Employees make up a significant portion of a company. So it is crucial to keep them motivated, inspired, and content. As a manager, you can use recognition tools to help with these tasks. So, what are recognition tools for managers?

Recognition tools are software programs that manage and run employee-recognition programs and activities. With these recognition tools, HR managers can become more efficient. These actions help build morale, increase efficiency and productivity, and create a positive work environment. Nectar, Vantage Circle, Bonusly, Reward Gateway- etc., are a few leading recognition tool names.

Want to know how recognition tools can help you as a manager? Read along!

Recognition Tools: What They Are and Why They Are Important

Recognition tools are software program tools that help you with ‘employee recognition.’

Formally speaking, employee recognition means acknowledging and showing appreciation to your employees for their contribution, dedication, hard work, and more. Recognition helps your employees feel appreciated and validated- increasing productivity and efficiency. It also helps create a positive environment where employees value each other’s’ work and contributions.

You can encourage and enforce practices, activities, and behaviors by incrementing employee recognition actions. The recognition tools help you, and your company manage and understand employee satisfaction, involvement, etc. These attributes help you understand how content and efficient your employees are. In short, you can use the recognition tools to optimize your workplace culture.

Best Recognition Tools for Managers to Use

Let’s talk about some recognition tools you can use:

1.   Recognize

Recognize is one of the latest platforms and is best suited for a team of 20-20000. The platform enables you to reward your employees with monetary and non-monetary systems. The platform also enables recognition badges for managers separately, which stands out from employees.

As a direct report manager, you can access dashboards about your employees. You can connect the platform with Office 360, Outlook, etc. Customizable badges, leaderboards, points help track employees’ achievements, goals, and improvements. The platform has heavy employee-focused features, such as employee hall of fame, employee award certificate, etc.

2.   Nectar

Founded in July 2019, Nectar is a 360 recognition and reward platform. It’s best suited for an organization or team of 50-2000 employees. The platform lets every team member connect seamlessly- whether manager-to-employee or employee-to-employee.

Nectar lets you incorporate wellness activities and challenges with a reward system. These initiatives encourage your employees to take better care of themselves. The platform also lets employees express gratitude and appreciation for peers and the managerial team. With Nectar, it is easy to identify teamwork and hard work- promoting a healthy culture of team bonding, teamwork, and appreciation.

Nectar allows you to incorporate Microsoft Team and Slack. This helps increase engagement and efficiency, and your team is always on top of their game.

3.   Bonusly

Bonusly is also a platform that helps employee recognition, reward, and celebration. Bonusly was founded way back in 2013 and is best suited for teams of 100-500. Bonusly enables everyone to recognize each other. With the help of the platform’s visual features, recognizing employees (or each other) is fast, fun, and efficient.

Bonusly app has customization options- so employees can choose their rewards. Analytics features help identify team members’ strengths and improvements. You can incorporate birthdays, work anniversaries, etc., to connect better with your employees.

4.   Kazoo hr

Kazoo was founded in 2012. This employee experience platform is best suited for a team of 100-250 employees. Aside from recognition and reward, Kazoo connects employees with continuous performance management. The platform also brings scopes of feedback, incentive, and conversations.

As a manager, you can check your employee’s performances and rewards. These insights help you make better professional decisions. Employees can track and store their goals as well as their achievements. The employee feedback and recognition feed work in real-time. This helps your employees stay motivated.

5.   Kudos

Kudos was established in 2010 and works only for big teams of 500+ employees. The platform mainly focuses on building meaningful relations and enhancing company cultures. From a simple, heartfelt ‘thanks’ to celebrating the biggest achievements- Kudos covers it all.

Known largely as a ‘company culture software,’  the goal of this platform is to create and nurture a lasting culture of gratitude. The platform enables video options for recognitions, and you can stream recognition events on your TV with their Kudos TV feature.

6.   Motivosity

Also established in 2013, Motivosity is best suited for teams of 10-500. The platform enables you to link specific performances and goals to recognition. In short, the platform takes a goal-centric approach to reap the maximum benefits of recognition.

Employees can prioritize and display their goals, which makes colleagues recognize them. This action results in more meaningful, personal, and motivational recognition. Employees can customize their dashboards to track success. Moreover, the “feedback request” option helps the employees and managers focus on prioritized issues. Other features such as personal culture coach and remote team training are also excellent.

7.   Guusto

Guusto is best suited for teams of 3-50, making it homely and genuine. The platform specializes in connecting with merchants. The easy options of assigning budget, tracking, and sending gifts to peers/employees as rewards make it so easy to use.

Guusto is known as a “gift-based recognition program.” The platform focuses on reward and recognition alike. Employees can clarify their interests on the platform. Sending a gift based on those interests is more meaningful to them. Moreover, employees can use the ‘pay forward’ feature to pass gifts to someone else. As a manager, you have exclusive features such as expense reports- which helps keep track of the accounting. You can also collect unused gifts within the platform’s claim period to help ease expenses.

8.   Reward gateway

Reward Gateway was founded in 2006 and is best suited for a team of 200+. The platform focuses on behavior-based rewards- reinforcing and cultivating positive incentives, behavior, and a positive work environment.

The platform aims to build long-term relationships and business growth. It helps employees understand and value their company culture. Meanwhile, behavior-based rewards help harmonize employee-to-employer relations.  Moreover, team challenges promote healthy competition among peers and enhance peer-to-peer relationships.

Bottom line

Employees are the bridges to a company’s glowing future, connected by the managers and management. Acknowledging, appreciating, rewarding employees for their hard work only motivates them further. Recognition tools for managers help you take those actions at the management level, with platforms such as Nectar, Guusto, Kudos, etc.

Have any more questions we can answer? Don’t forget to let us know!

FAQs

1. What are the types of recognition?

The three types of recognition that can help your employees are: formal, informal, and day-to-day. You can incorporate these into your employee’s performance feedback to motivate them. Make sure not to overdo because overdoing recognition and praise can make them lose their values.

2. What is the best type of recognition for employees?

All recognition motivates employees to work harder and better. But peer-to-peer recognition has proven to be more effective than most others. RecuiterBox study shows a 35% more positive impact compared to managerial recognition.

3. What can I do to make a good recognition program?

Recognition that is meaningful, authentic, and individualized is the most impactful. Employees value honest, memorable, singled-out recognition and rewards. Generalized or “just for show” praises and recognition do not hold much value or meaning and can rather demotivate the employees.