Being able to redeem rewards is a key feature of the Recognize platform. Not only does it provide employees a digitized and seamless process, but it also gives them more autonomy in selecting their desired compensation options. So here are some helpful instructions for setting-up and leveraging the Rewards feature of the Recognize platform:
Enabling Rewards:
- Click 'Menu' in the upper right corner of the page
- Select 'Company Admin' from the drop-down menu
- Select 'Settings' from the navigation menu on the far left
- Scroll down to the 'Rewards' section and toggle the 'Allow Rewards' selection to 'On'
- If you wish, Toggle 'Require approval for gift card redemptions' to 'On', if you would like every redemption to require a manager's approval
- Scroll further down to find the 'Points' section in 'Settings'
- Set your Recognition sending limits, if you wish. These are global limits that apply to all users and badges. Sending limits can also be set for each individual badge if you do not wish to place the same global settings on all badges.
- Set Point Values that will be awarded to users who send Recognitions, Receive a 'Like' on a Recognition or send a 'Like' on a Recognition.
Depositing Rewards Funds:
- Once rewards have been enabled, you can offer 2 types of employee rewards:
- Provider-Fulfilled (gift cards for external vendors - e.g. Starbucks, Amazon, etc.)
- Company-Fulfilled (company-sponsored items - e.g. merchandise or time-off)
- For provider-fulfilled rewards, Recognize works with a 3rd party vendor to offer a wide range of digital gift card options for recipients. And a prior deposit must be made to Recognize in order to offer these rewards.
- Note: deposits are not required for company-fulfilled rewards.
- In order to deposit funds for rewards, send a request to support@recognizeapp.com with the following details:
- Name
- Company
- Amount (minimum: $1,000)
- Payment Method (check, credit card, or ACH/wire transfer)
- Note: transaction fee(s) may apply
- Further details can be found in the 'Rewards: Deposit Money for Gift Cards' article.
Creating Rewards (Provider-Fulfilled):
- Once you have successfully deposited funds, and have received confirmation from the Recognize team, you can now create provider-fulfilled rewards. Start by selecting 'Rewards' from the far left navigation menu
- Click 'Create Catalog' in the upper right corner of the rewards page
- Once you are on the 'Create Catalog' page, choose which currency you wish your catalog to be awarded in.
- The next thing you will do is to confirm the number of assigned points per $1.
- Note: Once this is set, this ratio can only be changed by contacting support@recognizeapp.com, So we strongly recommend deciding on the ratio ahead of time, since changing it will affect reporting and the rewards.
- Choose which roles will have access to this catalog if you plan on limiting this catalog to only specific roles. If you will not be limiting this catalog to specific users, leave this option blank
- Check 'Enable'
- Save your new Rewards Catalog
- Select your Rewards Catalog to open it and start adding gift cards you will offer
- Select 'Catalog' from the upper right menu on the catalog dashboard
- Click 'Create reward' to drop down a menu of options to help you add gift cards to your catalog. The first two options address company-fulfilled rewards that are provided by your company, not Recognize, and don't require a deposit of funds. The third option, 'Add Gift Card', will be the option you'll want to select to choose gift cards to add to your catalog,
- Select a gift card that you would like to add to your catalog
- If you wish to limit how often this reward can be redeemed by each employee, enter that limit here
- Enter the reward variants you wish to offer your staff here (for example $5, $10, $20, $50, $100)
- If you wish for this reward to be approved by a manager before it is redeemed, assign that manager here
- Check 'Enabled'
- Select 'Add'
- Further details can be found in the 'How to Create a Gift Card Reward (Provider-Fulfilled)'
Creating Rewards (Company-Fulfilled):
- If you decide to create company-fulfilled rewards, you can get started right away (no deposit necessary).
- Via the Company Admin/Rewards portal, select 'Catalog' and 'Create Reward'.
- From the drop-down menu, select 'Add Custom' and populate the following fields:
- Title of Reward (e.g. half-day off work)
- Description of Reward (e.g. good for redeeming one afternoon off work!)
- Reward Type (
- Instructions displayed to the user (e.g. requires manager approval)
- Reward Options (different variants/increments - e.g. 2, 4, or 8 hours)
- How often can this be redeemed by each employee (optional limits)
- Total quantity (optional quantity)
- Rewards Manager Required (optional approval)
- Enabled (makes this reward redeemable)
- Image Upload (option to upload a picture of the reward)
- Click 'Add' when finished, and you will see this card displayed in your 'Catalog'.
- Further details can be found in the 'How to Create Custom Employee Rewards (Company-Fulfilled)' article.
Redeeming Rewards:
- Select 'Rewards' from the top navigation menu
- Once in the portal, users can select which catalog they wish to see if there are multiple catalogs
- Users can browse through a wide range of company-fulfilled and vendor-fulfilled Rewards options. If they are looking for something specific, they can use the filters on the top right to pare down their search to options Value (sorts the rewards by point value - either low to high, or high to low) or see options that are only currently redeemable based on how many points they presently have. Users with more points will be able to redeem more rewards
- For each reward, you can toggle between the different point value options in the dropdown menu
- Once you've decided which reward to select, click 'Redeem' and 'Redeem' again on the pop-up
Note: once a vendor-fulfilled reward (e.g. Chipotle gift card) is selected, it cannot be refunded!
Approving Rewards:
- Once an employee has selected a reward, it must be approved via the Manager Portal. Start by selecting 'Menu' from the top right of the page
- Select 'Manager Portal' from the dropdown menu
- Select Redemptions from the left-side menu to access the 'Redemption approval' page.
- Select one of two actions for each 'Pending' reward:
- Approve (accepts the selected user reward)
- Deny (declines the selected user reward)
- After clicking either action, a small pop-up window will appear. The Manager has the option to add notes if necessary
Reviewing Rewards Reporting:
- Reports of employee rewards redemptions can be downloaded via the Company Admin portal.
- Select Rewards from the left-side menu.
- Navigate to the 'Redemptions' option on the right-side menu.
- Determine the time interval and entries for your report.
- Note: you must select 'All' entries to obtain a report of all employee redemptions.
- Under 'Export', select which output format you'd prefer.
Please refer to the 'How to activate or deactivate rewards?', 'Approving a reward', 'How are rewards redeemed?', and 'How to download an accounting report of all the reward redemptions?' help articles.