A "Rewards Manager" in Recognize is a designated "rewards-only" manager, who is assigned to manage approvals or denials of one or more rewards in your Organization's Rewards Catalog.
When you designate a user as a "Rewards Manager", they are notified by email when any user requests to redeem points for the reward(s) they are assigned to. They must then go into the platform and either "approve" or "deny" the redemption before the reward is issued to the requester. Read more about approving or denying rewards here.
The "Rewards Manager" is a separate role designation from that of a direct-report Manager role, as the Reward Manager is specific only to their assigned Rewards, regardless of their other role(s) in Recognize. You can have as few or as many Rewards Managers as you see fit - one per reward if you wish.
Use Case example for adding a Rewards Manager to Provider-Fulfilled Rewards
"Provider-Fulfilled rewards" are gift cards offered by Recognize that staff can exchange points for within the Recognize platform. Recognize supports over two hundred gift cards available for redemption. These rewards require a deposit from your organization for employees to be able to redeem points for them, and you can choose to have them approved either automatically, or manually.
While automatic approval is certainly convenient, a case can be made for designating a rewards manager to approve or deny these rewards before they are issued to the user.
For example; gift cards, once issued to a user, cannot be refunded or exchanged. Much like gift card sales in a retail store, all gift card purchases are final. With automatic approval, gift cards are immediately issued to users, and claim or redemption codes are emailed to them. With an approval process, however, when an employee has second thoughts about their redemption, a rewards manager can deny the redemption request before the transaction is finalized and the gift card is issued.
Use Case example for adding a Rewards Manager to Company-Fulfilled Rewards
"Company-Fulfilled rewards" are rewards that are redeemable by points within Recognize, but instead of being provided by Recognize, they require no deposit and your company is responsible for providing and delivering to them to employees. These rewards can include physical items, or non-physical items such as time off, or the use of a desired parking space.
It is recommended to designate at least one Rewards Manager to rewards of this nature because when they are redeemed, someone must be responsible for making sure that the redeeming employee receives this reward. The approval process helps with this.
To learn more about designating a rewards manager in Recognize, see our How-to article here.