productivity, poor attendance, and suboptimal engagement.

9. See and share the big picture

A large part of understanding the purpose behind your work is seeing how it fits into the larger picture. You can help boost motivation in the workplace by ensuring your team understands how each of their efforts impacts the organization, customers, and the community.

Completing a task usually provides a small sense of accomplishment, but knowing how that work helped others is the real antidote to disengagement.

Need more proof? Check out Zach Mercurio's talk on meaningful work:

10. Be transparent

Every relationship, including work relationships, is built on trust. Defaulting to transparency is one of the best ways to encourage an atmosphere of trust between you and your team and a team that trusts you will be more motivated and engaged with their work.

Transparency also helps ensure that everyone is working with the same information. That in itself can benefit the team.

11. Provide clarity

In order to be motivated about your work, it’s crucial that you actually understand what your goals and objectives are. For many employees, that understanding starts with transparency in the workplace and ends with clarity. Without clarity, transparency begins to lose its effectiveness and motivational power.

Make sure you're giving everyone a clear and concise mission they can get motivated about in the first place because it's nearly impossible to invest genuine motivation into something you're unaware of, or confused about.

12. Envision and share positive outcomes

It's easier to achieve success when you can envision it. Professionals of all types, from athletes to musicians and CEOs, all practice this technique to improve their motivation. Luckily, if you're providing a clear objective, you're already more than halfway there.

Help the team understand what it would mean to achieve that objective. When someone makes real progress toward that objective or outcome, share that progress as a source of motivation for everyone.

13. Find purpose

Although it's commonly stated that millennial employees are motivated by purposeful work, that's really true of most employees. Purpose is a vital factor in employee motivation and it starts with finding meaning in the work they do every day.

Erica Dhawan explains in an article about motivation she wrote for The Muse. She describes why it's so important to take time to explain the purpose behind the work you do:

Another key to staying motivated is knowing that the work you’re doing makes a difference in some way—recognizing the impact you’re making on your clients, company, or the world.

Looking to build stronger, more engaged, and motivated teams this year and beyond?
->  Download the Free Guide: 3 Steps to Building Engaged, Resilient Teams

14. Loosen the reins

Autonomy and flexible work schedules are incredibly effective motivators. Giving employees more agency around when and how they get their work done can actually improve their efficiency, and help keep them motivated.

In her article for Monster.com, Roberta Matuson provides a great framework for getting started on the path of employee autonomy:

Tell your employees what needs to be done by what deadline; allow them to decide when they will do the actual work. For some, that may mean coming in early; for others that might involve working on the weekend.

The key here is that you're giving employees the freedom to work on their projects when their motivation is strongest, not just when they're in the workplace.

Giving employees more control over their work also helps eliminate one of the worst enemies of motivation in the workplace: micromanagement. It can also help employees build resilience.

15. Provide a sense of security

We're not talking about hiring a bouncer for your office (although you should make sure your employees feel safe at your workplace!). We’re talking about employees feeling secure enough to show their full selves at work.

Psychological theory suggests that there is a hierarchy of basic needs that people require before they can be motivated to reach their full potential. Security falls right beneath physiological needs like food and water.

Once employees feel secure, they're more likely to be motivated to reach and further stretch their potential.

16. Power pose

Your posture not only says a lot about your motivation levels—it can actually impact them. Amy Cuddy gave an outstanding TED presentation about what your own body language can tell you, and how it affects your mood, your work, and your interactions with others.

Take a moment to think about your own posture, and the postures you're seeing around the workplace. What are they saying? If what they're saying isn't positive, try experimenting with different postures, and see how they impact your overall motivation.

17. Offer small, consistent rewards

Rewarding employees for their hard work is a motivational rule that nearly goes without saying. However, there are several ways to go about doing that, and some are more effective than others.

Annual bonuses are a common way many employers reward employees for their hard work. Unfortunately, they don't often provide the motivation they're designed to. An annual bonus perceived as routine, disappointing, or unfair can even damage motivation in the workplace.

Providing smaller, more consistent rewards is a great way to boost motivation consistently over time.

Looking to build stronger, more engaged, and motivated teams this year and beyond?
->  Download the Free Guide: 3 Steps to Building Engaged, Resilient Teams

18. Change the scenery

Sometimes a small shift in scenery can provide a big shift in motivation. If it's possible, think about how the environment your team works in impacts motivation. If there aren't many sources of natural light coming in, it might be valuable to step outside together from time to time.

Spending even a few moments in different surroundings can provide a new perspective, and often a noticeable boost in motivation. Consider taking your team on an offsite or retreat, and notice how their spirits could lighten after a day working outside of the office. ☀️

19. Practice and promote mindfulness

Taking time out of your day to slow down and practice mindfulness might sound like it would negatively impact productivity, but in many cases, the opposite is true.

Many of us work in jobs where stress is a matter of course, but as the Harvard Business Review staff explains in their article Mindfulness in the Age of Complexity, "Stress is not a function of events; it’s a function of the view you take of events."

Embracing mindfulness at work can improve productivity and motivation by providing the perspective we need to see that.

20. Have fun!

Not every task at work is going to feel like a day at Six Flags. That's okay. What's not okay is having a team that feels like every day is a slog. You don't need a ping pong table or a kegerator in your office to make work fun. Find little bits of fun in everyday activities, and focus on what it is that makes working in your organization great.

You and your team will be amazed at how motivating a little bit of fun can be.

Bravo, you made it through the list! 👏

It seems like you’re really motivated to improve motivation at your workplace. Your team is lucky to have someone who cares about them and wants to help them be more meaningfully engaged with their work. 😍

If you want a more in-depth look into how HR teams, managers, and leaders can inspire employees to be motivated, stronger, and more flexible—especially in times of ongoing change, read our latest guide.👇

Originally published on October 26, 2022 → Last updated March 1, 2023

Recognition gets a whole lot of airtime these days when we’re talking about employee experience, engagement, retention, and everything else that makes businesses succeed and people perform at their best. (Bonusly included—we’ve got a whole section on our blog dedicated to the topic!)

But with all the much-deserved love given to recognition, another equally important element of the employee—and human—experience is often overlooked: appreciation. Let’s dive into why appreciation is not the same as recognition, why they’re more powerful together, and why your business should embrace appreciation to succeed. 

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Recognition vs. appreciation

Too often, recognition and appreciation are used interchangeably. And while they’re certainly connected, there’s a vital difference in the two concepts that matters if you’re trying to create a workplace where everyone feels seen, supported, and engaged. 

Here’s the breakdown: recognition is about what someone does—the results they get, the milestones they hit, and the progress they achieve. Appreciation, on the other hand, is about who someone is—the work they put in, the way they collaborate with others, and the way they make your team and your company a better place to work. 

Appreciation is a way to show gratitude for a person's value, and recognition is a way to show gratitude for their actions. Recognition is conditional upon achievements and results, while appreciation celebrates peoples’ intrinsic selves. 

While recognition and appreciation differ, you need both elements to create a company where employees enjoy working, and where they’re motivated to perform at their best. In fact, they work better when paired. But since appreciation gets a lot less buzz than recognition right now, let’s cover why it deserves to be a higher priority for every business. 

Why appreciation matters at work 

Recognition is, of course, critical to the success of any company (just check out all the data on the ROI of recognition for proof). But there’s a natural limit to how much recognition you can give people, not everyone can get the maximum bonus, an annual promotion, or an award. Plus, your employees can work hard and work well and still not achieve the desired result, and recognition would feel inauthentic. 

Appreciation, however, can go to everyone, all the time, just for being themselves. Let’s take the example of an employee who led a team to get an innovative new project off the ground. It took months of hard work, strategic thinking, and leadership, but due to external market conditions, the project didn't succeed. The employee’s dedication to the task and the team merits plenty of appreciation, even if the results don’t warrant recognition. 

And imagine you’re that employee, feeling discouraged and down after putting in those months of work. Even a small gesture of appreciation—a handwritten note, a kind email—can mean the world, because it shows that the company, and their managers and peers, value them as a person, not just for what they achieve.  

How to balance recognition and appreciation 

All this talk about how amazing appreciation might seem like it’s more important than recognition, and that’s not true. They both play an absolutely vital role in employee engagement and retention, and generally in creating a company that people love to work for. 

‍Recognition is critical because, of course, you’re running a business and you do want to reward outcomes and results. You have targets to hit, and recognition helps you celebrate the people who take your business across that finish line. Plus, employees also want to be recognized for the results they produce when they’re successful—it feels great to hit those milestones and reap the rewards. 

But unfortunately, appreciation is missing in many workplaces, and so the balance is tilted towards rewarding results and accomplishments only. This can leave many hard-working employees feeling lonely and discouraged more than they should when something doesn’t pan out as they hoped. 

Finding a way to encourage managers, leaders, and colleagues to both recognize and appreciate employees begins with effective communication about why both elements are essential. Let people know what you expect of them, and why it matters from both a human and a business perspective, and you’ll begin to build a better workplace culture. 

The business case for appreciation

Appreciation is not about giving participation trophies for simply showing up—that would be inauthentic, and that’s the opposite of effective appreciation. Plus, accountability and standards still matter when giving appreciation. It’s really about ensuring that everyone in your workplace feels like they’re valued for their whole selves, not just their contributions to the quarterly quotas you’ve set. 

And this feeling has more benefits than giving everyone a warm, fuzzy glow (although that’s lovely!). Psychological safety is a term that’s used a lot because more and more organizations understand that it’s a key component in creating innovative cultures, and it can sound complex. But at its core, it’s about creating group trust—knowing that you can make a mistake or fail and still be a valued member of your team. 

Without that feeling of safety, taking risks is frightening for employees at all levels. Appreciation can foster a culture of continuous learning and trying new things because your people know that they don’t need to fear failure; they’ll still be welcomed and celebrated and secure even if the risk they took doesn’t pan out. 

When we work in a place filled with people at all levels who we know care about us, we not only want to work harder—we want to push the envelope (intelligently) and see what we can do for the company, our colleagues, and our leaders. 

And that combination of recognition and appreciation gets better results than recognition alone. According to a study by the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, when people were recognized for work they did well, they were 23% more effective and productive than those who weren’t recognized. Yet, when people felt valued and cared for by the team—appreciated, in other words—they were 43% more effective and productive than people who weren’t valued.

Speaking of leaders, appreciation isn’t any less valuable for them. In fact, managers and leaders often get the least amount of genuine appreciation (not recognition or compensation based on their position and power, but pure appreciation for who they are). It can be extra meaningful to deliver some well-deserved appreciation to those above you, as long as it’s done without an ulterior motive. 

The takeaway

While appreciation is not a brand-new or groundbreaking idea, it’s often sorely missing in our workplaces, and that makes them a less pleasant place to be. Adding appreciation into your recognition strategy can make a big difference in your employee experience and your retention rates too—people tend to stay in workplaces that reward both results and everything else they contribute to the team. 

Looking for a way to make recognizing your employees’ accomplishments and appreciating everything else they do easier and more instinctive? That’s the key to making both elements more frequent so they become an integral part of your company culture. Bonusly is here to help—see for yourself. 

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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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In recent years, the concept of “bringing your whole self to work” has gained momentum. But research shows that, for LGBTQI+ employees, many environments still aren’t safe enough to bring every aspect of who they are to the workplace. In fact, the Center for American Progress found that half of the LGBTQI+ participants in its 2022 study had experienced discrimination or harassment at work within the past year.

This Pride Month, while corporate ads, slogans, and social media campaigns support LGBTQI+ equity abound, it’s critical to consider how organizations can move beyond performative allyship and “rainbow-washing” toward creating environments that are truly safe and inclusive for all employees.

Key ways to support your LGBTQI+ employees at work

Your organization may be bursting with employee Pride, but if leaders aren’t sure how to talk about Pride Month at work, a powerful opportunity for celebration, education, and connection can pass right by.

Here are a few thoughts on how you can support your LGBTQI+ colleagues during Pride Month and beyond:

💡 Diversity and inclusion is a value-add for organizations. Download this fact sheet to see how!

1. Encourage empathy

First, let’s talk about interpersonal inclusion. It’s generally what we think of when we think about inclusion in the workplace—it’s how employees interact, connect, and communicate with each other. And it’s also how an organizational culture is formed.

To create a truly inclusive culture, encouraging empathy among colleagues is paramount. And for non-LGBTQI+ workers, listening to the experiences and perspectives of LGBTQI+ colleagues can be a powerful way to gain understanding.

Some organizations find it helpful to set up structured learning opportunities, including:

• Experience talks, in which LGBTQI+ colleagues or guests speak about their experiences within certain industries.
• Expertise talks, in which a LGBTQI+ colleague or guest speaks about a relevant business topic, serving to diversify an organization’s speaker set while also supporting educational goals.

Of course, co-workers sharing experiences with each other in less formal ways is an invaluable way to learn and build empathy. But it’s important to note the very real challenges LGBTQI+ employees face in openly discussing their lives in many work environments.

“Operating with empathy is the ultimate way to forge a more equitable and inclusive culture, and this has to be embedded into the overall company culture.” – Sander van ‘t Noordende, CEO, Randstand

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“We often hear from straight, cisgender leaders that one of the biggest challenges to LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace is the lack of exposure to what life is like for LGBTQ+ people. We can all benefit from listening to new perspectives, stepping outside of our comfort zones, and considering what life is like for people with identities that are different from us.” – The National LGBTQ+ Bar Association

2. Know that small talk is no small thing

Whether it’s catching up in the office after a weekend or engaging in virtual watercooler talk, work environments demand a certain level of sharing and chit chat among colleagues. But small talk is no small thing.

In its most recent national study, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Workplace Equality Program determined that 36% of non-LGBTQI+ workers feel uncomfortable hearing a LGBTQI+ colleague talk about dating, and 59% of non-LGBTQI+ workers think that talking about sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace is unprofessional.

In other words? LGBTQI+ employees may feel they have to carefully navigate conversations that their non-LGBTQI+ colleagues breeze through without a second thought. In some environments, LGBTQ+ workers still feel they have to avoid even mentioning a same-gender or nonbinary partner.
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“ . . . a double standard for LGBTQ workers persists in significant ways where they receive a message that their sharing is not welcome.” –  A Workplace Divided, Human Rights Campaign Foundation
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Still, connecting about non-work-related topics is an important way for colleagues to build and strengthen relationships. Conversational signals that can help LGBTQI+ employees feel safe talking about their personal lives include:

• Avoiding heteronormative assumptions (e.g., if a woman mentions they’re married, don’t assume “husband” is the word to use for their spouse)
• Using neutral terms like “partner”, “significant other,” or “spouse”
• Avoiding a binary assumption of gender (e.g., instead of saying “ladies and gentlemen,” use neutral language: “Hi, everyone”)
• Sharing gender pronouns
• Using inclusive vocabulary
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“Using gender-neutral and anti-ableist language isn’t about just being politically correct … It’s about allowing yourself to broaden your perspective. Language is powerful and doesn’t only affect the listener, but also the user. By taking the extra energy to be more mindful of the language we use, we’re training new circuits in our brains and becoming more aware of how certain language can create a more supportive work environment.” – Sayume Romero, speech pathology student and LGBTQ activist

3. Audit your organizational policies

For HR professionals, the engagement and wellbeing of all employees—including their safety, security, and peace of mind—is a primary concern. And counting on organizational guidelines or EEOC regulations isn’t sufficient.

After all, it wasn’t until June 2020 that the Supreme Court actually ruled it illegal to fire someone on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. And in many organizations, plenty of heteronormative or discriminatory policies still remain in employee handbooks.  

If you’re in an HR role, consider whether your organization:

• Offers benefits to domestic partners.
• Clearly communicates what constitutes harassment and discrimination in the workplace.
• Explicitly includes sexual orientation and gender identity in its nondiscrimination policy.
• Uses equitable language in its policies (e.g., “parental leave” instead of “maternity leave”).
• Requires a dress code that reinforces gender stereotypes.
• Offers healthcare benefits covering transgender and mental health support.
• Offers support and the appropriate office amenities for employees who are non-binary or transitioning.

💡 Diversity and inclusion is a value-add for organizations. Download this fact sheet to see how!

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For more information

If you’re looking for information about what other equitable and inclusive organizations across the country are doing to support their LGBTQI+ employees, check out the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index. The Foundation’s Trans Toolkit for Employers is also a valuable tool in setting up your organization to be transgender-inclusive. For questions about healthcare benefits, reach out to your insurance broker to understand your options.

71% of the Fortune 500 [...] offer transgender-inclusive health insurance coverage, up from 0 in 2002 and 22 times as many businesses as twelve years ago. – Corporate Equality Index, Human Rights Campaign Foundation

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Next steps

What is your organization doing to support your LGBTQ+ employees: Tell us in the comments below.

Additionally, check out these additional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion resources from Bonusly:

• 11 Diversity & Inclusion Statistics That Will Change How You Do Business
• It's Our Responsibility as HR Professionals to Address Racial Injustice
• Why Employee Recognition is Crucial to Inclusion
• Bonusly's Recommended Monthly Celebrations Calendar

No. 1 Employee Recognition Platform Unveils New Capabilities to Help Companies Build Winning Cultures of Appreciation 

‍LAS VEGAS, NV — June 12, 2023 — Bonusly, an engaging recognition and rewards platform that connects teams and enriches company culture announced critical product enhancements that enable increased productivity and retention. These include an improved user experience, updated manager analytics, custom feeds, and new reward catalog features.

Retaining high-performing, productive employees is more challenging than ever. Over 4 million Americans quit their jobs monthly between July and November of 2022. According to Gartner, that figure is expected to grow, with turnover rates up to 24%. Additionally, data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics found that labor productivity decreased 2.7% in Q1 of 2023—the biggest decline in 75 years—leading companies to lose up to millions of dollars annually.

The Bonusly platform, recognized by G2 as the number one employee recognition provider, improves productivity and retention by way of meaningful recognition, enabling public recognition of both major and minor accomplishments. When strong recognition practices are in place, employees are four times more engaged. And engaged employees are critical to business outcomes, including higher productivity and lower attrition.

With Bonusly, employees receive an average of two meaningful, timely, and detailed recognitions from colleagues and managers every week. After deploying Bonusly, more than nine in ten (93%) customers see improved employee engagement. Bonusly customers include Chobani, ZipRecruiter, Pender Veterinary, and SDMI.  

"Everyone has felt unappreciated at work at some point in their career, and many people have left a job because of it," said Raphael Crawford-Marks, founder and CEO of Bonusly. "Our mission is to make sure that everyone sees how much their managers and colleagues value their work. Our platform encourages specific and frequent recognition, increasing retention and productivity. With the release of these new capabilities employees and managers across organizations of all sizes can deliver and receive the recognition needed to foster a high performing culture of appreciation.”

With these latest additions to the Bonusly platform, employees and HR teams gain the ability to:

• Boost employee engagement with an intuitive, and accessible interface. Developed from feedback and analytics from over 3,200 companies and 400,000 daily users, the new interface is functional and fun, with key platform data easy to find and act on and a WCAG AA accessibility supported interface.
  
• Increase productivity and retention with new manager analytics. Managers are responsible for 70% of the employee engagement gap. A new Manager Giving Tracker enables managers to identify direct reports who need additional, meaningful appreciation. The new Compare Rates feature allows leaders to compare recognition rates across different organization segments, enabling them to focus on teams and employees that need extra support. ‍
• Maximize the impact of recognition with Custom Feeds that bring your unique company culture front and center to the digital workspace. The new feed enables users and administrators to create and follow personalized recognition feeds based on team, department, or location. ‍
• Highlight a company’s culture with a smarter, effortless Rewards experience. The Bonusly platform now offers a diverse catalog of 1,200+ rewards in over 200 countries, custom rewards unique to every company, and a seamless integration with AXOMO for high-quality, hassle-free swag. Updates also include a new reward, Points Boost, that allows users to get more points before they run out — increasing recognition participation. 

“Research shows that employees who are appreciated are more loyal to their employers, and one of the many ways we appreciate employees for their wins, hard work, and success, is through Bonusly! Bonusly's employee recognition platform has made an impact on retention and has helped ensure our employees feel seen and recognized by not only their team but the entire company.”

— Luis Jiminez, People Experience Associate, Headspace

About Bonusly

Thousands of companies worldwide rely on Bonusly to build a winning culture of appreciation, and cultivate high-performing teams regardless of their location, work setting, or industry. Bonusly serves as a crucial tool for investing in, and driving positive business outcomes from a company’s most critical asset — their people.

Bonusly’s engagement software is easy to use and enables companies to build stronger connections among and between teams, leading to increased collaboration and innovation among your workforce. Additionally, Bonusly provides exclusive insights at the individual, team, and company levels, empowering managers to make informed decisions regarding culture, professional growth, performance management, and employee retention. To learn more, please visit bonusly.com

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Another solstice, another G2 report—and we’re proud to share the results! After earning 66 awards across the Employee Recognition and Employee Engagement categories this spring, we’re happy to report that Bonusly received 70 awards to kick off the summer season. 🌞

What is the G2 Summer Report—and why does it matter? 

Let's back up a bit. G2 is the peer review software site, with more than 80 million people researching and buying software on G2 annually. The G2 Reports are determined by an aggregate of customer ratings across different categories. The goal of these reports is to help consumers pick the best software solutions for their unique needs. 

We take these seriously because so many consumers rely on G2 to make smart software purchasing decisions. 

Plus, as an employee recognition and engagement platform, we appreciate feedback of all kinds and are grateful for every Bonusly customer who’s taken the time to share their experience on G2 (we’ve got nearly 2,000 reviews!). 

‍--> Searching for new software? Get this [FREE] HR vendor evaluation scorecard to help you compare providers.

Bonusly is #1 in employee recognition

G2 has recognized Bonusly as the leader in the Employee Recognition category for the 6th season in a row! This, of course, is incredibly important to us: our goal is to help organizations build cultures of appreciation through meaningful recognition. 

Just as critical: companies with recognition-rich cultures have higher retention rates and, as a result, save a significant amount of money in lost productivity and recruiting costs.

To date, we’ve helped over 3,250 customers across 75 countries turn recognition into a strategic advantage, helping boost productivity, increase retention, and transforming the employee experience. 

“Bonusly's employee recognition platform has made an impact on retention and has helped ensure our employees feel seen and recognized by not only their team but the entire company.” — Luis Jiminez, People Experience Associate, Headspace

Bonusly moves up in employee engagement

We’re honored to be named a leader in G2’s Employee Engagement category and to move to the #2 spot. Recognition is highly correlated with improving employee engagement; regular recognition increases employee engagement by up to 60%. Plus, engaged employees are more productive and less likely to leave voluntarily.

TL;DR? Investing in employee engagement through employee recognition is the best way to help you gain a competitive edge and achieve your business goals. 💚

"In the six months since adopting Bonusly, our eNPS score jumped from 72.2 to 82.1." — Daniel McAdams, President, Andiamo

“In 2022, Pender Veterinary Centre experienced its highest-ever retention rate. While we can’t attribute it all to Bonusly, I believe that overall engagement is connected to our retention. High engagement and connection to one another are probably the biggest reasons people stick around.” — Kaitlin Kaplan, Human Resources Manager, Pender Veterinary

Bonusly continues to reign supreme in implementation and usability

A significant reason people love Bonusly is because it’s intuitive and easy to use—with an esteemed success team here for you every step of the way. G2 confirms this, recognizing Bonusly for our product’s exceptional implementation and usability. 

The average company using Bonusly is up and running within 3-4 weeks and the average Bonusly admin spends less than 1.5 per month administering Bonusly! If that’s not a reflection of our value #work-smarter, we don’t know what is!

"I used to spend up to five hours a week managing points and rewards manually. Today, I spend next to no time on the process, apart from the time I spend recognizing others myself. Bonusly has lifted an enormous burden from my shoulders." — Daniel McAdams, President, Andiamo 

--> Searching for new software? Get this [FREE] HR vendor evaluation scorecard to help you compare providers.

The takeaway

We’re continuously releasing new and exciting updates, and recently unveiled an entirely new user interface. Interested in seeing our award-winning software for yourself? Schedule a free demo today!

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What’s the key to engaging and retaining top talent? People managers. 🔑

Manager recognition drives your organization’s ability to build and retain high-performing teams; managers account for 70% of the differences in employee engagement across companies. If you want to unlock your whole team’s potential, you’ll need to make sure managers are equipped to recognize top talent consistently. Bonusly’s new Manager Giving Tracker serves as an appreciation barometer to nudge managers to appreciate each of their direct reports throughout the month. The new widget gives managers an at-a-glance view of which direct reports have been recognized for the month and indicates which team members might need an appreciation refuel. Once managers have recognized each of their direct reports for the month, they’ll be celebrated too. Cue the confetti! 🎉

What can the update do? 

• Show which direct reports have and have not been recognized each month.
• Help managers quickly recognize direct reports with a click of a mouse. 
• Prioritize the next recognition to write by showing days since managers last recognized each report.

What can the update do for you? 

Manager recognition is equitable and easy with the new Manager Giving Tracker. Here’s how the new widget helps everyone feel recognized while keeping productivity on track! 

Save time meaningfully recognizing direct reports

Direct reports will go from zero to appreciated in seconds. Bonusly is placing the Manager Giving Tracker center stage on the homepage so managers get at-a-glance insights on who they should recognize next. Plus, managers can recognize their direct reports with a click of the mouse directly from the Manager Giving Tracker. 

Ensure everyone on the team feels recognized

Appreciation inequity on your team can create bad blood between your direct reports. Keep everyone feeling appreciated for their contributions and get an immediate indication of who’s been recognized this month and who still needs some appreciation. 

Keep engagement and productivity on track

Managers hold the key to team engagement and productivity levels. In a recent employee survey, 65% of respondents said they would work harder if their contributions were noticed by management. The new Manager Giving Tracker relieves pressure from managers manually keeping track of who they’ve recognized last, making equitable appreciation easy. 

Prioritize the mental health of your team

Turbocharge team wellness by prioritizing manager recognition. 69% of employees report that managers have the greatest impact on their overall mental health (equal to their spouse and more than a doctor or therapist). 

What’s next? 

Ready to champion your team with real-time recognition and see them shine? The Manager Giving Tracker is now available to all new and existing Bonusly customers. 🎉 If you’re new to Bonusly and want to see the Manager Giving Tracker in action, request a product demo.

The new and improved Rewards page allows companies to highlight their company culture and users to express their unique personalities through a customized reward experience. Bonsuly’s robust reward catalog meets employees wherever they work with 1,200+ rewards in 200+ countries. With reward information at their fingertips, and a WCAG AA accessibility supported  interface, employees can spend less time redeeming rewards and more time enjoying them. 

Let’s take a look at what’s on the menu!

Streamlined shopping experience

The new rewards experience matches familiar online shopping patterns and pages load faster than ever before for a stellar shopping experience. Redeeming a reward is as simple as 1, 2, 3:

1. When a user navigates to the rewards page, they’ll immediately see how many points they have available to spend with a prominent redeemable point balance. 

2. With their balance in mind, they can browse the updated reward categories to easily find the right reward for them. 

3. Once they select their desired reward, they’ll be met with a brand detail page highlighting key information they need to confidently claim their reward. After claiming the reward, it’s ready to be redeemed with the selected brand.

Rewards for everyone

Bonusly’s reward experience is WCAG AA approved and meets the needs of global customers with robust translation capabilities and rewards in 200+ countries. We’re meeting our customers wherever they work with additional content translations supported and purchasing power parity abilities. It’s the rewarding experience heard around the world. 🌎

Built with your employees in mind

Every employee has a unique reward personality. There are the repeat redeemers; employees redeeming from the same reward month after month. The situational shoppers; employees cashing out rewards to line up with life events. The spontaneous purchasers; employees who like to try a new reward every time.

Lucky for our users, Bonusly’s reward refresh is customized to meet the unique needs of employees and companies alike. Now, everyone can quickly find rewards they might like or re-order their favorites. For those who love to pay it forward, we've added the ability to send gifts to coworkers, family, and friends with a personalized recognition message!

At the company level, admins have the ability to add custom rewards or donations central to their culture. We’ve also made it much easier to represent your company in style with automated swag fulfillment through AXOMO. Last, but not least, we highlighted "Points Boost" on the rewards page to increase peer-to-peer recognition while keeping recognition budgets in check. 

The bottom line: employers reward the way they want, and employees are rewarded the way they want. 

As if this update wasn’t enough, we’re just getting started! Keep an eye on this blog post to be the first to find out about additional reward enhancements. We hope you and your employees enjoy a more seamless, fun, and accessible rewards experience. Ready to share the news? Our one pager can help. Happy rewarding!

Are employee engagement surveys the be-all and end-all to understanding employee sentiment? 🤔

Though surveys can be a good first step to assess the state of the organization, they need to be supplemented with rich, real-time people analytics in order to be meaningful, trustworthy, and actionable. Let's take a look at the challenges with traditional engagement surveys and how rich people analytics can help fill in the gaps. 📈

The issue with traditional engagement surveys

Surveys without action can create mistrust among employees. If you're willing to ask employees questions, you should be ready to respond to feedback, and quickly. When survey data is mishandled, mistrust among employees increases. Additionally, employees don’t trust that survey results are truly anonymous and fear retribution for unfavorable opinions about the company. That’s why surveys should be supplemented with reliable, real-time people analytics.  

Beyond mistrust, surveys often offer temporary solutions to long term problems. HR teams frequently scramble to offer quick fixes to the issues they see in their survey results, when what they need to focus on is implementing permanent solutions. That’s the problem with receiving engagement data all at once instead of regularly, in real-time. Enter Bonusly analytics! Bonusly allows you to understand and react to employee sentiment in real time with powerful people analytics. 

How to use Bonusly to supplement survey data

As Walden University puts it, “Surveys provide a snapshot of the moment that’s already passed.” By the time you collect, analyze and take action on survey results it can be too late to move the needle on employee engagement and retention. In addition to employee surveys, it’s essential to monitor real-time people analytics to act on important peoples decisions quickly. 

Zero in on problem areas

Identify engagement issues in real-time and quickly understand which parts of your organization need your attention. With Compare Rates analytics, you can consistently compare recognition rates across teams and identify teams that are giving and receiving recognition at a rate below your company’s average. You can make recommendations to boost recognition rates by implementing award programs, encouraging managers to recognize their direct reports, and connecting your Bonusly instance to your preferred chat tool to boost visibility of recognition and encourage add-ons. 

Establish benchmarks

Before and after you take action based on survey results, benchmark your company’s current level of engagement with Bonusly. Having quantitative data to improve upon can be a great way to set tangible goals for long term improvement. 

Measure adoption of core values

You can use hashtag analytics to regularly measure the adoption of your company values. Understand if there are values that have trended down that may need programming support from the HR team. Were there key events that can be tied to those declines? Regularly reviewing changes in hashtag analytics allows Bonusly customers to proactively implement changes instead of reacting to survey results. 

Incentivize survey responses

A key issue with employee engagement surveys is that they’re hard to get employees to respond to given the time commitment. Low response rates lead to inadequate sample sizes which makes meaningful organizational change a challenge. Using Bonusly’s awards, HR teams can incentivize participation in the engagement survey to ensure they have sufficient results to work with. 

Next up, let's look at how you can use Bonusly data to make employee survey results actionable. 

How to use Bonusly to take action on survey results

Bonusly’s robust people analytics are essential to supplementing survey data.  Here are four ways you can use Bonusly analytics to ensure survey results don't collect dust on your HR team's desk:

Survey says: low engagement scores

Bonusly helps build a culture of appreciation and many of our customers have seen their eNPS scores go up as a result of implementing Bonusly. Both Andiamo and Nexthink were able to increase their eNPS scores significantly after implementing Bonusly. 👏

Survey says: lack of DEI education

If you get feedback about a lack of DEI education in the company, start to incentivize educational behaviors like training, courses, and focus groups happening at your organization. Using Bonusly’s award functionality helps increase employees' personal initiative to take part in important learning opportunities and empowers everyone to influence company culture in a meaningfully positive way. 

Survey says: retention is an issue

Often, employees flag retention as an improvement area in engagement surveys. Implementing an employee recognition program has a powerful impact on retention. In fact, 48% of Bonusly customers saw an improvement in employee retention after implementing Bonusly. With Bonusly's help, our customers at Pender Veterinary saw their attrition rate stay flat during the Great Resignation.

Survey says: employees are disconnected

Often, HR teams get survey feedback about a lack of connection between employees, teams, and departments. Bonusly can help! Over ⅔ of Bonusly customers reported an improvement in employee connection after implementing Bonusly.  

We've only scratched the surface on what Bonusly's powerful people analytics can do for your company. Want to learn more? Schedule an employee recognition demo. 

Too much employee  appreciation is a good problem to have, but it can be overwhelming to keep track of every piece of recognition flowing through your organization.

To help you and your team stay up to date on recognition that matters most to you, we’ve launched Custom Feeds. Custom Feeds allow Bonusly users to save feeds to their homepage for specific locations, teams, or departments. Everyone has the freedom to decide which feeds they want to see and the flexibility to quickly change them at any time. With easily adjustable views, users can zoom in on relevant recognition without losing sight of the organization as a whole. 

What can the update do? 

With Custom Feeds, you can view only the recognition you need to see, when you need to see it. Then, when you’re done looking at a specific slice of your organization, you can quickly toggle back to seeing organization-wide recognition. With Custom Feeds you can: 

• Create and save new feeds based on teams, departments, and locations
• Keep tabs on several streams of recognition at once
• Add and remove feeds easily and as often as needed

What can the update do for you? 

Teams aren’t static, Bonusly’s new Custom Feeds aren’t either. New Custom Feeds support large, international teams like never before all while saving managers and leaders valuable time. 

Support companies with multiple office locations

For companies with multiple offices and locations, Custom Feeds allow you to easily follow recognition posts from your location, helping you keep tabs on the team you interact with most throughout your workday, without losing sight of what’s happening company-wide. 

Support large and scaling businesses

If you’re working at a large or scaling business,  you can use Custom Feeds to create visible feeds of the most relevant teams, departments, and locations. Then, when you’re done zooming in on specific teams, you can quickly return to viewing the organization as a whole. 

Keep track of the team’s key milestones

Gone are the days of missing important work milestones like birthdays and anniversaries. With Custom Feeds, you can view recognition by teams or departments to keep track of recognition and interactions flowing between the people you work with most. 

Quickly change your perspective

Custom Feeds saves you time and makes catching up on and engaging with relevant recognition simple. Need to switch up your feed view to get some new perspective? You can change your recognition view in a matter of seconds by adding feeds to your homepage. You can set them and forget them, or make changes as often as you’d like. 

What’s next? 

Custom Feeds are now available to all new and existing Bonusly customers.  🎉 If you’re new to Bonusly and want to see Custom Feeds in action, request a product demo or take an interactive tour of Bonusly. 

Previously the head of design, Bartels will apply her additional, deep experience in business and computer science to the Bonusly product roadmap.

Boulder, Colorado May 16, 2023: Bonusly, an engaging recognition and rewards platform that connects teams and enriches company culture, today announced that Judith Bartels, previously senior director of design, has been appointed vice president of product and design. In her new role, Bartels will be responsible for the end-to-end Bonusly experience, encompassing both product strategy and design execution.

Bartels joined Bonusly in 2021 after spending nearly four years as executive creative director at IHS Markit, a financial information services fintech company, where she managed a team of 50 creative directors and designers who worked with clients on user research, product innovation, and global brand redesigns. Her clients included the New York Times, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, E-Trade and PIMCO. Before that, Bartels spent seven years in senior design roles at SapientRazorfish, where she consulted on digital design and product user experience with some of the world's best-known brands, such as American Eagle Outfitters, Verizon Wireless and Swisscom. She brings years of experience and training in design, along with business management and computer science expertise to her new position.

"I've always cared deeply about the people on my teams, and in previous roles I spent a lot of time thinking about how to best motivate, engage and recognize them," Bartels said. "It's exciting to take charge of Bonusly's product, especially now. Work continues to undergo dramatic change with remote and hybrid models, and the entry of younger generations who have very different expectations about work. Organizations now recognize that they need to leverage technology to facilitate employee recognition and engagement."

The Bonusly platform empowers real-time employee recognition and rewards to highlight accomplishments big and small in a very positive and public way, which fosters stronger cultures and builds resilient companies. While other employee engagement companies offer little more than gift card programs, Bonusly's recognition platform captures and analyzes real-time data on how organizations really work, communicate and connect, informing HR teams and managers so they can make more informed, faster business decisions.

"Judith has proven herself to be a compassionate, effective leader for the product design team," said Raphael Crawford-Marks, Bonusly founder and CEO. "And with her formidable skill sets in design, user experience, business management and computer science, we know she's going to drive the product forward to create an even better experience with even greater value to our more than 3,000 customers around the world. We are excited to see her apply her talents and expertise as she leads our product team."

About Bonusly

Thousands of companies worldwide rely on Bonusly to cultivate high-performing and motivated teams, regardless of their location, work setting, or industry. Bonusly serves as a crucial tool for investing in, and driving positive business outcomes from a company's most critical asset — their people.

Bonusly's engagement software is easy to use and enables companies to build stronger connections among and between teams, leading to increased collaboration and innovation among your workforce. Additionally, Bonusly provides exclusive insights at the individual, team, and company levels, empowering managers to make informed decisions regarding culture, professional growth, performance management, and employee retention. To learn more, please visit http://bonus.ly

Bonusly Wins Recognition for the Second Year in a Row.

Boulder, Colorado May 9, 2023: Bonusly, the leading employee engagement solution provider, has once again been named to Inc. magazine’s annual Best Workplaces list for the second year in a row. Featured in the May/June 2023 issue, the list is the result of a comprehensive measurement of American companies that  have excelled in creating exceptional workplaces and company culture, whether operating in a physical or a virtual facility.

The Bonusly platform creates a culture of recognition in which employees receive an average of two meaningful, timely, detailed recognitions from peers and managers every week. After deploying Bonusly, more than nine in ten (93%) customers see improved employee engagement. Ranked by G2 as No. 1 in Employee Recognition and No. 3 in Employee Engagement, Bonusly is used by top-tier companies including Chobani, ZipRecruiter, Pender Veterinary, and SDMI. 

After collecting data from thousands of submissions, Inc. selected 591 honorees this year. Each company that was nominated took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum Workplace, which included topics such as management effectiveness, perks, fostering employee growth, and overall company culture. The organization’s benefits were also audited to determine overall score and ranking.

"Bonusly's goal is to boost employee engagement, morale, and retention through authentic and frequent recognition from co-workers and managers," explains Raphael Crawford-Marks, Bonusly founder and CEO. "Our solution has been built over the past decade with the aim of creating a culture where individuals feel valued as part of a larger team. Receiving this award for two consecutive years validates not only our efforts to create a great workplace culture but also the effectiveness of our solution in helping other organizations do the same."

“Being named to Best Workplaces is an honor that only a small fraction of companies have been able to claim,” says Inc.editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. “Proving to the world that you’re a magnet for talent and have a culture that keeps teams engaged, productive, and proud to come to work is a truly remarkable achievement.”

About Bonusly

Thousands of companies worldwide rely on Bonusly to cultivate high-performing and motivated teams, regardless of their location, work setting, or industry. Bonusly serves as a crucial tool for investing in, and driving positive business outcomes from a company's most critical asset — their people.

Bonusly's engagement software is easy to use and enables companies to build stronger connections among and between teams, leading to increased collaboration and innovation among your workforce. Additionally, Bonusly provides exclusive insights at the individual, team, and company levels, empowering managers to make informed decisions regarding culture, professional growth, performance management, and employee retention. To learn more, please visit http://bonus.ly.

About Inc. Media

The world’s most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multi-platform-content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

A simple “thank you” can mean the world to someone, regardless of who says it. And in the workplace, recognition of good work can lead to a deeper sense of connection across the organization.

Unfortunately, that can be a big challenge at an international company—or anywhere with remote workers. A person in Boston might work with someone in Madrid or Dubai on a project, but once the project is completed and those daily collaborations cease, it’s easy for people to fall out of mind.

Over the past few years, Nexthink has formalized a space for giving and receiving recognition, so employees feel valued wherever they are. 

A Positive Environment That Was Siloed

Nexthink is a leading digital employee experience management software, giving IT leaders unprecedented insight into employees’ daily experiences of technology. We are a global company with 1,000 employees serving companies in 40 countries worldwide, but we still foster a friendly, non-hierarchical environment where anyone can approach a colleague as a peer, no matter their role or title. 

I joined Nexthink in 2021 as an HR business partner, supporting our go-to-market organizations. It was right in the midst of the pandemic and at the time, we had about 700 employees. Everyone was working remote, and there was this new sense of everyone feeling like there was these silos that existed that hadn't existed before.

Even though Nexthink was a positive space, we didn’t have any formal employee recognition or rewards mechanism. People would offer recognition and appreciation informally, but it was primarily within their own team or department, and so it went unnoticed by the wider community. With Nexthink employees working in different countries across various time zones, a lot of good work flew under the radar. An employee engagement survey reinforced this idea: People didn't think others saw or celebrated their success.

The talent management team works to strengthen the bridges between departments and geographic regions. We knew gaps existed in our impromptu and siloed approach to recognition, and Meg, our chief people officer, saw an opportunity to enhance recognition throughout the organization. 

Aligning Appreciation-Worthy Actions with Company Values

I had used Bonusly at a previous company to great success. Recognition is way better when it comes from people that you work with every day and see your work. I love the peer-to-peer element of Bonusly, which prevents recognition from being only top-down. It's also spontaneous. It's a beautiful thing to democratize recognition and the rewards behind it.

It's a beautiful thing to democratize recognition and the rewards behind it.

So I suggested it to our leadership team as a way to combine direct, cross-departmental recognition with a focus on company values. At Nexthink, our values are We Are One Team, We Get Things Done, We Are Positive, and We Keep Growing. Everyone gets points they can award to their colleagues for good work, a positive attitude, and everything in between. Every recognition post in Bonusly must include a company value hashtag, reinforcing how kudos-worthy actions align with what the company stands for.

Once we launched Bonusly, we maximized this hashtag feature for our core value awards. We have one award for each of our four values, and our nomination process for these awards now happens exclusively through Bonusly. At the end of the year, everyone at Nexthink gets an opportunity to put forward five nominations. Each nomination must include an explanation of how their colleague has embodied that core value. We then tabulate who received the most recognition for each value. Management reviews the submissions and determines award winners based on the nominations.

Everybody likes seeing such widespread recognition and we have since expanded to using Bonusly for events throughout the year. On International Women’s Day, for example, we rewarded those people who took the time to discuss the challenges women face in the workplace. And for Employee Appreciation Day, we doubled everyone’s point allowance for the month to encourage them to be extra thankful to their colleagues. We can tailor Bonusly to fit the company’s priorities and focus at any given time and this flexibility also empowers managers to encourage specific actions within their teams.

Bonusly Breaks Barriers and Instills Resilience

I manage the platform together with my colleague, Nicole Pesantes, management is a breeze. We used to spend time and effort on ad hoc rewards like gift cards. But we have employees in a few different countries, so securing gift cards in various denominations and currencies required a huge amount of effort. The accounting department really likes Bonusly because we can distribute rewards quickly without the headache of ensuring we have the right amount in the correct currency.  We have integrations set up so it's pretty seamless and self-sustaining. 

One of the most valuable benefits of Bonusly is helping us overcome geographic barriers between employees in different time zones and countries. Now, everyone can see what their colleagues are working on and what they’re doing well, even though they may work thousands of miles away from each other. That visibility brings everyone together as one unified company. And as important as recognition is, Bonusly keeps it light and fun. It’s an intuitive platform, and GIFs and hashtags help users communicate like we’re all used to in other digital media. 

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

We launched Bonusly during the pandemic, where getting a kind word from anybody was much appreciated. Bonusly helped employees feel seen even when we couldn’t be physically present. The resiliency we have built with Bonusly continues to bolster our workforce during times of economic uncertainty. Throughout the Great Resignation, our attrition stayed flat year over year, and although I can't attribute that directly to Bonusly, I do know our employees feel like they have opportunities to be seen in a lot of different ways and I'm sure we have kept more people engaged and invested in their work. We value each other more, and leadership can see the value that we all bring to the table.

Giving credit where credit is due also helps boost positivity. In our feed, everyone can see individuals thanking interns right next to VPs or directors, which aligns with the non-hierarchical culture we want to maintain across the organization. 

The Numbers Don’t Lie

Our most used reward is the Allowance Boost, which allows people to cash in their points to boost their giving allowance to others. It’s great to see people sacrifice something of their own to spread more goodwill to their colleagues.

In addition to our Allowance Boost, Bonusly’s analytics have become especially important for us. It helps the talent and management team determine how workloads are distributed, and identify the unsung heroes of the organization who might go unnoticed otherwise. We can also track the most used core value hashtags and which hashtags may need attention. For example, if we see a fluctuation in our #we-are-positive hashtag, that tells us something about morale. If we see a decrease in the use of #we-get-things-done, that might indicate some friction slowing down workflows, which we can address proactively. Our most popular hashtag is #we-are-one-team, which tells us that we have a strong collective sense of collaboration and cooperation.

Bonusly is now part of our onboarding process, so everyone at Nexthink—960 people at last count—has immediate access. Nicole and I are constantly looking for ways to boost engagement and keep usage above average. Sometimes, increasing engagement means launching specific initiatives or working with teams to identify how they can best use Bonusly. From March 2022 to February 2023, our average rate of recognition received was around 90%. We see about 54 acts of recognition received each month, and we’ve seen a 15% increase in recognition sentiment in our employee engagement survey.

Everyone Can Get the Recognition They Deserve

Recognition isn’t something you can force onto others, and it doesn’t work as a mandatory policy. It needs to be born from the genuine feelings and sentiments of employees. However, there are things a company can do to encourage that activity, and one of them is to adopt a centralized platform for recognition and rewards. 

Recognition isn’t something you can force onto others. It needs to be born from the genuine feelings and sentiments of employees.

Bonusly has allowed cross-functional teams to recognize each other in a way that wasn't happening before. And by creating visibility to some of the successful wins, people see other people's success and get more opportunities to share knowledge. It's also empowered individual employees and managers to reward team members without having to go through the hurdles of getting budget approvals. Bonusly fits really nicely into our values, and our values drive all the results and our bottom line. 

Our team uses Bonusly to create ongoing opportunities for colleagues to thank and recognize each other—not just for their work but for who they are as people. Because it’s not just about the company, it’s about the humans behind the Nexthink name. Bonusly makes sure everyone gets the recognition they deserve. Doing so fosters a stronger connection with each other, with the company, and with our work.

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As a business leader, you want to be ready to meet challenges as they arise and weather difficult times. But who could have predicted—let alone prepare for—the global events unfolding in recent years?

The pandemic and its economic reverberations reveal the limitations of even the best-laid plans. Forecasting is still important, but there’s simply no way you can ever fully gauge what lies ahead.

Instead, by building resilient, engaged teams, you can help create an organization capable of adapting and thriving in the face of continuing change. Read on to find out why resilience is so important and how you can best support members of your team in developing it.    

Why does resilience matter?

When employees are resilient, they’re able to withstand and recover from challenging circumstances. They’re also more likely to be engaged in their efforts, which translates into greater productivity and a far happier workplace.

 
In short, engaged employees—those with a psychological commitment to a team, organization, and/or role—are a powerful engine for growth and a vital competitive advantage.

And when they aren’t engaged? It isn’t just costly in terms of organizational morale. Each year, companies spend trillions covering the costs of lost productivity and employee turnover.

Learn more about the connection between employee engagement and resilience:

What does resilience look like at work?

When it comes to resilience at work, you probably know it when you see it. But you may not be seeing it as much as you’d like. A recent research study by MIT Sloan Management Review categorized just 14% of participating workers as fully engaged and only 15% as highly resilient.

How can you, as a leader, encourage and nurture characteristics that are so vital for success but also so seemingly rare? Let’s start by exploring several key aspects of resilience and engagement at work: safety, trust, purpose, and progress.

1. Safety

An underlying sense of psychological safety is the critical foundation for resiliency and engagement on teams in the workplace. If employees don’t feel comfortable speaking up or taking risks because they fear negative consequences, they won’t sound the alarm when something is going wrong and they’re far less likely to develop innovative solutions.

When employees feel safe within a team, however, they feel free to:

• Proactively bring up issues before they become larger problems.
• Take smart risks to address challenges.
• Learn from failure and continue moving forward.
  
  

2. Trust

The numbers are in: employees who completely trust their team leaders are 14 times more likely to be fully engaged in their work. And when they completely trust their colleagues, team leader, and senior leaders, they’re 42 times more likely to be highly resilient.

It makes sense, after all. If employees aren’t spending time and energy worrying about the direction their team is going or their place within it, they’re free to focus on the work at hand. And it’s far easier to endure challenging times and bounce back when they believe they can count on support from leadership.

3. Purpose

It’s easy to understand why a sense of purpose is so essential in the workplace. Decades of research suggest that people have an inherent desire for significance and meaning in their work. And when they do believe that their efforts matter, they’re four times more likely to be engaged, motivated, and fulfilled.

Research also shows that, although most leaders understand just how important purpose is as a motivating factor, far fewer are actually fostering it on their teams. In a recent survey, 79% of participating leaders agreed that connecting people with an inspiring purpose is critical for success, but only 27% actively address it. 

4. Progress

A sense of progress might look slightly different for each member of your team, but it’s crucial. For one person, progress may mean advancing on a career path; for another, it may be developing new skills or facing a new set of challenges.

 
One thing is clear: employees feeling stuck in their roles aren’t engaged or resilient. Promotions are the most visible indicator of progress and they’re important in many environments. But opportunities for learning and development—including the chance to take on new projects or assignments—can also be key in fostering a sense of progress and growth within an organization.

Find out more about why safety, trust, purpose, and progress are so crucial in the workplace:

How can you foster resilience as a leader?

The good news? Resilience isn’t a trait that some people are born with and others aren’t. As a leader in your organization, you can support your team members in developing this quality over time.

The small things matter . . . a lot

To foster greater resilience on your team, you don’t have to launch a major initiative with quarterly check-ins and KPIs. Cultivating real resilience has more to do with small, meaningful moments: encouraging team members to take time off, letting them know that support is readily available, or recognizing hard work and adaptability, for example. 

Over time, these moments can help build a strong foundation of resilience, both within individual employees and your larger team. Think of it as putting deposits into a bank account for the future—when unforeseen challenges arise, you can draw on your team’s balance to help weather the storm.

Ensure diverse viewpoints and safety

When your team operates from a broader knowledge base, you can view problems from more angles and tap into a wider range of ideas to solve them, boosting overall adaptability and resilience.  

This means not only ensuring that your teams include employees offering diverse experiences and viewpoints—it also requires you to create the psychological safety necessary for all team members to fully participate and contribute. 

Workplace flexibility goes a long way

When a team has rigid policies dictating when and where employees need to be working, morale tends to suffer. Conversely, when a leader allows for greater autonomy, flexible hours, and remote work — trusting team members to get work done when and where they need to — employees are typically more empowered, energized, and ready to tackle whatever comes their way.  

Start where you are

If you’re not sure where to begin in fostering greater resilience, start by assessing your team:

• Do team members regularly voice concerns and raise potential issues?
• Are they comfortable taking measured risks when necessary?
• Are they encouraged to learn from their mistakes and continue moving forward?
• Do they know why their work matters in a larger organizational context?
• Do they have opportunities for learning, development, and career advancement?
• Can they count on you for support, encouragement, and recognition?
• Do team discussions typically include a range of viewpoints and ideas?
• Do team members have autonomy and flexibility in the way they work (flexible hours and remote or hybrid work options)?  

It may also be helpful to survey team members as part of your assessment to better understand ways for your group to evolve. For example, if learning and growth opportunities are important, find out what type of opportunities matter most. Classes? New projects? Assignments in different areas of your organization?

Drive greater employee engagement with Bonusly

No matter where you are on the path to a more resilient team, Bonusly can help. Our 360-degree platform makes it fun and easy for employees to recognize and award small bonuses to each other, adding up to meaningful rewards. And when you create a culture of recognition and rewards, you create a more engaged organization.  

Find out how Bonusly can boost your team’s engagement

Learn more about fostering resilience within your organization by downloading our complete guide today. 👇

The sun is out, the birds are chirping, and G2's Spring report has bloomed. 🌷 We’re excited to share that Bonusly earned 66 awards across the Employee Recognition and Employee Engagement categories. 

What is the G2 Spring Report? 

G2 Reports are determined by an aggregate of customer rating scores for tech platforms, like Bonusly, in various categories. Their aim is to help professionals like you pick the best softwares to meet your business needs. As an employee recognition, rewards, and engagement platform, we deeply value and appreciate feedback of all kinds. We are grateful to all the teams that use (and love) Bonusly that reviewed our platform.  💚

Searching for new software? Get this [FREE] HR vendor evaluation scorecard to help you compare providers.

Here's a partial list of honors that Bonusly earned in G2's Spring 2023 reports:

• Leader, Employee Recognition - Spring 2023
• Momentum Leader, Employee Recognition - Spring 2023
• Best Usability, Employee Recognition, Small Business and Enterprise - Spring 2023
• Leader, Employee Recognition, Asia, Asia-Pacific, Europe, India - Spring 2023
• Leader, Employee Engagement - Spring 2023
• Best Meets Requirements, Employee Engagement, Small Business and Enterprise - Spring 2023
• Most Implementable, Employee Engagement - Spring 2023
• Momentum Leader, Employee Engagement - Spring 2023

Bonusly leads in employee recognition

Bonusly’s fun and smart employee recognition and rewards platform has helped 3,250+ customers across 75 countries invest in their most valuable asset: their people. G2 has recognized Bonusly as the leader in the Employee Recognition category for the 5th season in a row! 

“Bonusly has transformed the way we activate peer-to-peer recognition at Chobani. The program has brought our amazingly diverse company together behind a common goal of real-time acknowledgement and fostered a genuine spirit of recognition in all that we do.” - Grace Zuncic, Senior Vice President of People, Chobani

Bonusly leads in employee engagement

Gallup found that disengaged employees are costing companies worldwide $7.8 billion dollars. Investing in effective and consistent recognition and rewards has a powerful impact on employee engagement. 70% of customers see a noticeable improvement in employee engagement after implementing Bonusly. We’re honored to be named a leader in G2’s Employee Engagement category.

"In the six months since adopting Bonusly, our eNPS score jumped from 72.2 to 82.1." - Daniel McAdams, President, Andiamo

Bonusly leads in implementation and usability

Bonusly excels at saving our customers time and money running their recognition programs. The average Bonusly admin spends less than 1.5 hours per month administering Bonusly, compared to the dozens of hours required to maintain a manual program. Moreover, the average company using Bonusly is up and running within 3-4 weeks. 👏 G2 recognized Bonusly for best meeting the requirements of our customers and for exceptional implementation and usability. 

“The application was extremely easy to implement and integrate into our existing communication tools.” - Said Andrew K., a COO at a small business in a G2 review. 

We’ve only scratched the surface, our customers have a lot more to say. We are honored to earn a spot in G2’s Spring Report. These awards are recognition of one of Bonusly’s core values, #delight-the-customer, which is what we will continue to do. Speaking of which, we’re continuously releasing new and exciting updates, check out our latest here. Interested in seeing our award-winning software for yourself? You can always schedule a free demo.

At Bonusly, we’re strong believers in bringing our full selves to work—including our ethnic and racial backgrounds. Not only that, but we like to celebrate it. Recognizing and celebrating employees’ racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds can be effective in building psychological safety and employee engagement!

If your leadership team or key stakeholders need a bit of a nudge to embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion, download this fact sheet for some of the most compelling D&I statistics around.

The beginning of May signals a month-long celebration of the many, many, cultural backgrounds that make up the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) identity. AAPI Heritage Month is a great opportunity to have fun, learn about your colleagues, and educate yourself! 

• Understand
• Learn
• Do

Understand

In 1976, congressional staffer Jeanie Jew witnessed the United States’ bicentennial celebration (it’d been 200 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed) and was troubled by the lack of recognition for AAPI contributions. Her great-grandfather, M.Y. Lee, had immigrated to the United States in the 1800s to help build the transcontinental railroad—a tremendous accomplishment that was blighted by violent anti-Asian discrimination and the introduction of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

She’d mentioned her concerns to New York Congressman Frank Horton, and it took until 1992—more than 15 years later—before the legislation to permanently designate May as AAPI Heritage Month passed through Congress.

“The revelations about Mr. Lee and the story of Asian Americans led [Jeanie Jew] to believe that not only should Asians understand their own heritage, but that all Americans must know about the contributions and histories of the Asian-Pacific American experience in the United States.”
–New York Congressman Frank Horton

So, why May? It commemorates the first Japanese people to immigrate to the United States, on May 7, 1843, and also is a nod toward the May 10, 1869 completion of the same transcontinental railroad that Jeanie Jew’s own grandfather had worked on.

Now, 23 million Asian American and Pacific Islanders trace their roots to more than 20 countries in East and Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent, each with their own unique histories and cultural practices. There’s a lot to cover—here are a few ways to get started.

To see a list of the other best workplace holiday celebrations by month with guides to help you plan in advance, check out our recommended calendar. 

Learn

Often seen as a monolithic “model minority,” we should first understand that “Employment and economic status among members of the AAPI community are also far from uniform: While some AAPI subpopulations are heavily concentrated in higher-wage professional and management occupations, others are heavily concentrated in lower-wage service occupations.”

This danger of a single story rears its head here. The AAPI community consists of more than 50 ethnic groups, grouped together as a demographic purely because of vague geographic borders; it’s impossible to capture a singular “Asian-American experience.” Instead, the following ideas and resources are meant to capture the diversity of narratives and stories present in the AAPI community.

Read a book by an AAPI author

There’s nothing like diving into new experiences through a great book. Host a book club with your team members, and learn together!

Some of our favorite books by AAPI authors include:

The Making of Asian America: A History
Erika LeeMinor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning
Cathy Park HongAsian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People
Helen ZiaThe Sympathizer
Viet Thanh NguyenHow to Pronounce Knife
Souvankham ThammavongsaTime is a Mother
Ocean VuongThe Island of Sea Women
Lisa SeeSour Heart
Jenny ZhangPin Ups
Yi Shun LaiPachinko
Min Jin Lee

Watch a movie by an AAPI director

There are excellent movies out there that explore the multiplicity of the AAPI experience. At Bonusly, we often host movie screenings (virtually, for now!) as a way to learn about our cultures and spend time together.

Nomadland (2020)
Chloé ZhaoMinari (2020)
Lee Isaac ChungSaving Face (2005)
Alice WuThe Farewell (2019)
Lulu WangAlways Be My Maybe (2019)
Nahnatchka KhanBitter Melon (2018)
H.P MendozaWho Killed Vincent Chin? (1987)
Christine ChoyTigertail (2020)
Alan YangMeet the Patels (2015)
Ravi Patel, Geeta PatelMinari (2021)
Lee Isaac Chung

Do

Eat and drink

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again—eating and drinking is one of our favorite ways to get to know a culture better. Here are a few different ways to enjoy and learn about AAPI cuisine:

• Order lunch from a local AAPI restaurant
• Take an in-person or virtual cooking class
• Experience a Japanese tea tasting or ceremonial matcha workshop
• Grab bubble tea
• Explore your local AAPI grocery store for snacks
  
  

Participate in asynchronous discussion

For a lightweight way to learn and discuss, Bonusly likes to post a prompt in the beginning of the week—typically a short video or article—with some questions to get everyone thinking. Team members are free to discuss and chat about what was striking, surprising, or new to them.

Here are some media we’re planning to talk about:

• The Limits of the Lunchbox Moment (essay)
• Growing Up South Asian Post 9/11 (video)
• Do All Asian Americans Think the Same? (video)
• What You Don’t Know (This American Life podcast episode)
• Celebrating History at the Oscars! (Shoes Off Inside episode)

Make a contribution to an AAPI non-profit organization

Donating to an organization that advances AAPI issues is a great way to tangibly support the AAPI community. Here are a few to applaud, research, and donate to:

Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC) 

Fighting for civil rights and empowering Asian Americans to create a more just America for all.

South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT)

SAALT’s vision is to help build a South Asian Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ty with shared val­ues that uplift all peo­ple of col­or, and will cross lines of race, caste, gen­der, sex­u­al­i­ty, and reli­gion to abol­ish sys­tems of oppres­sion and achieve col­lec­tive lib­er­a­tion.

Asian Mental Health Collective

Asian Mental Health Collective seeks to raise awareness about the importance of mental health care, promote emotional well-being, and challenge the stigma concerning mental illness amongst  Asian communities worldwide.

Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund

National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF)

Our mission is to build collective power with AAPI women and girls to gain full agency over our lives, our families, and our communities.

Red Canary Song

A grassroots collective of Asian & migrant sex workers, organizing transnationally.

Stop AAPI Hate

Stop AAPI Hate began as a reporting center to track and analyze incidents of hate against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through our reports and advocacy, we have raised national awareness about the issue of anti-Asian hate.

Host a speaker from your local AAPI coalition

Chances are, you have a local organization that's working hard to advance the AAPI community and pursue justice in your area. They're your experts—why not invite them to speak at your company about the unique issues your city is tackling? It's a great way to build stronger relationships in the community you reside in. Google around for who's present in your area—this list is also a good place to start. 

Next steps

Has this post sparked inspiration? Tell us in the comments below, or check out these additional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion resources from Bonusly:

• 11 Diversity & Inclusion Statistics That Will Change How You Do Business
• It's Our Responsibility as HR Professionals to Address Racial Injustice
• Why Employee Recognition is Crucial to Inclusion
• Something for everyone: The benefits of offering inclusive employee rewards

Work has changed, we have too.

At Bonusly, we help our customers foster a sense of Purpose, Progress, and Belonging at work. And as the world of work continues to change, so too does Bonusly. We’re thrilled to share Bonusly’s new look and functionality with you. The refreshed Bonusly homepage reinforces Bonusly’s industry leadership in usability, accessibility, and engagement. 

Though the refreshed homepage is a beautiful sight to see, the changes are more than meets the eye. We’ve made substantial improvements to streamline the ways in which employees can interact, recognize, and connect every single day. Let’s take a closer look at these new engagement-improving features! 🔎

Recognize, Navigate, and Amplify with a Click of a Button

Creating a culture of celebration and belonging should be easy and fun. Bonusly’s new interface has simplified users’ ability to recognize their coworkers, navigate to popular pages, and amplify their peers’ recognition. 

👏 Recognize

Bonusly users who want to sharpen their digital pencil and write some recognition can easily allocate points with the new ‘points budget’ view, eliminating the need for a calculator. When selecting the number of points to give away, a popup will show common point denominations as well as the number of remaining points the user has for the month. That way, recognition is given in a flash and a teammate’s day is made with a click of a button. 

Shreya L., a customer from Evora IT, loves to dive into the colorful world of Bonusly. 

Whenever I open Bonusly page to see my team's recognition shared , I feel immersed in a whole new colourful world. I just love the myriad colours.

🧭 Navigate  

Navigation is simple with Bonusly’s new homepage—no orienteering required. Bonusly customers can easily navigate the new interface and glean insights on their coworkers, often without leaving the homepage. 

On the homepage, users can review a snapshot of their points summary for both giveable and receivable points.

With a simple hover over a coworkers’ profile image, users can see immediate insights on who their coworkers are and how they’re interacting with others. 

Venturing beyond the homepage is effortless with the new sticky navigation bar. The Rewards, Awards, and Analytics pages are calling and you must go!

🗣️ Amplify 

Beyond direct recognition, there are plenty of ways to engage with the recognition feed to make peers, direct reports, and leaders know you see and appreciate them. Bonusly’s reinvigorated homepage highlights and simplifies the ability to add-on, react, or comment on recognition. Employees feel seen and leaders enjoy more engaged teams. Users can also choose to include the original recognition giver when adding on to a post to ensure the original recognizer gets their piece of the appreciation pie.

Come one, come all to the recognition wall!

When we say recognition is for everyone, we mean everyone! A core tenant of effective recognition is inclusivity. And so we’ve prioritized accessibility with this update with the new Bonusly homepage meeting WCAG AA accessibility standards ensuring an accessible experience for all of our users (and your employees)! Speaking of usability, here's what David K., a Bonusly customer from Passero, had to say: 

The interface is cleaner, more streamlined, and user friendly. 

What’s next?

We will continue to invest in our product so you can invest in your most valuable asset: your people. Bonusly users will first enjoy the new and improved Bonusly on the homepage, but the refreshed look will soon be coming to the Rewards page. We’ll keep this blog post updated with exciting updates. 

If you’re new to Bonusly, but want to see the fresh feed loved by over 400,000 users, take a free interactive tour of the changes. 

Now, go forth and “thank you” in style. 😎

Bonusly's been busy lately. 

📈 We recently raised $18.9 Million in Series B capital, led by Ankona Capital. 

👏 Employees at more than 3,000 companies around the world collectively donated $2 million to charity through Bonusly's Reward Catalog. 🥳

🥇For the fourth consecutive season, Bonusly maintained the top spot in G2's Winter 2023 Grid Report for Employee Recognition software.

Wouldn't you like to know what's happening in the mind of Bonusly's Founder and CEO, Raphael Crawford-Marks, after reaching these significant milestones? You're in luck! Raphael recently joined Amber Mac and Michael B on The Feed podcast to discuss recognition in a remote world and how HR leaders can make more data-driven decisions.

The interview is below for your reading pleasure, but if you’re more of an auditory learner you can listen to the podcast here. Let’s dive in! 

Amber Mac: Bonusly helps companies build a scalable culture of recognition by allowing everyone to recognize their direct reports as well as their managers and coworkers. To talk more about this is Raphael Crawford-Marks who is the CEO of Bonusly. Hi Raphael, thanks for being on the show. 

Raphael Crawford-Marks: Hi Amber, thanks for having me. 

Can you explain to us how everyone can really participate in recognizing good work?

Bonusly is focused on enabling companies to recognize, develop, and retain high-performing, highly-engaged employees and the way we do that is in a very democratized fashion. So, every employee who’s enrolled in Bonusly has the ability to provide immediate, authentic, recognition to their colleagues. This is something that all workers want to do, but often there are barriers or friction to doing so, more so in remote environments. So, Bonusly removes all of that friction and enables appreciation to flow which creates this positive feedback loop of appreciating great behaviors and then seeing more of those behaviors from your team.  

Speaking of remote work, have you seen a shift in the way teams interact with each other and subsequently give each other feedback? 

Yes, I have. Not just in Bonusly, but in general the shift to remote work has been a pretty seismic shift. We’re still in the early innings of what this means and how we best create a remote environment. One of the things that’s lost when a team goes fully remote is all of those free opportunities for employees to bump into each other, have an open-ended conversation, share some ideas, build some trust and rapport. All of those go away, so we need to find something to replace those within a virtual space on a remote team. That is something that Bonusly can help with, but I don’t pretend we’re a panacea that immediately solves everything by ourselves. What Bonusly does is create opportunities for employees to have these positive interactions with one another, which are really foundational to building the trust and rapport that enable great communication and collaboration. 

What Bonusly does is create opportunities for employees to have these positive interactions with one another, which are really foundational to building the trust and rapport that enable great communication and collaboration. 

Can you talk about why it’s important that there are different ways to reward people?

Yes absolutely, there are actually two different things that Bonusly provides–one is recognition. Bonusly enables frequent, specific, timely, and effective recognition to flow between employees. Then, as employees receive recognition they actually accrue points and can redeem them for rewards that they find meaningful. So, that can be donations to their favorite charity, gift cards to their favorite brand, and so forth. So the benefit that companies realize is really from the recognition aspect, where when employees feel recognized they put forth more discretionary effort, they are less likely to look for work elsewhere, and they build additional trust and rapport with their colleagues through exchanging recognition. So, what you end up with is a higher-performing, more highly-engaged team.

I imagine something like this could create useful data for the wider decision making process for an HR department. How can this information help better inform HR departments and executives in a company to ensure they have a robust healthy team?

One of the things that we’re really excited about is we’re in the early stages of developing what we call people analytics tools for management, HR, and executive leadership to use to make better decisions about how they run their company. Just a few examples of what can already be done with Bonusly is you can look department by department and see engagement levels across departments and identify areas where specific teams or departments might have very high engagement and other areas that might have very low engagement. Then, we can start to figure out what participation or behavior characteristics are correlated with that and how might we intervene to improve engagement in the problem areas.

Another thing that people have to do, but no one really likes are performance reviews. Bonusly is extremely helpful to managers at mitigating recency bias in performance reviews. So, managers can very easily go to Bonusly and say hey I wanna see all of Michael’s biggest accomplishments in the past 6 months and then that gives me, as a manager, a much more holistic picture of your performance rather than just what I could call out last week. 

What is it like building a startup in this climate that we’re in right now when the technology sector is under a microscope and a lot is happening in terms of hiring talent and people laying off talent?

I would actually go back to early 2020 and say that running a company from early 2020 has been an intense roller coaster. Even more so than running a startup normally is. I started Bonusly well before the pandemic and it was a roller coaster then. You know, having to deal with the shutdowns and all the uncertainty from the pandemic and then all of the sudden everything shifted to remote work so we saw a huge spike in demand. And then inflation started climbing, interest rates went up and that triggered a big contraction in demand and layoffs. It’s been really challenging to stay on top of external conditions that are really buffeting the company. It has also been a real education and it’s made us a much stronger company being able to weather all of these different conditions and continue to grow and be successful. 

It has also been a real education and it’s made us a much stronger company being able to weather all of these different conditions and continue to grow and be successful. 

 What’s next? 

We hope this interview inspired you to invest in your most critical asset: your people. Thousands of companies worldwide rely on Bonusly to cultivate high-performing and motivated teams, regardless of their location, work setting, or industry. If you’re interested in learning more about Bonusly, schedule time to meet with an employee engagement expert today!

We host a lot of awesome conversations with HR leaders and other experts in the employee engagement space. Check out these webinar recordings below—and make sure to see what's on tap and register for upcoming events! 🍻

Upcoming webinars

Maximizing Potential: A Guide to Supporting High Performers

In today's fiercely competitive business landscape, having high performers on your team can be a game-changer. These individuals are typically very productive, motivated, and committed, driving a significant proportion of an organization's success. However, it can be a challenge to understand how to best support and retain these top talents to maximize their contributions.

In this webinar with our colleagues at Bravely, we'll talk about how to understand the needs and motivations of your top performers, so they stay engaged and continue performing at their peak.

• July 19th at 2pm ET / 121pm PT
• Reserve your seat

‍

Webinar recordings

The Role of the employee experience in an uncertain economy

• Watch the recording
• With the current state of the economy and seemingly endless organizational changes across some of the largest names in tech, employees are on edge. What is our best tool against low morale, burnout, and disengagement? An exceptional employee experience. Building an employee experience and culture that gives your employees something to believe in is non-negotiable today. 

Managing Stress & Maximizing Resilience in Teams

• Watch the recording
• The turbulent changes of the past few years have not subsided. Employees are continuing to face uncertainty, company reorgs, and shifting expectations, leading many to feel stress and, ultimately, burnout. Yet managing stress and instilling resilience in the team begins with good leadership. Leaders and managers can make an impact by modeling a healthy work-life balance, promoting a culture of well-being, and fostering open communication to increase resilience.

Understanding How Managers and Leaders Build Resilience on Teams

• Watch the recording
• Resilience is often considered an individual virtue—and it’s certainly something people can develop themselves, but cultures and organizations also contribute significantly to the ability of the people within them to be resilient. Teams themselves can build resilience as well, ensuring that the department or group as a whole can adapt to any challenge. In this on-demand webinar, we talk about the key characteristics of a resilient team and the vital role that psychological safety plays in building resilient teams. During this conversation we talk about how building a culture of recognition contributes to psychological safety by fostering a workplace where employees feel safe, supported, and ready for any challenge or crisis.

How Individuals Build Resilience in the Workplace

• Watch the recording
• Organizations need resilient employees, but how can employees build resilience in times of uncertainty and discomfort? During this webinar, Bonusly will team up with customer Lamar Nava of Betts Recruiting, to explore the ways organizations can help empower their employees to be more resilient, by providing a sense of purpose, progress and belonging at work. The discussion will include real-life examples and tangible solutions for organizations and people leaders who want to help their teams become more resilient.

Building Resilience in Uncertainty: Top Tips for HR Leaders

• Watch the recording
• As we plan for another unpredictable year, a focus on employee resilience can offer HR teams a controllable variable in an uncontrollable world. This webinar in partnership with Bennie explores the ways that HR and People Ops leaders can build more resilient teams in 2023.

Understanding the Business Case of Resilience at Work

• Watch the recording
• We discuss the business case of building resiliency at work: why do resilient teams matter? What are the impacts of not having a resilient team, especially in our current economic landscape?

Management Training 101: The Key to Building Stronger, More Engaged Teams in 2023

• Watch the recording
• In this webinar, leaders from Pilot and Bonusly will discuss why manager training should be a key 2023 strategy for HR professionals and how strong leaders build strong, resilient teams. Attendees will also leave with resources and ideas for how to get started with management training in their own organizations.

What to Expect in 2023: Data-Driven HR Predictions

• Watch the recording
• Leaders from Checkr, Lever, and Bonusly reflect on 2022, share our predictions for 2023, and offer tips to prepare now for the future of work.

People Managers: HR’s Most Important Partner in the Fight Against Turnover

• Watch the recording
• Bonusly leaders discuss the importance of cooperation between HR leaders and people managers in order to identify and combat unnecessary employee turnover, and how that partnership can improve your employees’ overall experience.

Answering the Most-Asked HR Questions for 2023

• Watch the recording
• HR leaders from Bonusly, Oyster, and Knoetic answer questions that human resources and people operations professionals are asking the most going into 2023.

Build a Purpose-Led Employee Engagement Strategy for 2023

• Watch the recording
• In this webinar recording, speakers from Bonusly and Goodera discuss how to put purpose at the forefront of their 2023 plans so you can start the year off with an engaged team.

The Cost of Disengagement: Useful Insights for HR Leaders

• Watch the recording
• Today’s human resources professionals are tasked with reversing disengagement in their workplaces through initiatives like improved workplace transparency, learning and development opportunities, and meaningful appreciation and recognition programs. In this recording, Bonusly HR experts discuss why employee engagement programs are not only worth your investment but essential for connecting to and retaining top talent.

How to Show Gratitude that will Make your Employees Feel Truly Valued

• Watch the recording
• This Q&A style webinar discusses the benefits of expressing gratitude in the workplace, including increased motivation, performance, and retention. We’ll share useful insights and unique ideas for expressing gratitude in a meaningful, intentional way that will ensure your team feels valued and appreciated all year long.

Top Tips for Building and Maintaining Connections in a Virtual World

• Watch the recording
• In the conversation, we’ll touch on the signs and symptoms of decreasing employee engagement and how the trend toward hybrid and fully remote work environments might contribute to employee disengagement. We’ll address the new challenge companies face in balancing the flexibility that employees have grown accustomed to while working from home, and the personal connection they’re missing from IRL relationships with managers and peers.

Quiet Quitting: How to Reengage Your Employees

• Watch the recording
• Join us to hear from experts in employee experience and retention from Guru, Bravely, and Bonusly about how to recognize quiet quitting, respond to it, and reverse the trend at your company.

Worry less about quiet quitting and more about actual quitting: Strategies to engage your team

• Watch the recording
• This interactive webinar covers what we think quiet quitting really is, and its impact both on employees and employers. We’ll also share useful strategies for managers and people ops teams who are looking for ways to re-engage their teams.

The Impact of DEI - Practical Tips for People Ops Professionals

• Watch the recording
• This webinar discusses how Bonusly’s People Ops team prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of the organizational structure, from leadership structure to hiring, to compensation philosophy and beyond.

Bridging the Communication Gap for Hybrid Teams

• Watch the recording
• Discover how your organization can better its communication processes to boost employee engagement and enhance workplace connections to retain the best talent from around the world.

Beyond the Birthday Shoutout: The Importance of Fostering a Culture of Recognition

• Watch the recording
• This webinar discusses the importance of frequent, meaningful feedback and simple ways that HR leaders can begin building a culture of recognition in their organization right away.

DEI at Work: Where to begin and what to avoid

• Watch the recording
• Building diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at work is about more than simply adding training or a committee to your existing structure, it is a priority for businesses today. It’s not just the right thing to do—it drives profits. A recent study indicated that highly inclusive organizations are more likely to hit their financial target goals by up to 120%.

How to build strong work relationships that fuel growth in a downturn

• Watch the recording
• Now more than ever, it’s essential to develop strong relationships in the workplace. We’ve all had to learn so much in the last few years about building relationships with distributed teams. This webinar includes insights on how to grow, build resilience, and thrive in our changing work environment.

Deep dive: How to scale human-centric onboarding practices

• Watch the recording
• Onboarding just a few hires per week is manageable, but how do you keep the human connection intact and communication personalized once you start onboarding bigger new hire classes? There's an art to maintaining personalized onboarding elements while enjoying efficiencies as your organization grows. Our panelists will discuss the tricks, tools, and strategies to creating an onboarding program that is loved by employees and HR teams alike.

Organizational Culture and What It Means for Your Business

• Watch the recording
• There are many tools for developing and sustaining a high-performance organizational culture, including hiring practices, onboarding efforts, recognition programs, performance management programs, and more. Getting the right mix for these tools is important, and the pursuit of that perfect mix can be overwhelming.

Expert Advice for Building a More Transparent Workplace

• Watch the recording
• A study by Slack found that 80% of today’s workers want insights into how decisions are made at their organization, and 87% of today’s job seekers want transparency in their future workplace. Still, many company leaders find themselves asking themselves how and what to share when it comes to important topics like budget changes, job performance, and compensation.
  
  In this webinar, Pave and Bonusly discuss how defaulting to transparency can significantly improve your employees’ experience. These experts will share compelling data in favor of transparency as well as tangible and realistic ideas for implementing a more transparent culture.

Expert Advice for Prioritizing Employee Benefits on a Tight Budget

• Watch the recording
• Studies show that 92% of employees consider benefits a vital part of their overall job satisfaction. It’s clear that decisions about whether or not to continue offering certain benefits, even during times of economic instability, cannot be taken lightly. This webinar discusses the best approaches to prioritizing the benefits you offer as your budget might be tightening.

Finding Purpose at Work: Our Take On Why Intrinsic Value Matters

• Watch the recording
• In this conversation, we’ll discuss the importance of nurturing a sense of purpose in the workplace and provide actionable, research-backed tactics for creating a culture that feels (and truly is!) meaningful to employees.

Managing Employee Morale During Times of Economic Instability

• Watch the recording
• This webinar discusses the impact that economic instability has on employees’ mental health and sense of job security–and how we as HR professionals can help manage our team’s concerns in the face of so much uncertainty.

Retention Starts at Day Zero: How to Craft Employee Experiences That Make Them Stay

• Watch the recording
• From special moments with candidates in the hiring process to setting new employees up for success and hosting impactful career planning conversations, we are demystifying what makes employees want to stay at a company long term. The earlier you introduce these in the employee journey, the better–but you can use many of these as part of your overall retention strategy. 

Managing Employee Morale During Times of Economic Instability–Advice by HR Experts for HR Experts

• Watch the recording
• It’s clear that the current hiring landscape heavily favors job seekers—the U.S. now has a record-high of 2 job openings for every unemployed person. But rising inflation and slower economic growth for companies across all industries could signal a shift in this trend–and employees are feeling the impact. In fact, a recent ADP survey found that only 20% of employees feel secure in their current roles. This webinar discusses the impact that economic instability has on employees’ mental health and sense of job security–and how we as HR professionals can help manage our team’s concerns in the face of so much uncertainty.

Employee Development: The Critical Missing Piece From Your Retention Strategy

• Watch the recording 
• Employees who don’t feel supported in their professional development are three times more likely to search for a new job. 😱 It’s clear that offering growth opportunities should be a priority for all companies. PILOT CEO & Founder Ben Brooks and Bonusly Vice President of People Operations Vicki Yang answer critical questions to help you set up an employee development plan that will be sure to ignite your retention strategy. 

Loom x Bonusly Workshop: How to build a culture of connection and engagement for distributed teams

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• It’s no secret that hybrid and remote work environments have changed the way companies and employees think about engagement and collaboration, particularly amongst distributed teams. 
• From reassessing sync and async activities to diversifying communications, leaders are in a unique position to redesign what connection and cohesion can look like in this new work era. How can companies build and prioritize creating a rich company culture with a distributed or hybrid team?

It’s Not Just Up to HR Anymore: Practical Ways to Empower Your Teams to Reduce Turnover

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• Description: We recently surveyed HR leaders to uncover the top challenges they are facing. And guess what was right at the top? Managing retention.
• You’re not alone! It’s no secret keeping top talent is a struggle for most organizations. Resignations have been at a record high (ever hear of The Great Resignation?!) and, replacing an employee is nearly twice as expensive as keeping one.
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• So—what do we do? Where do we start?
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• In this recording, Bonusly’s Director of Talent Acquisition, Kai Robinson, and VP of Engineering, Brian Noyle, discuss practical ways HR professionals can lean on and improve company culture to influence retention.

Ask Me Anything: Tangible Expert Tips to Prevent Burnout

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• Description: The temperature is rising outside, and many of us can feel the heat of our work and life responsibilities ramping up too. Knowing that burnout can put even the most dedicated workers on the path toward turnover, HR and people leaders are looking for ways to contain it.
  
  Watch the recording of this discussion featuring the VP of People Ops at Bonusly, Vicki Yang, Head of Recruiting Operations at Brex, Brittany Daunno, and CEO of Welcome, Roberto Ortiz. This recording covers ways to avoid burnout and maintain a healthy work/life balance without impacting your team’s productivity.

Lunch and Learn: Insider Tips Into How Bonusly Hires Top Talent

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• Description: Have you ever “known” that a candidate you were interviewing was (or wasn’t) a fit within the first few seconds of speaking with them?What brought you to this conclusion so quickly? If your answer is a “gut feeling,” there was most likely unconscious bias involved.
• Bonusly recognizes how easy it is for unconscious bias to slip into our everyday lives, which is why we’ve built an objective and evidence-based interview process that helps us mitigate bias and ensure we’re hiring the right people. This approach has helped us build a highly qualified and high-achieving team of Bonuslians.

Virtual Safaris: Creative Ways to Engage Remote Teams

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• Description: How has your organization adapted team-building activities to accommodate remote workers?In this webinar, we discuss the importance of team-building and how to create meaningful interactions in our virtual world. Afterwards, you'll experience a virtual safari to get you thinking creatively about your next team-building event.

Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day the Right Way

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• Description: Employee Appreciation Day is around the corner and this year, more than ever, your employees are looking to leadership for that sense of appreciation. Are your leadership and HR teams set up for success? This webinar includes several solid ideas for recognizing your employees and exclusive insights into building a year-round culture of appreciation. We discuss the importance of including employee recognition efforts as a part of your overall year-round retention strategy and some key do’s (and don’ts) when it comes to thanking your employees for their hard work.
  

5 Smart Ways to Use People Analytics Data in 2022

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• Description: There's still plenty of time to dig into your people analytics to plan for a successful 2022. In this webinar, Raphael Crawford-Marks, CEO of Bonusly, will sit down with Bonusly's VP of People Ops, Vicki Yang, and Michael Powers, Director of Employee Experience & Engagement at Toast, to discuss how they’re using people analytics to support strategic planning and execution.
  

2021 Reflections: A Roundtable with HR Experts

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• Description: In January, we set predictions for what would be most important for HR and People Ops leaders to address in the coming year. Fast forward 12 months to...December! As we prepare for 2022, we want to hold space to reflect—sharing insights with HR experts from the previous year while discussing what should be top of mind as we turn our calendars yet again. HR experts from Bonusly, Headspace Health, Donut, and 1Password share their stories—the good, the bad, and maybe even the ugly. They also made predictions for what’s in store for HR leaders and company-wide culture in the year ahead—you won’t want to miss it.

How These HR Leaders are Reimagining Employee Engagement in a Remote Work World

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• Description: The pandemic changed not only how we work, but how we connect at work. With teams shifting to remote or hybrid environments, HR leaders have faced a unique challenge: how do we reimagine employee engagement when we’re no longer connecting in person? Join Bonusly for an interactive session with a panel of experts from Headspace Health, Guru, and Toast, who have gone through this unique transition from in-person to remote and hybrid work. After attending, you’ll feel equipped to apply these learnings to your teams to ensure engagement improves, even as we continue to collaborate in a digital world.

Beat WFH Burnout: 6 Ways to Keep Teams Engaged

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• Description: Many U.S. companies were scheduled to return-to-office in fall of 2021, but the rise of the COVID-19 Delta Variant halted those plans. Regardless of whether your team prefers remote work, this period of uncertainty about the future can be mentally exhausting. In fact, according to CNBC, 69% of employees are experiencing burnout while working from home.
  Bonusly and Polly leaders share what’s worked (and what hasn’t!) for our hybrid teams, and how you can use these strategies to build virtual, company-wide connections and camaraderie.

Going Beyond the Annual Review: Creating a Feedback-Friendly Company Culture

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• Description: As an HR leader, you have the power to shape your company's culture, and making sure your team is empowered to give and receive feedback is a key aspect of a healthy workplace environment. But giving feedback, both to peers and managers, is hard! And creating a culture of feedback? Even harder, but not impossible. In this webinar, Bonusly and Hypercontext cover the crucial aspects of transforming your company culture into a feedback-friendly environment.

Strategizing for the Future of Hybrid Work 

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• Description: The hybrid work model is here to stay. Many companies are navigating how to bring folks back to the office—or not! So, how do employers stay flexible with individual employee preferences, while keeping lines of communication open and meeting business goals? In this webinar, Bonusly and Guru present the guiding principles that inform their own workplace strategies, and the tactical action items you can take to form an effective hybrid work model for your organization.

Foundations of Anti-Black Bias in the Workplace

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• Description: 2020’s racial injustice protests shone a light on the Black-American experience at home—and in the workplace. As companies undergo major changes to attract and retain Black talent, their leaders also need to understand the foundations of bias that can drive talent away. In this webinar, Kalyn Wilson, founder and CEO of Dream Forward Consulting, provides a history of the Black experience and its associated workplace stereotypes, then shares how HR leaders and practitioners can reframe their own biases to support Black talent.

Harnessing Positive Leadership to Thrive in Uncertain Times

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• Description: 2020 was one of the most challenging years in recent history for organizational leaders, and leveraging Positive Leadership made all the difference. Learn about this growing leadership style that empowers teams and enables vital success. In this event, leadership experts Linda Rad, Jahnavi Brenner, and Josh Vaisman discuss Positive Leadership—from what it really means to common missteps and excellent examples.

Reimagining Rituals of the Age of Digital Work

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• Description: Rituals play a major role in building (and reinforcing) strong cultures at any scale, especially for remote, distributed, and digital teams. Josh Levine, author of Great Mondays, and Dennis Field, Manager, Employer Brand & Internal Marketing, at InVision, discuss the different ways that rituals and recognition function to build culture, and how they’ve built & reinforced a strong culture throughout different stages of the company’s journey.

How Employee Engagement Changed in 2020 and What That Means for the Future

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• Description: 2020 has changed just about everything, especially employee engagement. How has your team responded? In this event, we took a look at the most important ways employee engagement has changed this year. We reviewed recent research to take stock of the current state of employee engagement, including the effects of COVID-19, remote work, inclusivity, and mental wellness. Then, we discuss practical ways to successfully engage your own teams in 2021 and beyond.

How to Build Inclusive Work Environments on Remote Teams

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• Description: A Glassdoor survey revealed that 67% of job seekers consider workplace diversity and inclusion an important factor when considering employment opportunities. So where do HR and people leaders start? What does an inclusive workplace look like—and what does it look like on remote and distributed teams? In this event, Latesha Byrd, founder and CEO of the talent development agency Perfeqta, leads an energetic discussion around building inclusive work environments on remote teams, joined by panelists Marquis White, Bernita Dillard, and Kalyn Wilson.

Employee Rewards in 2021: How to Prepare

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• Description: Employee rewards are an important and powerful factor in any employee experience, and the space has evolved rapidly in the past year, adapting to global events and shifting preferences. In this webinar, we unveil the latest employee rewards research (from the Incentive Research Foundation and Bonusly) and review the current state of employee rewards. Then, we discuss how to successfully prepare for the future by sharing insights on using employee rewards to engage teams in 2021 and beyond.

Want more?

No. 1 Employee Recognition Platform Provider Expands its Organizational Analytics Capabilities, Empowering Organizations to Make Data-Driven Decisions and Maximize Performance

BOULDER, Colo. — February 28, 2023 — Bonusly, an engaging recognition and rewards platform that connects teams and enriches company culture, today announced it has received $18.9 million in Series B funding led by Ankona Capital. Prior investors FirstMark Capital, Access Venture Partners, and Next Frontier Capital also participated.

Bonusly, which is ranked by G2 as No. 1 in Employee Recognition and No. 3 in Employee Engagement, used by top-tier companies including Chobani, ZipRecruiter, Pender Veterinary, and SDMI. The Bonusly platform creates a culture of recognition in which employees receive an average of two meaningful, timely, detailed recognitions from peers and managers every week. After deploying Bonusly, more than nine in ten (93%) customers see improved employee engagement.

Recognition is crucial to employee retention. According to a 2022 survey of 2,000 respondents, 63% of workers feel unappreciated by their employer on a daily basis and 46% left a job because they felt unappreciated. Frequent, authentic recognition of their work can make an enormous difference. In fact, nearly two-thirds (65%) said they are likely to stay at a job if their coworkers and peers recognize their work, even if they have an unappreciative manager.

Especially in today’s volatile economic environment, organizations need an engaged and highly motivated workforce, along with accurate, current information about how their organizations truly work so they can be agile in making rapid, data-driven decisions to adapt as conditions change. Bonusly's platform empowers real-time recognition to highlight accomplishments big and small in a very positive and public way, which fosters stronger cultures and builds resilient companies. The company also provides strong support for an organization’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs by recognizing and encouraging inclusiveness.
 
Additionally, while other employee engagement companies offer little more than gift card programs, Bonusly’s recognition platform captures and analyzes a treasure trove of real-time data on how organizations really work, communicate and connect, informing HR teams and managers so they can make powerful behavior change throughout an employee population. Bonusly’s proprietary graph database enables management to gain a keen understanding of how their company actually functions. With this information, HR and managers can better help team members continuously improve, foster collaboration and belonging, and assess behavior changes to predict turnover. 

“We saw almost instant engagement with Bonusly after deployment, and the recognition our people have given and received has had a big positive impact on employee morale,” said Daniel McAdams, President at Andiamo. “We’ve seen significant, measurable increases in our employee retention and engagement rate, which has translated to greater productivity. And just as important is the rich, current data Bonusly provides on the interconnections within our organization. We’re a stronger organization thanks to Bonusly.”

Bonusly will use the new funding to enhance its recognition platform and continue to further build out its analytics capabilities. The company will also invest in sales and marketing to further expand go-to-market activities.

“Bonusly customers see significant, measurable improvement in employee engagement and morale with Bonusly,” said Newth Morris, Partner at Ankona Capital. “The organizational network data that Bonusly provides is both powerful and unique. But just as important is the leadership team’s approach to managing the company with incredible capital efficiency. Raphael founded and bootstrapped the company for nearly three years before raising capital, and that culture of making every dollar count continues to this day. It puts the company in a very strong position to address the challenges companies face motivating, retaining and understanding their workforce in a rapidly changing economic landscape.”

"This new capital will enable us to expand and build on the strong foundation we have in place, enabling companies to meet the constantly changing people challenges of today’s volatile economy," said Raphael Crawford-Marks, founder and CEO of Bonusly. "Since our Series A, we have seen our valuation more than triple, despite the multiple compression that has occurred in today’s market — a strong recognition of the value we already provide and the even greater opportunity that lies ahead. We’re just getting started.”


About Bonusly
Thousands of companies worldwide rely on Bonusly to cultivate high-performing and motivated teams, regardless of their location, work setting, or industry. Bonusly serves as a crucial tool for investing in, and driving positive business outcomes from a company’s most critical asset — their people.

Bonusly’s engagement software is easy to use and enables companies to build stronger connections among and between teams, leading to increased collaboration and innovation among your workforce. Additionally, Bonusly provides exclusive insights at the individual, team, and company levels, empowering managers to make informed decisions regarding culture, professional growth, performance management, and employee retention. To learn more, please visit http://bonus.ly.

About Ankona Capital
Ankona Capital is a southern California-based growth venture firm that invests $5 to $15 million into early growth-stage B2B software companies, which typically have $5-$15 million in recurring revenues. Ankona’s team of experienced investors and operating partners have over 50 years of combined software and investment experience. Ankona is focused on creating a winning, inclusive, and rewarding culture that caters to founders, provides resources and support to entrepreneurs and fosters opportunities for tech companies and investment outside of Silicon Valley. To learn more, visit ankona.com.

Press contact
Jeff Miller
Nonfiction Agency
jmiller@nonficationagency.com
541-207-6413

When selecting a new tool for your team, how do you wade through claims of being “the best'' to find the truth? At Bonusly, we believe in defaulting to transparency, so we're sharing an overview of Bonusly’s greatest strengths according to data and the experience of our 3,250+ customers. 

Here are the top nine reasons Bonusly is the number one rewards and recognition software. 

Number 1: We’ll deliver ROI on your investment

The cost of a meaningful recognition program pales in comparison to the cost of disengaged employees. Gallup found that disengaged employees are costing companies worldwide $7.8 billion dollars. Investing in effective and consistent recognition and rewards has a powerful impact on employee engagement, productivity, and retention, ultimately paying dividends on your investment.

Here's some cold hard stats: 

• The average Bonusly admin spends less than 1.5 hours each month managing their employee recognition and rewards program compared to the dozens of hours required to administer manual programs. Imagine what HR admins can accomplish (and the vacations they can take) with all that free time! ✅ 🌴
• We have helped some customers save up to one million dollars on their employee gifting budget. How? Bonusly helps consolidate employee gifting spend into a centralized budget, allowing HR admins and finance teams to visualize, predict, and save on incentives. 
  
• 78% of customers see a noticeable improvement in employee engagement after implementing Bonusly. Employee engagement is proven to reduce turnover and increase productivity resulting in invaluable savings for Bonusly customers. We can almost hear the CFOs rejoicing! 
• Bonusly has the most powerful people analytics in the industry, helping our customers outperform their competition using reliable and actionable data. Spoiler alert: data-driven companies experience better financial results, outperforming their competitors by 20%. More on that later! 

Feeling inspired? Keep reading! 📕

Number 2: We’re leaders in employee recognition and engagement

Only one rewards and recognition software can be number one and Bonusly customers have spoken. Bonusly has received the top spot for employee recognition software from G2 for six consecutive seasons. With 4.8 ★★★★★ average social reviews across all platforms, customers highlight Bonusly’s integrations, reward catalog, analytics, usability, company value hashtags, and more in 4,000+ G2 reviews. Take it from John C, a sales compensation manager at an enterprise company:

"Our annual survey from last year reflected low scores for Employee Recognition, but those scores increased significantly after implementing the Bonusly platform.”

Number 3: We’re proven 

In a survey of 500+ customers, over two thirds reported improvements in employee engagement, recognition frequency and visibility, morale, and connection with core values after implementing Bonusly. Some customers even saw up to 10 point increases in eNPS scores thanks to Bonusly! 

"In the six months since adopting Bonusly, our eNPS score jumped from 72.2 to 82.1." - Daniel McAdams, President at Andiamo

Many Bonusly customers come to us on a mission to retain top talent. When done right, employee recognition and rewards can have a powerful impact on retention, especially in high-turnover industries like medical and veterinary. Pender Veterinary started using Bonusly to decrease burnout and nurture workplace culture. With the help of Bonusly, Pender Vet went against the industry odds and experienced their highest-ever retention rate!

Number 4: We’re people-analytics focused

Bonusly believes an organization’s most valuable asset is its people. However, companies need reliable data to understand and get the most out of their people. Bonusly has the most advanced analytics in the industry and we’re laser focused on helping our customers understand their people through clear and actionable insights. A recent study by the Harvard Business School found that data-driven companies experience better financial results, outperforming their competitors by 20%. That’s why the price of not investing in robust people analytics is costing many organizations more money than the investment itself. 

In addition to offering the most advanced people analytics in the industry, Bonusly’s dedicated customer success team presents quarterly business reviews to customers to help them understand how to make important data-driven decisions and ultimately achieve their business goals. Our customers at Headspace Health are incredibly data-driven and use Bonusly’s analytics to report on employee engagement and how connected employees are with their company culture. 

Number 5: We’re experts

Bonusly established the rewards and recognition market by developing the first-ever employee recognition software. Launched in 2013, Bonusly is now beloved by 3,250+ customers. Prominent companies including ZipRecruiter, Chobani, and Hulu trust Bonusly to support their employee engagement and company culture.  

After ten years of industry experience, Bonusly leads the way in program participation, implementation, and customer satisfaction. The average Bonusly user gives or receives recognition two times every week resulting in an 87% sustained monthly participation rate across all customers. 83% of Bonusly customers were able to start using Bonusly within a month of purchasing. Bonusly customer Andiamo needed just three weeks to implement Bonusly and launch the program to the whole company. 

Number 6: We’re secure

Security is table stakes for any software, yet many of Bonusly’s competitors aren’t prioritizing customer security. At Bonusly, security is built into our systems, processes, and culture. We understand organizations trust us with their data and we take the responsibility of securing it extremely seriously. We offer world-class security including SOC2 certification and full GDPR compliance so HR admins can rest assured their data is safe. 

Number 7: We’re integrated with Slack, Microsoft Teams & top HRIS programs 

Bonusly works with, not against, the tools our customers already know and love. Bonusly connects seamlessly with over 50 HRIS, single sign on, and collaboration tools. We consistently listen to and act on our customers’ needs by regularly enhancing and expanding our integration offerings, check out the latest additions to our suite of HRIS integrations. Bonusly provides clients with highly-rated chat integrations (Slack, Teams, Google Hangouts, etc) and mobile apps (Apple and Android) to ensure we meet Bonusly users wherever they are working day-to-day. Integrating with collaboration tools can have a positive impact on employee adoption. We found that three out of four of our customers integrate with chat tools, increasing participation up to 10% higher than average. 

"With Bonusly front and center in Ordermark's Slack workspace, employees send nearly half (43%) of all recognition through Bonusly's Slack app. Having Bonusly in Slack makes recognition visible to everyone throughout the whole work day. It’s constantly being utilized to showcase how people are making an impact — large or small." - Lindsey Kampmeier, VP of People & Culture, Ordermark

Number 8: We’re global 

Bonusly serves a global customer base across 80+ countries and for good reason. Bonusly offers a global digital rewards catalog where users can choose from dozens of vendors and charitable organizations and shop for rewards with no points-breakage, fees or markups. 35% of Bonusly customers use the platform to connect teams in multiple countries. To support our global customers, Bonusly has recently expanded our global rewards in 200+ countries. 

Number 9: We’re partners

Bonusly’s customer success team is there to support our customers throughout their entire journey with Bonusly, from implementation to Friday afternoon questions. Bonusly’s customer success partnership ensures all Bonusly users have successful and active recognition programs - as supported by our exceptional customer retention rate. Our customer success team is dedicated to building valuable relationships with our customers and providing efficient solutions; that’s why 94% of our customer support team's chat ratings in 2022 have been 😃 or 🤩. 

Beyond live support, Bonusly has a robust learning center to help ensure program adoption rates start high and stay high. Our team has helped shepherd customers through times of change. Bonusly provided consistency and morale support to our customers at Jellyfish as they scaled from 250 to 2,000 employees. Beyond scaling, Bonusly has seen many customers through exciting, but challenging, mergers and acquisitions. Bonusly served as a common thread for Integris employees as they successfully merged twelve companies and cultures. 

“Seeing recognition spill out across regions and teams is a strong indication that we're building a unified culture and breaking out of our initial post-merger silos." - Bill McCharen, Chief People Officer, Integris

We’re ready to talk when you are

We know you have a lot to consider when purchasing new rewards and recognition software. That’s why we put together this customizable vendor evaluation scorecard. If you’re interested in learning more about Bonusly, you can schedule time to speak with an employee engagement expert to explore the profound benefits Bonusly can have on your team.

In my opinion, International Women’s Day on March 8th is up there with Galentine’s Day as one of the most fun occasions. The day is an opportunity to empower one another, celebrate female-identifying friends, and recognize the the hard work, sacrifices, and joy evident in the long history of women’s social, economic, cultural, and political achievements.

I mean, come on! Just reading that inspires me! 😭🎉💪

However, the story of women in the workforce is a long and often troubled one. We’ve made strides in some areas of the world, but the reality is, women are still underrepresented in many fields and in the executive suite. When you take into account racial and ethnic background, the disparity becomes even more stark.

We've also gathered some of the most compelling diversity, equity, and inclusion statistics into one resource.

-> 11 Diversity and Inclusion Statistics That Will Change How You Do Business

So, with a mind for guaranteeing an equitable and diverse workplace, let’s continue to empower, recognize, and celebrate women’s accomplishments. 

How to celebrate International Women’s Day in the workplace

Before we dive into ideas, it’s important to note: Inclusion is key. 🔑

While it’s wonderful to have women-owned coalitions and support networks, it takes a careful balancing act to allow space for psychologically-safe conversations but also not push these conversations aside.

For example, I recently listened to a woman speak about how awesome it was to be invited to speak at so many women-in-tech conferences—but that it was a bummer that more “mainstream” conferences regularly overlooked her proposals. 

In the spirit of inclusion, you should think of different identity groups as contained within your company culture, not as separate entities! 

So when it comes to celebrating women’s accomplishments, challenging the status quo, and understanding gender disparity, it should be a company-wide effort.

Got it? Cool. Let’s talk about ideas.

To ensure you're being inclusive to other groups at your organization, check out the best workplace holiday celebrations by month with guides to help you plan in advance in our recommended calendar.  

1. Reflect 

International Women’s Day is a great opportunity to reflect on your current equity and inclusion practices. Take a moment to dig into the data: What are the current demographics of your team? What does your hiring pool look like? Who gets recognized, and who receives promotions? 

Take a look at your HRIS or people operations systems—you should be taking advantage of its people analytics capabilities! If you’re using a recognition and rewards platform like Bonusly, you can easily see who your team is collaborating with and recognizing. 

These are hard questions, and the data can be surprising. If you have an equitable company culture, great! If not, then we have some work to do. 💚

For example, women are less likely to advocate for themselves in conversations about raises and promotions. Much like how the loudest voice in the room is often the most listened to, you can reduce this bias by standardizing performance review cycles and hosting a company-wide workshop on how to reduce bias in the review process. 

2. Educate

Learning about the impact of diversity, equity, and inclusion is important for every organization. Think of it as a career development opportunity! 

A common bias? Assuming that everyone on your team identifies as a man or woman. Celebrating International Women's Day may backfire if you highlight someone who might not identify as a woman. That's why, here at Bonusly, our email signature templates include pronouns. 

Diverse and inclusive companies are more likely to be financially successful. There are a lot of theories surrounding this, the most prominent of which describes the importance of different perspectives in innovating and solving problems. Diverse workforces are just smarter, and building inclusive teams is a goal that can be worked toward like any other company objective. 

International Women’s Day is a great time to kick off this initiative. Bring in speakers, arrange workshops, read books… There are a lot of ways to learn about the impact of diverse workplaces.

Here’s a good place to start:

-> 11 Diversity and Inclusion Statistics That Will Change How You Do Business

‍

3. Mentor

Mentorship is important in many business settings, and it’s shown to increase the promotion rates of women, both for the mentees and the mentors. 

The benefits of mentorship in the workplace extend beyond the employee to the company itself. Effective mentorship is proven to help companies improve retention and minority representation in management roles. 

Encouraging mentorship opportunities solidifies peer relationships in the workplace. Unfortunately, recent research shows that 60% of men in senior-level positions are uncomfortable taking on a mentor role with younger women, leaving women 24% less likely than men to receive career advice from senior leaders. 

More than ever, senior leaders (who are still primarily men) need to support and advocate for women. 

Kickstarting a formal mentorship program at your organization, with careful consideration into complementary personalities, is a way to circumvent informal and/or casual mentorships, and make sure everyone has the opportunity to benefit from learning from a company leader. 

4. Support

Research confirms that people seem to have an inherent need and desire for meaningful work—work that is perceived as significant and purposeful. 

This also applies to the philanthropic, charitable work that your company does! Whether it’s through fundraising or volunteering, lending a helping hand is a good deed and is a great way to showcase your company’s values. 

In honor of International Women’s Day, consider making a donation or volunteering with a women-focused organization. Women- and girls-focused organizations only receive 1.6% of all charitable giving, so your support will definitely be recognized. 

Here are a few to consider:

• Girls Who Code (Psst. Bonusly users have donated more than $45,000 to Girls Who Code, which we’re so stoked about!)
• Dress for Success
• Futures Without Violence
• Planned Parenthood (sexual healthcare for all genders!)
• Days for Girls International
• GirlForward

5. Recognize 

The higher you go up the corporate ladder, the fewer women you see. Do you have any women on your executive team? 

Considering that companies with gender diversity on their executive teams are more likely to be financially successful, we should all be working toward a diverse and engaging workforce—and that includes making sure everyone gets recognized.

I mean, only if you want a higher chance for your company to succeed. 😉

It’s not enough to simply hire women and hope for the best; you have to make sure they have the environment they need to succeed. That means celebrating and recognizing their accomplishments!

Look at your directors and managers. What’s the gender ratio like? What are the unique challenges they’ve had to face, and what successes can you highlight? 

This doesn’t have to just be a hierarchical practice. Who are your culture leaders? These leaders are the ones who take it upon themselves to amplify the ideas of other women, or the ones who always go the extra mile. International Women’s Day is the perfect day to make sure you see them and their efforts. 

But more than that, you’ll find that recognizing your employees is more impactful when you extend it beyond just one day. Make it a 365-day effort, and you’ll find a more transparent and inclusive company culture.

When coupled with consistent recognition, employee resilience can help build a sense of purpose, progress, and belonging at work to support every member of your team. Download our resilience guide to get started. 👇

Resilient teams are better equipped to handle whatever is thrown at them—from uncertainty, transitions, and pivots, to the many other unknowns that may unfold this year. Especially during uncertain times or crises, resilient teams experience a reduced initial impact, higher recovery speed, and a greater degree of recovery. Resilience is vital for business success, but how do individual employees and teams actually build resilience at work? 

Fortunately, resilience is not a trait a person is born with—it’s a skill that can be built and developed over time. At work, resilience comes from having a sense of purpose, progress, and belonging in a role, whether as a front-line employee or company executive.

For a deep dive into resilience at work:

Purpose

Helping employees find a sense of purpose means showing them how their day-to-day work connects with the larger goals and success of the organization. 

For example, a salesperson who needs to enter prospect data into a CRM every day probably doesn’t find that part of their job enthralling. But if you connect that data entry to the sales pipeline your company uses to ensure growth is on track, this tedious task becomes a little less onerous because they understand why it’s important.

HR leaders should help managers proactively communicate how each employee’s role contributes to the overall mission of the organization. If work begins to seem meaningless, that’s a bad sign for engagement and resilience, so take care to link their work to the company’s success. 

Progress

Employees who feel stuck (in their role, their level, or their team) are likely not engaged or resilient. It’s hard for staff to feel motivated when there’s no clear path for advancing up the career ladder or simply developing new skills. And if employees are stuck in one place too long, they may lose the ability to adapt to new conditions, practices, or roles. 

While promotions are the most visible form of progress (and they’re important), they’re not the only way to give employees a sense of progress. 

Investing in ongoing learning and development and offering employees stretch assignments or lateral promotions helps them see their careers progressing. And they also increase your organizational resilience because they let employees develop and flex new skills instead of remaining in a silo. 

To build teams that are ready to handle whatever comes next:

Belonging

Feeling a sense of belonging at work is critical to resilience. Diversity in the workplace helps to avoid the pitfalls of groupthink (which the International Monetary Fund cited as a major cause of the 2008 global financial crisis) and spurs innovation. 

Belonging also fosters better social connections and support at work, which increases resilience. Imagine a time when you worked long hours on a complicated task or project—did having committed colleagues who made you feel like part of a team lighten the load? It’s no surprise that employees who are on a team are 2.6 times more likely to be fully engaged and 2.7 times more likely to be highly resilient than those who aren’t. Other surprising statistics of employee belonging include a 50% lower risk of turnover, a 56% increase in job performance, and a 167% increase in eNPS scores! 

Interestingly, a sense of belonging and engagement doesn’t necessarily come from being in the same physical place. 20% of virtual workers are fully engaged and 18% are highly resilient, in comparison to the 11% of fully engaged and 9% of highly resilient office-based workers. Resilience and connection are a state of mind, not a physical place.

Practicing resilience

It can be helpful to think of building a resilience practice similar to a gratitude practice. Resilience is rarely built all at once—it must be cultivated during small but frequent, meaningful moments. 

These small moments can look like encouraging team members to turn to each other or their manager for support when they need it, ensuring employees take time off to rest and recover, and recognizing when employees succeed because of their adaptability and resilience. 

For example, if you have a team that just completed a project that went far beyond the initial scope and timeline, give them a shoutout in a team meeting, email, or (best yet) through a recognition platform. Praising their flexibility and problem-solving skills reminds them of how resilient they are, which is inspiring for the next time they face a challenge. 

These small moments and efforts build on each other to create a strong foundation of resilience. By building them now, when a crisis or challenge hits, you can draw from those resources you’ve carefully built during the good times. 

Employee recognition and building resilience

A dedicated employee recognition program can build a sense of community in your team or company helping employees feel a greater sense of purpose, progress, and belonging. Additionally, when recognition is visible throughout your organization, people can see how their individual contributions make an impact during times of ongoing change and get rewarded for exemplifying resilience—a powerful way to build a culture of resilience.

Bonusly is here to help! 

Our rewards and recognition platform helps you build a culture that shows appreciation for the work employees do every day and rewards them for adapting to the challenges and shifts facing every workplace in 2023. 

Key takeaways

• Employees build resilience on an individual level through a sense of purpose, progress, and belonging.
  
  
• Focusing on all three of these areas through small, meaningful efforts will help your employees increase their resilience.
  
  
• These practices are like putting deposits into the bank when cash flows are good so you have a cushion of resilience savings to draw from when unforeseen obstacles arise. 
  
  

For further reading download our complete guide to building more resilient, engaged teams today. 👇