It didn’t start with a grand plan. Not exactly.

For the team at symplr — a company that’s been thoughtfully evolving its digital workplace for years — the push to formalize rewards and recognition came from something less formal: the chaos of goodwill. Managers were doing their best. Starbucks gift cards here, surprise cookies there. A thank-you email now and then. And yet, something was off.

It wasn’t that people weren’t being appreciated. It’s that the appreciation wasn’t connected. It wasn’t visible. And most critically, it wasn’t consistent.

That’s when the team at symplr, long-time MangoApps users with a beautifully mature intranet called symplr IQ, started thinking: maybe it’s time to go deeper. Not to add another app or vendor, but to take something they were already doing — something human, something heartfelt — and give it a real home inside the digital experience their employees were already using every day. As Melissa Hoyos, symplr's VP of Internal Communications, put it during the webinar, "We wanted something very consistent across the board, and [MangoApps] was going to provide it to us."

Why Recognition Now?

The short answer is: because the noise was getting too loud.

In a fully remote, global company, disconnected acts of gratitude had begun to feel transactional. Everyone appreciated the gestures, sure. As Jami Mims, Director of Talent Management at symplr, described it during the webinar, "We were hearing from leaders and individual contributors alike that they really wanted an opportunity to give kudos and provide people with feedback that was positive, but in a way where the entire organization could also participate in it."

It’s a subtle but powerful shift. People weren’t asking for more rewards. They were asking for shared meaning.

The team realized they didn’t need to build a recognition program from scratch — they already had the culture, the values, and the desire. What they needed was a way to unify it. And it turned out, the solution was sitting right there in their MangoApps toolbox.

Plugging Into What Already Works

This wasn’t symplr’s first rodeo with MangoApps. Since 2021, they’d been using the platform to connect and engage their distributed workforce — launching symplr IQ as a central hub for internal comms, collaboration, and company culture.

So when the need for a more structured recognition approach surfaced, they didn't need to go shopping for new software. They could continue building on what was already working. MangoApps offered a recognition module, which made for an easy decision as it was a simple fit.

The module allowed them to do exactly what they’d envisioned: create branded awards, tie them to meaningful reward points, and showcase recognition across the same platform employees already trusted. No new logins, no unfamiliar UX. Just a clean, consistent layer added to their existing digital rhythm.

And maybe that’s the real genius here. Recognition didn’t become a new initiative. It became part of the fabric. As Melissa noted, "This was always available, but as you're familiar with MangoApps, you can continue to add on features... and this was going to provide us something very consistent."

Designing for Culture, Not Just for Function

What followed wasn’t some rushed deployment. symplr took their time — and took it seriously.

The internal comms and HR teams sat down and asked hard questions. What kinds of behaviors should we reward? How do we make this feel authentic and not performative? Who should give points — and who shouldn’t?

As Kevin Williams, symplr's Director of HR Operations, explained, "We wanted to make sure when we launched our R&R program that we launched it right. We did not want to do several iterations of this, so we spent... several months internally making sure that we considered everything."

They designed every detail to reflect their values, right down to the language of the awards. This wasn’t generic praise. It was coded in the voice of symplr’s culture. The awards were bright, on-brand, and tied back to core principles employees knew by heart.

They also had to solve for logistics. With employees spread across the U.S., India, and beyond, ensuring fairness in reward value took work. Points had to reflect currency differences without creating awkward imbalances. But rather than treat that as a blocker, the team saw it as an opportunity to reinforce equity. Recognition, after all, should feel equally meaningful no matter where you are.

Jami echoed the collaborative spirit behind the scenes: "We're collaborating... we have Olivia, who's doing the beautiful design, and Kevin, who has the beautiful mind to do the conversions... it did take a small village for us to get this off the ground the way we wanted to."

The Launch: Building Excitement and Setting the Tone

Before they rolled out the program to the entire organization, the team at symplr knew they needed to make a splash — not just logistically, but emotionally. Rather than a basic checkbox launch, they wanted it to stand as a signal of what mattered. Emily Biery, symplr’s Senior Internal Communications Specialist, was at the heart of bringing the launch to life.

“We wanted to make sure that when it launched, it looked polished, it looked professional, and it felt like it came from our culture,” Emily shared during the webinar. That meant not just focusing on internal logistics, but also design, messaging, and user experience.

The team worked to ensure the launch felt personal and integrated. They created internal comms campaigns to introduce the new awards, encouraged early participation from leadership, and made sure every visual element aligned with symplr’s brand. "We were very strategic about the way we positioned it and rolled it out," Emily said, adding that it was important the program felt “like it had always belonged.”

By treating the launch as a cultural milestone — rather than a tech deployment — they set the tone for long-term engagement.

A Thoughtful First Impression

The official launch of the recognition program couldn’t just be a matter of reaching a milestone in a plan — it was an intentional message to the entire company and every individual. The team at symplr approached it with clarity and purpose, setting a thoughtful foundation for long-term impact.

Emily described their approach as three-pronged. “First priority with R&R was just making sure that everyone understood the what, why, and how of the program,” she explained during the webinar. That meant getting communication right from the start.

They began with a personalized email from the CHRO, which was also repurposed as a company-wide intranet post outlining the program’s goals and mechanics. From there, the team hosted a training session specifically for the senior leadership team to explain their roles in awarding points. “We hosted a training session with our senior leadership team... just again describing the program and what their role would be in awarding points.”

Meanwhile, HR business partners received their own tailored sessions to walk through reporting tools and resources. “That was really important for us to just equip our HR team... to be able to equip our senior leaders and point awarders,” Emily noted.

Much of the behind-the-scenes orchestration was driven by Olivia Aguilar, symplr's Intranet Engagement Specialist, whose coordination kept timelines, communications, and trainings aligned. “Her coordination helped to ensure that there were no surprises for anyone,” Emily said, “and everyone knew what and when to expect updates and how to access support.”

What could have been a dry, procedural rollout instead landed as a cultural signal — carefully staged, clear in purpose, and unmistakably symplr.

The Slow Burn That Stuck

When the system went live, they didn’t throw open the gates. Instead, they gave a small circle of senior and executive leaders the keys. The idea was to test, learn, and adapt before scaling.

And adapt they did.

Early on, they noticed that recognition was bottlenecking — leaders were simply too far removed from day-to-day work to catch every moment worth rewarding. As Jami  put it, "One of the things that we did come to understand when we talked about some challenges, is that it kind of got bottlenecked — and got bottlenecked at that executive and that senior leadership layer just because they're, as we all are, moving fast and incredibly busy."

So they expanded access. Carefully. Strategically. Enough to include more hands-on managers, but not so much that the signal got lost in the noise. "This year we decided to take it down another layer. So we've included more leaders to be able to roll out points," Jami explained. "It’s important to be intentional about who has the ability to reward points or award points because it's a big deal, and it's a responsibility that should be taken seriously."

The result? A program that’s still evolving, but already sticky. One year in, recognition has gone from sporadic to steady. From behind closed doors to front and center. Employees now log into symplr IQ and see the appreciation happening in real time — not buried in a spreadsheet, but alive on their newsfeed.

More Than Morale: A Cultural Lever

What makes symplr’s story powerful isn’t just that they launched a recognition program. Plenty of companies can say the same.

What stands out is how deeply the program resonates — not just as a perk, but as part of the cultural core. Recognition is no longer something tacked on; it's embedded in daily life at symplr. It flows naturally within their intranet, mirrors the brand's tone, and builds bridges between teams, leaders, and every corner of the company.

And the results? They speak for themselves. "We're not seeing as many in our eNPS survey people saying things such as, 'Oh, we want to find a way to be recognized,'" shared Jami. "People see that they are being recognized. And so I know that that's positive."

In 2024 alone, symplr recorded over 1,500 recognitions and distributed more than 2 million points. Nearly 900 users received shoutouts — not buried in email chains, but front-and-center on their MangoApps-powered newsfeed.

There’s now a buzz, Jami noted, that’s hard to miss: "There's kind of a conversation that happens about, 'Oh, I got this,' or, 'Congratulations!' It's been brought up in team meetings, and it's being brought up in other town halls."

This is what success looks like when recognition isn't a checkbox — it's a living, breathing signal of what matters most.

Advice from the Inside: Don’t Wing It

Ask the symplr team what made this rollout work, and they’ll tell you it wasn’t just because the platform and software worked well. It came down to the thoughtfulness and strategic planning of the overall program in the first place.

They built with intention, looped in the right stakeholders, and treated this like a culture initiative — not a tech project. They also weren’t afraid to slow down to get it right. Even now, they’re still refining. Still expanding. Still listening.

Emily emphasized the importance of regular pulse checks to keep the momentum alive. "A big thing is just regularly reviewing your insights and your rewards and recognition activity—looking for people who might be inactive... because inactive point awarders means that people aren't getting recognized for the things that they should be recognized for."

Equally important was the way recognition was delivered. It wasn’t enough to just give an award; it had to be meaningful. "You want to take a moment to just add any personalized details, mention the project, the award, the impact that they had, because that really goes a long way," Emily shared.

Jami pointed to the broader organizational strategy that sustained engagement: "We talked about culture champions. We talked about buy-in, and I can't emphasize enough the importance of that... our HR business partners... can nudge their leaders to say, 'Oh, it looks like you haven't given rewards in however long,' or 'Great job, you're giving out your rewards.'"

Olivia echoed the importance of building support systems into the rollout: "Some of our point awarders at the beginning needed reminders of things like which award goes to this country. So they can always go back to this private space and just look at everything — look at FAQs, and just stay informed and updated on what's going on."

And as Kevin pointed out, sustaining momentum means proactive management. "We had 30 managers in the program last year. We now have 70 managers there. So I really feel like that's gonna make a big impact," he shared. "It’s just a constant reminder to managers and leaders that points are there. Please use them... so that you don’t get to the end of the year and you have a mass amount of points that are still remaining out there."

From personal touches to strategic reminders, the message was clear: this only works if you keep working at it. Because recognition, like any powerful system, is never really “done.”

Curious to see how they pulled it off? You can watch the full webinar here to hear directly from the symplr team — with in-depth discussions of the pivotal decisions, lessons learned, and cultural wins behind the rollout.

And if their story has you thinking about your own workplace? Let’s talk. Explore our Rewards & Recognition capabilities, learn how MangoApps can bring your values to life, and schedule a personalized demo to see what this could look like inside your organization.

Because building a culture of appreciation isn’t about the software — it’s about making people feel seen. And we’d love to help you do just that.