Levels & Badges onboarding (points, badges and leaderboards)
Set up Levels & Badges onboarding to define who appears on each board, how recognition is grouped, and which leaderboards are visible by site, market, or job family.
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Overview
Levels & Badges onboarding (points, badges and leaderboards) is a customer onboarding plan for standing up recognition mechanics with the right org shapes, visibility decisions, and leaderboard scope. It is the template you use when the customer wants points, badges, and boards that reflect how the company actually operates, not a generic company-wide ranking.
Use this template when the customer has a signed deal and you need to move from baseline data to a working launch with visible boards, clear participation targets, and a named owner for ongoing review. It is especially useful when the org has multiple sites, markets, or job families and the leaderboard needs to roll up differently in each place. The early phases are designed to produce something visibly working within the first two weeks by confirming the directory, grouping logic, and board scope before broader activation.
Do not use this template as a loose checklist for product training or as a substitute for a recognition strategy document. It is not for customers who have not yet agreed on participation goals, do not have usable employee and location data, or have no stable reporting structure to map into leaderboards. It also should not be treated as finished at go-live. The closing phase exists to confirm measurement, capture the hand-off, and assign the customer owner who will keep the setup aligned as the organization changes.
How to use this template
- Confirm the prerequisite data and org structures are in place, including employee records, site assignments, and any job-family or market hierarchy needed for the intended boards.
- Run kickoff with the customer to agree the participation target, the visibility scope, and which leaderboard views will be launched first.
- Map each board to the correct org shape, then validate that every employee appears in the right site, market, or job-family rollup before configuration is finalized.
- Activate the first visible boards and badges, then test them with a small group of managers or site leads so the customer can see the setup working early.
- Review the launch against the agreed success signal, document any gaps or exclusions, and hand ownership to the named customer contact for recurring maintenance.
Best practices
- Set the participation target before configuration starts so the manager brief and launch scope are tied to a decision, not a guess.
- Verify job-title grouping separately from the raw title load, because leaderboards need families or rollups, not just a list of titles.
- Check that every employee belongs to exactly one site before launch, since unassigned people disappear from site and market reporting.
- Use the customer’s real operating hierarchy for visibility rules, even if it is messier than a single company-wide board.
- Launch the smallest board set that proves the model works, then expand to additional markets or job families after validation.
- Assign a named customer owner for post-launch review so leaderboard maintenance does not drift after hand-off.
- Treat empty boards as a data problem, not a cosmetic issue, because an empty view usually means the org shape is wrong.
What this template typically catches
Issues teams running this template most often surface in practice:
Common use cases
Frequently asked questions
What does this onboarding plan actually cover?
This template covers the customer onboarding work needed to launch Levels & Badges with the right org structure, visibility rules, and leaderboard scope. It focuses on the data and decisions that make boards usable, not on generic product setup. You use it to confirm who is included, how they are grouped, and what managers can see before go-live.
Who should own the work in this plan?
It should be shared between the vendor CS team and the customer. The vendor typically drives the kickoff, configuration guidance, and validation, while the customer owns directory data, org structure, and local decisions about participation and visibility. Joint ownership is important because the plan fails if either side treats it as a one-way setup.
How often should Levels & Badges be reviewed after launch?
The template is designed for onboarding, but the outputs should be reviewed on a recurring cadence after go-live. Most teams revisit participation, grouping, and leaderboard scope when org structure changes, new sites open, or job families are reorganized. If you do not assign a named owner for that review, the setup drifts quickly.
What prerequisites need to be true before kickoff?
The customer should already have a usable employee directory, site assignments, and a clear view of how job titles roll up into families or other reporting groups. If those shapes are missing, the boards may technically launch but will not reflect the company correctly. This template starts with those prerequisites because rollout failures usually happen before kickoff, not at go-live.
Can this template support site, market, and job-title leaderboards?
Yes, that is the point of the template. It helps confirm whether the company has the parent location level, job-family grouping, and employee assignment needed to power each leaderboard view. If one of those structures is absent, the relevant board should be excluded rather than launched empty.
What are the most common rollout mistakes this plan prevents?
The biggest mistakes are scheduling kickoff before prerequisite data exists, letting the vendor do all the configuration without customer activation, and ending the project at go-live with no measurement or hand-off. This template also prevents the common issue of launching leaderboards that do not match how the business is actually organized. Those failures are usually visible only after adoption stalls.
How do we customize the plan for different industries or org models?
You customize it by changing the grouping logic and visibility scope to match the customer’s operating model. A multi-site retail chain may need site and district boards, while a services company may care more about job family or region. The template is meant to be adapted to the org chart the customer actually uses, not forced into a single reporting model.
Does this integrate with HRIS or directory systems?
The onboarding plan can include data validation against HRIS or directory sources if those systems feed employee, site, or title data. The important part is not the integration itself but whether the imported data supports the board structure you want to launch. If the source system does not carry the right hierarchy, the leaderboard scope will be incomplete.
Is this better than an ad-hoc setup?
Yes, because ad-hoc setups often skip the prerequisite checks that determine whether boards will actually work. This template gives you a repeatable sequence for confirming data shapes, assigning owners, and validating visibility before launch. That makes it easier to hand off and easier to repeat when the org changes.
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