Recognition Badges are core to the Recognize employee recognition platform. They allow companies to focus on reinforcing behaviors that exhibit core values. Badges also help staff feel connected to the organization's mission and goals and can help them understand what actions or behaviors are expected, and what's considered above and beyond. Earning Badges ultimately provides extrinsic motivation for your workforce, and therefore allows for increased productivity and a more positive culture.
How Badges work
Staff can officially thank each other for their good work by sending recognition. Each recognition is accompanied by a recognition Badge. The accompanying Badge can be symbolic of anything you want and Company Admins can make any number of them.
Thus, Badges are the central, visual component of the Recognize platform. Whether they're added to Recognitions or Nominations, Badges are an effective way to link your company values to your employee recognition program.
Stock Badge Examples
Recognize comes with pre-loaded Badges that can be leveraged for your company's recognitions/nominations. To make things easier on you, we have over 100 pre-made company culture value Badges available here: Company Culture Value Badges. But, you also have the option to create your own, if desired. See the below video for an overview of the Custom Badges section in the Company Admin portal.
Use the below menu to jump to specific topics:
Creating Badges with Approval Processes
Setting Badge Privileges with Roles
Global Setting for Badge Privacy
Creating New Badges
- After signing in, click on the 'Menu' icon in the upper right-hand corner
- Select 'Company Admin' from the drop-down menu
- Once in the Company Admin portal, select 'Custom Badges' from the left-side menu
- Click the 'Create Badge' button and complete the following fields:
a. Title (badge title)
b. Description (optional)
c. Badge sending limits (optional)
d. Image (see more about 'Badge Image Dimensions' below) NOTE: you are not able to create a new badge without an uploaded image.
e. Click 'Create badge' and your new badge will appear under the 'Active Badges' section.
- Finish adding badge details for your badge according to step 7 above
- Once these details are updated, click 'Save badges'
Badge Image Dimensions:
- We recommend the badges are 200px by 200px and are transparent pngs.
- Badges must be a circle or square, or they shouldn't be different widths vs. height.
- We also recommend the badges are round, as Recognize rounds them on the stream page. Other places, such as emails and the recognition detail page will show it as you have uploaded it.
Other Restrictions
- A title and image are the minimum requirements to create a badge.
- No two badges can have the same title.
- Once a badge is created and it has been used by others, it can not be deleted or that would delete the associated recognitions.
Editing Badges
- After signing in, click on the 'Menu' icon in the upper right-hand corner
- Select 'Company Admin' from the drop-down menu
- Once in the Company Admin portal, select 'Custom Badges' from the left-side menu
- Scroll through the 'Active Badges' to explore the different, pre-populated badge options
- There are also more stock Badge options if you switch the 'Status' to 'disabled'
- Once you've found a Badge you'd like to use, click 'Details' next to the Badge to customize the details for the Badge
- Complete the following fields for each Badge:
a. Title (e.g. a company value)
b. Change badge icon
c. Enable (activates the Badge)
d. Show in Badge listing (allows users to select the Badge to send with the 'Recognize' button & it will also show up on the Badges page)
e. Description (visible during the Badge selection process)
f. Additional details (visible in the Badge header)
g. Require approval (subjects submissions of this Badge to an approval process)
h. Points (optional - assigns a rewards value that can be redeemed after receipt)
i. Approver (if you have chosen to require approval, you must designate who will approve)
j. Allow either sender's manager or recipient's manager to approve (allows either manager to approve)
k. Budget (this module shows what you should budget per employee per month based on Badge settings)
l. Badge sending limits (restricts how many Badges can be sent by a single user)
m. Roles (restricts the sending of the Badge to specific company roles - e.g. Managers)
n. Achievement (Enabling this setting allows you to cap the number of times a Badge can be received within a specified time frame)
o. Instant (enables 'one-click' recognitions to be made by clicking on a user's avatar)
p. Force private recognition (hides this Badge from public view when it is sent)
q. Once these details are updated, click 'Save Badges' at the bottom of the page
Changing a Badge Name
After a Badge has been created and sent, you may subsequently rename this Badge if you wish! When you search for that Badge later, it will reflect the new name you have given it. Any past recognitions that were given with that Badge will show the updated name retroactively.
- Start by clicking 'Menu' in the upper right corner
- Select 'Company Admin' from the dropdown menu
- Select 'Custom Badges' from the navigation menu on the far left
- Scroll down to the Badge you'd like to change the name for, and select 'Details' to the right of that Badge to edit the details for the Badge
- Edit the name of the Badge in the top left field above the Badge icon
- Click 'Save Badge' to save your changes
Adding Points to Badges
Recognize offers a points system to help track engagement, create excitement, and enable companies to acknowledge and reward positive employee behavior. The points for receiving a Recognition are controlled by the value or point variant options for the Badge given. The points serve as a reward for different types of user behaviors that your company wants to champion. Badges can also have different point values dependent upon whether the behavior was part of the normal job duty, beyond the call of duty, or to recognize an exemplary performer. Here, we will show you how to assign a point value to a Badge where Recognitions are auto-approved, and in cases where you decide to implement an approval process.
How to Assign Points to a Badge (Auto-Approved):
- Open your 'Menu' from the top right of the page
- Select the 'Company Admin' from the drop-down menu
- Select 'Custom Badges' from the far left menu & find the badge in the table you wish to edit points for or create a new Badge to add points to
- Click 'Details' to edit the details for that badge
- Under the area labeled 'Points', enter the number of points you wish to assign to the Badge
- Select 'Save Badges' when have finished updating your badges to save your changes
Creating Badges with Approval Processes
If you would like to allow staff to give monetary Badges to others but want to manage a budget per Badge, Recognize provides an option to implement a process by which Company Admins or Managers can approve such Recognitions before they are sent to a recipient.
Use the below menu to jump to specific topics:
Creating Badges & Point Settings
Approving or Denying Recognitions & Assigning Point Values
Creating Badges & Point Settings
When creating a Badge that requires approval to send, you can either use a single point amount or designate multiple specific point variants that approvers will be able to select from and assign to the recognition based on criteria your team determines has been met. To require approval and/or add approval variants to a Badge from within the Company Admin Portal:
- Select 'Custom Badges' from the navigation panel on the left side of the page
- Select the 'Create Badge' button above the table to start from scratch, and/or select 'Details' next to an existing Badge to make edits to the Badge settings
- Toggle 'Require Approval' on, which will make all new Recognitions that are sent with this Badge go through the approval workflow
- In the text box below 'Point variants for approval', enter one or more point variants that will be sent as options for the recognition to a Company Admin or Manager for approval
- In the dropdown menu below 'Approver', select either 'Manager' or 'Company Admin' depending on which system role you would like to be able to approve the Badge and points.
NOTE: If you select 'Manager' as an approver, they will be able to approve Recognitions sent with this Badge for just their direct reports. If you want only Company Admins to approve Recognitions with this badge, select 'Company Admin'. Regardless of these settings, Company Admins have the ability to approve all Recognitions. No other user or role can be added as an approver at this time.
- If you wish for both the sender's Manager or recipient's Manager to have the ability to approve the Recognition (whomever completes the approval process first), check the box next to 'Allow either sender's manager or recipients' manager to approve'
- Click 'Save' at the bottom to save your updates
Approving or Denying Recognitions & Assigning Point Values
If you have created badges with an approval process, as a Company Admin, you can review and approve or deny Recognitions associated with those badges. This includes assigning point values if points are enabled and the badge has an assigned point range. Admins can manage approvals through the Admin Portal or directly via email notifications, which link to the 'Pending Recognitions' table for quick access. For more information on setting up badges with an approval process, refer to: Creating Badges with Approval Processes
Here is a video that walks through the steps of approving or denying a recognition as a Company Admin:
Here is an example of a Recognition Approval Email that you might receive as a Company Admin:
To Approve or Deny Recognitions from Within the Company Admin Portal:
- Select 'Menu' from the top right-hand corner of your screen
- Select 'Company Admin' from the drop-down menu
- Select 'Recognitions' from the navigation panel on the left side of the page
- Select 'Pending' from the top navigation bar on the right
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Find the recognition you would like to resolve and click either 'Approve' or 'Deny'
Approve: Once you click 'Approve' you will see a pop up page with the following options:
A. Message: You can review, edit, or add to the senders recognition message.
B. Points: If the badge has an assigned point range, you can select a value within that range, starting from the minimum badge value up to the amount the sender has requested.
Note: You cannot approve the badge for more points than the sender requested, even if the badge's maximum point value is higher.
C. Approve: Click 'Approve' to send the Recognition. The recognition will post to the stream page, and the recipient will receive an email notification with the recognition details and will be awarded the associated points.
Deny: If you would like to deny the recognition, click 'Deny' and you will see a pop up page with the following options:
A. Reason for denial: Type the reason for the denial which will be sent to the sender of the recognition.
B. Deny: Click 'Deny' to deny the recognition. The sender of the recognition will receive an email notification which will include the reason for denial.
Note: Once a recognition is denied, it cannot be reversed.
Setting Badge Limits
To help you manage budget and combat abuse, Recognize allows you to limit how often an individual employee can send a Badge within a specific time interval and/or cap the total number of points a user can give out. In fact, there are a few ways to restrict recognition sending within your Recognize account, which are outlined below.
Use the below menu to jump to specific topics:
Setting Individual Badge Limits
Setting Global Badge Sending Limits
Setting Individual Badge Limits
After you've determined how many Badges you have budget for and how many each person can send, you can begin adjusting the points for your Badges. To do this:
- Click 'Menu' in the upper right-hand corner of your screen
- Select 'Company Admin' from the drop-down menu
- Select the 'Custom badges' section from the left side navigation menu
- Click the 'Details' tab for the Badge you wish to edit or click 'Create Badge' to create a new badge for budgeting (see our help article on how to create a badge)
- Choose the points, sending limits, and the roles that can send each Badge to determine your budget
NOTE: Leave sending limit blank if there will be no limit. If no roles are added, all employees will be able to send the badge and will be included in budgeting.
- If Rewards are enabled in your settings, you'll be able to see your budget for that Badge populate on the right side of your Badge settings
NOTE: You can change the interval at which this table calculates (ex. monthly, quarterly, yearly) within the 'Settings' tab in the left menu.
- You can also take further control of your budget by requiring approval for certain Badges or point intervals to be sent
- If requiring approval for a Badge to be sent, you can set certain point variants to require approval or leave blank to cover all variants, and you can also assign an Approver based on your created Roles (See our help article for how to create Roles).
- Make sure to save any changes you make by clicking the 'Save' button at the bottom of the screen
NOTE: You can change the interval at which this calculates within the 'Settings.' See below section 'Interval Settings' for details.
Setting Global Badge Sending Limits
- Select the 'Menu' button in the top right-hand corner of your screen
- Select 'Company Admin' from the drop-down menu
- Select 'Custom Badges' in the navigation menu to the far left
- Select the 'Settings' tab in the far right upper corner tertiary menu
- In the text box under 'Global', input the number of times each user can send any of your Badges in a specified time frame. To be clear, this limits the total number of recognitions a user can send, regardless of the individual Badge settings on the 'Custom Badges' page. If you have already set Badge limits on your 'Custom Badges' page, this setting will override those limits
- In the dropdown menu next to the 'Global' number, select the desired time interval which determines when limits will start over
- Don't forget to save your changes by clicking 'Save badge limits'
Setting Point Allocations
Point Allocations limit a user's total points that can be sent via Recognitions. With Point Allocations, administrators have the ability to allocate points to all staff, as well as allocate additional points for users in specified Company Roles. To learn how to allocate points in Recognize, please follow the steps outlined in this guide: How to Budget Using Point Allocations
Setting Badge Privileges with Roles
To allow specific people, departments, teams, or more to send specific badges, you'll use the Recognize 'Roles' feature. Ultimately, you'll create roles called anything you want (eg. executive, director, sales rep) and assign those roles to employees from within the 'Users' tab in the left-side menu. Then within the 'Custom Badges' tab, you can choose which roles can send which badges.
Create a Role
- Select 'Menu' in the upper right corner of the page
- Select 'Company Admin' from the drop-down menu
- Once in the Company Admin portal, select 'Roles' from the left-side menu
- Type in the name for the new role you'd like to create in the text box below 'Custom Roles'
- Select the 'Create Role' button
Assign Your Created Role to Users
- Select 'Users' from the left-side menu
- Use the Column Visibility Toggle at the top of the table on the left to add 'Company Roles' to the table view
- In the search bar above the table, search for the Users that you'd like included in the Role you created
Set Badge Permissions
- Select 'Custom Badges' from the left-side menu
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Scroll to the Badge of your choosing and select 'Details' to the right of the badge to open up the badge details
- Enter the name of the role you created in the box labeled 'Roles' to make the badge exclusive to that role to send
- Make sure to click 'Save badge' when you're done
Global Setting for Badge Privacy
In some circumstances, you may want a specific Badge to only be sent privately by users instead of posted to the company stream page. For example, you may have a Badge this is sent to different users each day for accomplishing certain goals, and you may not want those daily badges to take up space on the stream page. Fortunately, we have a solution for this!
- From your Company Admin Portal, select 'Settings' from the navigation panel on the left
- From the quick menu on the right, select 'Recognition'
- Next to 'Allow staff to make recognitions private within your company that only sender, recipient, and admins can see', toggle button from 'OFF' to 'ON'
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Next, select 'Custom Badges' from the left navigation panel
- Select 'Details' next to the badge you wish to make private
- In the badge details, toggle 'Force private recognition' from 'OFF' to 'ON'
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Save your changes. All new Recognitions sent with this badge will be private
Disabling/Enabling Badges
After a Badge has been created, you may subsequently decide that you no longer want to offer this Badge, or perhaps this Badge is only relevant to your organization's needs some of the time. Recognize offers the ability to disable and enable Badges at your convenience.
If you choose to disable a Badge, the Recognitions that were previously sent with this Badge will still show in the stats, stream, and anywhere recognitions are visible. Although reporting for the Badge will still show, staff will be unable to send this Badge while it is in the disabled state. You can also choose to remove it from the Badge list so that users don't see it as an option.
Below are step-by-step instructions on how to disable a badge, then, how to enable them again.
Steps to Disable a Badge
- From the Admin Portal, select 'Custom Badges' from the navigation panel on the far left side
- Select 'Details' next to the Badge you wish to disable
- Beneath the Badge image and name, toggle the 'Enable' option off
- If you do not want the disabled badge to show up in the Badge listing that users see, below the 'Enable' option, toggle the option that says 'Show in badge listing' to off
- Select 'Save' to save your changes
Steps to Enable a Badge
- From the Admin Portal, select 'Custom Badges' from the navigation panel on the far left side
- In the dropdown menu above the Badge table, select 'Disabled'
- Next to the badge you wish to enable, select 'Details'
- Beneath the Badge image and name, toggle the 'Enable' option to on
- Below your 'Enable' option, toggle the option that says 'Show in Badge listing' to on
- Select 'Save' to save your changes
Deleting or Removing a Badge
A Company Admin can delete a Badge only once all the recognitions associated with that Badge are deleted first. You can find the recognition associated with that Badge by the Badge page on the top toolbar.