Recognitions Overview

Recognitions

1. What it is

Recognitions lets employees recognize each other, managers award team members, and
admins run structured nomination programs — all from one social feed. Each
recognition can carry a company value, an illustrated award card, and (optionally)
redeemable reward points that bank into the Company Store.

• Enablement: requires a licence. An admin enables it from the Apps Marketplace;
  it is not turned on automatically.
• What it is not: Recognitions does not manage the point redemption catalogue —
  that is the Company Store app. Points earned here appear in the employee’s store
  wallet, but the items they can redeem against live in a separate app.

2. Standing it up

1. Go to Admin → Apps Marketplace, find Recognitions, and enable it.
2. The first time anyone opens the app, a starter recognition program
   (“Employee Recognition”, peer-to-peer) and six company values (Customer First,
   Teamwork, Integrity, Innovation, Excellence, Ownership) are seeded
   automatically. Admins can rename, delete, or add to either set — deleted
   defaults do not come back.
3. If you want employees to attach redeemable points to their recognitions, enable
   Peer Reward Points under Settings → Reward Points. This requires the
   Company Store app to also be enabled — without it, the toggle has no effect
   because there is nowhere to bank the points.
4. Grant the App Admin role to anyone who should manage programs, budgets, and
   settings without being a full business admin. Managers automatically see a
   Team tab for approvals once they have direct reports.
5. Confirm by opening the app as a non-admin employee. They should see the
   Dashboard, Feed, My Recognition, Programs, Leaderboard, and a working
   “Recognize” action.

Silent pairing to know about: the Peer Reward Points toggle does nothing on its
own — the Company Store must also be enabled and its recognition integration must
not be turned off. If both conditions aren’t met, points fields won’t appear in the
give form.

3. How it fits together

Programs and categories. A recognition program defines the type of recognition
(Peer-to-Peer, Manager, Achievement, or Milestone), whether nominations require
approval, and the point range for each category within it. Categories under a
program carry a name, colour, icon, and default/min/max point values. The seeded
“Employee Recognition” program ships with four categories: Teamwork, Helpfulness,
Innovation, and Excellence.

Peer recognition posts vs. awards. A recognition post is the everyday “shout-out”
any employee gives from the feed. An award is the outcome of a nomination that was
approved through a program’s approval chain. Both appear in the same feed, but they
follow different paths: posts are immediate (unless manager approval is required),
while awards route through one or more approval levels defined on the program.

Giving allowances vs. group budgets. These are two separate funding pools and the
most common source of admin confusion:

• A giving allowance is a per-employee monthly point budget for peer recognition
  posts. It resets each month and does not carry over. Three role tiers get
  different defaults: individual contributor, manager, and leadership.
• A group budget is a company-, department-, or manager-level annual dollar pool
  that funds awards given through Manager, Achievement, or Milestone programs.
  Group budgets are hierarchical (company → department → manager) and enforce
  hard-stop spending limits.

Peer-to-Peer programs draw from the giving allowance. The other three program types
draw from group budgets. You cannot attach a group budget to a Peer-to-Peer
program.

Award cycles (Model B). A time-boxed nomination period where nominations pool
during a window, then winners are selected either by Spotlight (anyone who meets a
distinct-nominator threshold) or Committee (an admin picks winners manually).
Award cycles are off by default and are independent of the always-on nomination
flow.

Company values. A curated list of organisational values that employees tag onto
a recognition. The six seeded defaults are a starting point — admins manage them at
Admin → Company Values.

Award cards. Illustrated card art from the Asset Library that the giver selects
when composing a recognition. The app ships with system cards across 14 categories
(Everyday Thanks, Teamwork, Customer Focus, Performance & Results, Above & Beyond,
Innovation, Safety, Values & Integrity, Growth & Leadership, Wellbeing & Culture,
Fun & Personality, Milestones & Service, Celebrations & Occasions, General).
Admins add tenant-specific cards at Admin → Award Cards.

4. Running it

Reviewing pending approvals

When Require Manager Approval is on, or when a peer recognition carries points
at or above the approval threshold, posts land in a pending queue. Reviewers
(managers with direct reports, app admins, and business admins) see a banner on the
Dashboard showing the count of items awaiting their decision. Reviewers can also
approve or reject from email using one-click links — no login required.

1. Open Team → Pending Approvals.
2. Review the recognition content and point amount.
3. Approve or reject. Approved posts become visible; rejected posts are hidden and
   the giver’s points are refunded.

Managing programs

1. Go to Admin → Manage Programs.
2. Create a new program, choosing a type (Peer-to-Peer, Manager, Achievement, or
   Milestone) and the number of approval levels (1–5).
3. Add categories with point ranges under the program.
4. Activate the program when ready — employees see it in the Programs tab.

Running an award cycle

1. Enable Award Cycles under Settings → Cycles & Automation.
2. Go to Admin → Award Cycles and create a cycle tied to a program. Set the
   nomination window (opens/closes dates) and the selection mode (Spotlight or
   Committee).
3. When the window closes, either review nominees who met the threshold (Spotlight)
   or pick winners manually (Committee).
4. Decide winners — this creates awards and notifies recipients.

Managing kiosk devices

For frontline locations where employees don’t have individual logins, a shared
device can run a recognition kiosk.

1. Go to Admin → Kiosk Devices (requires Manager or above).
2. Create a session for a location, setting an alphanumeric passcode.
3. On the shared device, navigate to the kiosk URL and enter the passcode.
4. Employees identify themselves by employee ID and PIN, recognise a colleague, and
   the screen resets automatically.

Using the Recognition Wall

The Recognition Wall is a chrome-less, auto-refreshing display for a lobby TV or
large screen. It is authenticated by a signed display token, not a user login.

1. Go to Admin → Recognition Wall (opens in a new tab).
2. Generate a display token under Settings → Tools & Data if one doesn’t exist.

Viewing analytics

Admins and app admins see an Analytics tab with recognition activity, insights,
and an at-risk view that flags employees or teams with low recognition activity.

5. Settings

All settings are under the app sidebar’s Settings dropdown. Settings are
grouped into six sections.

General

Setting	Default	What it changes
Allow Peer Recognition	On	When off, only manager/admin award flows are available
Allow Anonymous Recognition	Off	When on, employees can hide their name on a recognition
Require Manager Approval for Nominations	Off	When on, every nomination routes to a reviewer
Enable Reactions on Posts	On	Toggles emoji reactions on the feed
Enable Comments on Posts	On	Toggles comment threads on recognitions

Reward Points

Setting	Default	What it changes
Enable Peer Reward Points	Off	Turns on per-employee monthly giving allowances (requires Company Store)
Monthly Giving Allowance — Individual Contributor	1,000 points	Points each IC can give per month
Monthly Giving Allowance — Manager	2,000 points	Points each manager can give per month
Monthly Giving Allowance — Leadership	5,000 points	Points each leadership member can give per month
Hold Peer Gifts for Approval At/Above	500 points	Peer gifts at or above this threshold require reviewer approval before settling
Min Days Between Points Gifts to Same Person	7 days	Minimum gap before giving points to the same person again
Leadership group	None	A Notification Group whose members resolve to the leadership tier for allowance sizing — when not set, Admin/Owner role is used

Cycles & Automation

Setting	Default	What it changes
Enable Award Nominations	On	Gates the Programs tab and the nominate flow
Enable Award Cycles	Off	Enables time-boxed nomination cycles with winner selection

Notifications

Setting	Default	What it changes
Send Weekly Digest Emails	Off	Sends a weekly summary of recognition activity to employees

AI Agent

Setting	Default	What it changes
Enable AI Agent	On	Lets the Ask AI assistant give recognition, submit nominations, and approve on behalf of the user

Tools & Data

This section provides admin actions rather than persistent settings: generating
the Recognition Wall display token, loading or removing sample data, resetting
all store-point balances, running a CSV bulk import, and importing a program
configuration.

6. More help

• Recognition FAQ — specific setup and
  operating questions, including giving allowances, boosts, anti-gaming controls,
  kiosk mode, and troubleshooting.
• Company Store Overview — where
  earned reward points are redeemed.
• Ask AI — the assistant answers questions about Recognitions from these articles.